BY: JESSICA BEUKER

Roshni Sharma has been a biking enthusiast ever since her father taught her to ride a motorbike at the age of 16. So when a friend of hers — another avid biker — told her about his solo biking trip from South India to North India, Sharma was inspired. The only problem was that he told her that no Indian woman had ever taken that kind of journey before. This news only fueled Sharma’s fire, and she began a journey across India from Kanyakumari to Kashmir with nothing but her bike. And in the process, she became the first Indian woman ever to do so.

She began a journey across India from Kanyakumari to Kashmir with nothing but her bike. And in the process, she became the first Indian woman ever to do so.

“It just grabbed my attention and left me thinking, why not me? Why can’t I be the brave first lady to bike-ride through the length of India?” Sharma said in an interview with WeNomads. Despite opposition from almost everyone she encountered, including her parents, who told her that her method of travel was unsafe, she persevered. From exploring unknown paths to mingling with different people, Sharma said the trip was life changing. She remains certain that a woman can travel alone for as long as she wants if she is courageous, confident, wise, quick-thinking and alert.

She remains certain that a woman can travel alone for as long as she wants if she is courageous, confident, wise, quick-thinking and alert.

Sharma said that the main concerns of her trip involved routes and weather. Luckily, she never had to ride during any rainstorms. To learn the routes she’d be traveling, she asked kind strangers along the way who were willing to lend a helping hand.

Since taking the trip, the backlash that Sharma faced for traveling alone has died down slightly. “As a woman in India, I am hounded around by society as to how it is unsafe to travel in India for a woman,” said Sharma. “Hemmed with an uncertain weather in this country, I expected many people to raise their eyebrows at my adventure.” Upon her return, many of the naysayers offered their support. Her parents, for example, told her they are confident in her and fully supportive of her decisions — especially since they know that she will never give up on her goals and dreams.

“It just grabbed my attention and left me thinking, why not me? Why can’t I be the brave first lady to bike-ride through the length of India?”

Currently, Sharma hosts women-only, five-day long biking trips through the travel operator Viktorianz. The next trip will run from October 1 – 5, 2015 and cover 800 kilometres of Thailand.

“It’s a myth that women cannot travel alone and it’s unsafe. You decide the safety by yourself,” said Sharma in her interview with WeNomads. She took a solo trip because she wanted to push herself against the odds and silence the cynics. Now she offers the adventure to other women who share her strongly-held belief that “the spirit of a vagabond woman should never ever be tamed by any means.”

“It’s a myth that women cannot travel alone and it’s unsafe. You decide the safety by yourself,”

Sources: deccanchronicle.com