Thrissur: In March 2022, 35-year-old Jijo V.G. left his hometown in Kandassankadavu, hoping to escape persistent questions about unemployment from family members and relatives. He had written the Kerala Public Service Commission's Lower Division Clerk examination and was waiting for the results. With no job and little money, he decided to travel to Ladakh on his bicycle.

Four years later, after securing a job as a clerk in the judicial department of the Thrissur magistrate court, Jijo returned to the route he had travelled, this time on a scooter, with a longer list of places to revisit and people to meet. Among them was Ajaz Sohil, a truck driver from Banihal in Jammu and Kashmir who had offered him food and shelter during his first journey and promised to keep his bicycle safe.

Jijo did not inform his family about his plans until he reached Bengaluru, 10 days after leaving home. For the next two-and-a-half months, he continued cycling towards Ladakh, sleeping at petrol pumps and eating at small eateries along the way. One night in Banihal, while looking for a place to rest, he met Ajaz, who invited him to his home. "He told me not to worry and invited me to his house for food and rest," Jijo said. The family welcomed him with food, hot water, and a place to sleep, and his clothes were washed. He stayed three days before resuming his journey.

Soon after reaching Dal Lake, Jijo received a call from his parents saying he had to return for the PSC recruitment verification. Unable to find a train from Srinagar, he returned to Ajaz's house and reluctantly left his bicycle there. "Ajaz promised to keep my cycle safe till the next time I came," Jijo said.

After securing his job, the desire to return never left him. "For the past four years, I wanted to go back, meet the people who were kind to me, including Ajaz, retrace the routes where I slept at petrol pumps and even see my cycle," he said. Jijo began his second journey on September 11, travelling from Thrissur to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Nagpur before reaching Ladakh on the 11th day.

When Jijo returned to Ajaz's house, his family and villagers gathered to meet him and take photographs. Leaving the bicycle with Ajaz again, he began his return journey, covering the distance from Katwa to Kanyakumari in six days and reaching home on October 1.

The second trip also brought back memories of a terrifying experience in Madhya Pradesh, where he was suspected of being a Maoist. "I was eating at a shop when a man looking like a plainclothes official approached me and began questioning me," Jijo said. The situation became tense until the shopkeeper's son intervened, telling officials that Jijo was his customer and that he was from Kerala. "If it weren't for the man who diffused the situation, I do not know what might have happened otherwise," he said.

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