Had enough! Taking a train to Kolkata, from Toronto | Part 1, the idea

Hi guys, so today we are here with a very, very exciting news. Now, 5 of us from Toronto, 5 women from Toronto, we are planning to take a trip, road trip, technically from Toronto to Kolkata, to Toronto to India, but definitely we cannot have a road on Atlantic Ocean, so we have to fly through London for this. So please let me first tell you why we got inspired with this, because I will share the link of the writing below. It's my personal experience in a flight which got me very disgusted with the flight, and I really wanted to travel by train to India. Every year since we have to make a journey to India, I was disgusted with the plane, the flights, you know, the way the flights operate. So I wanted to travel by train. So I wrote this article. And first, let me introduce Lopa Mudra to you. Lopa Mudra Banerjee. Say hi, Lopa. So Lopa first contacted me on phone saying, Kabiri ji, let's make this happen. Let's make this in reality. So we didn't, we just talked about it and forgot about it. Then later on, Sumitash and Rinki, they joined in the plan. And now finally, Arundhati. Arundhati, say hi. Sumita and Rinki, they're coming on the meeting, they're going to join the meeting soon.

Hi.

So now, all 5 of us are in the plan, you know, we are trying to make it. And what good news I want to share with you guys is that We have connected travel agents in Iran and Turkey to help us make this journey through land to India from UK. So we are planning this journey in 2025. Is that the plan that we're thinking of? So in the— and we'll be in Kolkata for the Durga Puja. So this is an awesome plan, and I'm going wanted you guys to be here with us, you know, in helping in the planning. And we are also raising funds for this, and we will accept— we are welcoming all kinds of sponsors for this trip because this is going to be a huge historic trip. And we're going to be practically traveling around the world, let's say by road, to come to India and come to Kolkata. So I'm sure a lot of It's going to generate a huge flak. So a lot of media attention is going to be there, and we're hoping for a lot of media attentions. This is just the primary first stage discussion which I'm sharing with you, and if you are interested, please join in with us. I'm calling all, particularly women. We are all over 50. Not everybody's over 50, but we are like more or less over 50 women. We are the most vulnerable sex. Of the society, but we are we are making this trip and we are not all of us are not very well. We are not in physical very great physical condition, but we are making this challenge. So let's first of all start this discussion by yeah. So Lopa, let's start with you. How did you why why did you contact me? Like I wrote it out of the blue. I just just wrote it out of frustration. So what do you? How do you think this could be possible?

So thank you, Kavri, for the introduction and sharing with everybody the how it all started. The rather you can say the preface part of it. So I mean, I grew up moving from place to place because of my dad's job. My dad used to be in. He was part of the Ministry of Urban Development of. India. So we used to— so every 2 years, we had to hop from one place to another. So since my birth, I have been moving. I mean, rather, I would say the first— my first travel was when I was 18 days old.

Oh.

So since then, I've been traveling and to all over India and across the world as well. So meeting with different cultures, meeting with different countries, I mean, cultures and people from different countries. And now that I've been working for last probably more than 30 years in the corporate industry, and with my family, my family is also a globetrotter family because they love going out. So in a year, 3, 3 times a week, we take a vacation, one short, I mean, one large vacation and one just relaxing vacation and one short trip. So that's something we have to do every year. When you published that, you— we met on, I think, Facebook first. We did not meet each other personally. We met on Facebook. And then I think during one of our cultural events, we met with each other for the first time. I loved reading your posts. I loved reading the notes that you used to publish. I mean, your The notes that you published. And that is, I mean, it really interested me that we would be able to do something like touching all the countries from Toronto to Kolkata. It's like we are trying to bead together, I mean, several beads together in the thread, and we can make it happen. Everything—

Like a necklace. Yes.

So we can build that.

For is literally it looks like a necklace. Let me share the screen with you guys. So before we forget, okay, Rinky is coming and going. Rinky, hi Rinky.

Still I'm in the car. I'm getting into office. I need to buy the gate sealant.

अच्छा अच्छा so yeah yeah so do you want to because we are running out of time. It's just one hour. I'm sorry. अम्म ऑफिशियल डुप्सी है बस मैं देखा हूँ स्क्रीन पर। ओके ओके स्क्रीन पर लेट मी शेयर द स्क्रीन विथ यू ओके सो यू गाइस कैन कैन यू सी दिस दिस इज़ योर सो वी विल बी टेकिंग द ट्रिप फ्रॉम लंदन तू ओके नाउ यूरोरेल विल रीच अस टिल It's Istanbul, right? From Istanbul to Van, we can take— there's going to be a train. Let me share this with you so you can see the screen, right? So the train is going to be from Istanbul to Zurich, Zurich to Zagreb, Zagreb to— I have all the details written over here. Then we take the night train to, uh, on Balkan Express to Istanbul, Turkey. Okay, Istanbul, explore the city by day. Evening, take the ferry across the biggest lake in Turkey, the Van Lake, from Tatvan to Van, the coast of Iran, where the train will take us to Tehran. The ride lasts 3.5 hours, so you can have a whatever. And then Tehran to Zaidan is 4:40, 4:45, 4:55 PM overnight in first class. Fares also I have given over here approximately. Train arrives Zaidan next day, uh, 5:50. Like it takes 24 hours to reach next day. Zaidan to Quetta, Pakistan is the most difficult stretch. That is the stretch which is questionable. So Here they say that share taxis are available from Zaidan to Pakistan frontier, then more taxis from there to Quetta. We can hire a car or a bus, and there have been the use of Makral Coastal Highway, which is 2,500 kilometers, that we can use to reach Quetta. Highway या NH10 पाकिस्तान की अहम शहरों में से एक है, जो कराची को गवादर से मिलाती है। इस शहरा की लंबाई 653 किलोमीटर है। and then quater to Lahore we can have express trains daily runs with the comfortable air-conditioned slippers sleepers to Lahore taking twenty four hours Expect this to cost less than twenty pounds. Then we go from Lahore to Amritsar with from with via the Samjuta Express, sixty-seven hours. Okay, and spend time in night in Amritsar. Perhaps perhaps visit perhaps visit the Golden Temple. So this is the set. This is the set. Rule now from Zedan to Keta is the most uncertain part that we are thinking of. So if you go back to the map, if we go to Zedan and then if you go to a coast near that, we can take a ship to Surat from here to here. This point, you know. Let me just show you. This point, we can take a ship. So I'm not very sure where there are any ports over here and any— that, that this girl, she is Sheila, she can help us when we talk about it in detail. So if we don't want to go from Zaidan to Quetta, that is—

This is the proposed route.

Now we have to—

we all have to make sure that we are taking into consideration when we travel, uh, what is the condition, uh, weather and other geopolitical and all of those things.

Yeah.

Yeah, into our consideration. And then we have to chalk our route out.

I mean, Yeah, so Syria is here. The geopolitical situation is going on over here. Syria and Palestine problems are going on here. But we will be going through Turkey and Tabriz from here. We'll be crossing by ferry somewhere. I can't really make out any sea over here. So we'll be crossing from Tatvan to Van. We'll be crossing by ferry. And from there to Tehran, we can take a train. Now, as far as I know, there are no geopolitical problems in, in Iran or Turkey right now. But yeah, we have to be very aware. And we have to take those, the travel security measures. Yes.

And security measures. Plus, as women, we probably need a little bit more of safety and security. probably a few layers more of safety and security.

Yeah, that's very true. So how do you propose to— how do you propose to take those measures? I'm struggling to share this.

Yeah, I think let's first share— I mean, now that you have shared it with everybody, the root, let's every one of us take a look into the root, deeper look. I mean, more at the more granular level. And once we have reviewed that, let's come back with all our suggestions.

Inputs and suggestions.

Right.

Right.

Let's welcome Rinki in the chat. Rinki, unmute your mic. Your mic is on mute. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

So Rinki Ahmed is also in Toronto. And she is a very good dear friend of mine. And she— let me— I forgot to tell you your— tell the They're all working. They're working women, and they're all running their own— some of them are running their own businesses, and some of them are working in very high positions. So we are 5 women, actually. We are grouped together. There's one person missing. So far, 5 of us are interested in this. Now let's see, uh, the person in Iran, uh, she's also very interested, and she, uh, she in fact said that I'm going to accompany you from Turkey to Qatar, gonna take up all responsibilities of us going to Qatar, so that way we can talk to her about the possible security measures that we need and the possible the if we can have an alternate route instead of going to through Pakistan, if we can have an alternate route sea route direct from Iran to Surat, India, because I. we shared the screen. So I think you saw that time there, there is a possible sea route from India to, from Iran to Surat. This is going to be a huge thing. Now I will be sharing on the, in the video, I'll be sharing the train trips that goes from those train trips that I'm talking about, like the Balkan Express and the Makran Coastal Highway, the what does it look like, you know. So when you guys see this video later on, on YouTube, you'll be able to see the exact routes that we are going to travel through, so that we get a complete idea. And we are not, you know, in a— we're not scared to go through because that is one of the most scariest parts of the world right now to travel through.

No, I'm checking. I know I can see from Dubai to India, we have sea routes. Okay, 3 days or 3 nights, but I don't know How to reach Dubai? Is it possible? Because from Iran there is no sea route or no train for passengers. There are goods, goods train, cargo, cargo ships go.

Blueprint, and we have the courage, and we have the intention and the interest. So it matches up. So we'll have to see how much it comes up to. And I'm sharing this in a GoFundMe campaign. Let's see what happens, keeping our fingers crossed.

Okay.

Sure.

Thank you so much, Aru, Arundhati, and also Lopa. Thank you very much.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you very much. Nice talking to you. And let me— yeah, yeah. Okay. Bye-bye. Take care.

Okay.

So if anybody wants to join in, please Comment below. And if you're in Canada or in any part of the world, if you want to hop in along with us, you're most welcome. Please comment below and definitely we will accommodate you inside in our plan. You know, like, please, please comment below. We need more people and we need real a good team to make this history. Okay, subscribe. Do not forget to subscribe to my channel because more videos are coming up. More such podcasts are coming up. We're going to do a podcast with the travel agents in Iran and Turkey. So look out for that. Okay.