A 1,118 day-long journey back home

The last time Jay Kannaiyan came to Hyderabad — where he was born — was six years ago for his sister's wedding. Then, he was a well-to-do NRI, living the American dream — a cushy job, handsome salary, own house, car and a whole life of his own in Chicago.
"Then the recession happened and had I got laid off, I'd have got deported. I decide to leave on my accord.Moreover, I had enough of designing mobile phone hardware. It was time to go back to India where I hardly lived, having grown up in Zambia, before moving to USA," explains Jay.
He quit his job, sold all his belongings, and drove back home on his Suzuki DR650 — which he christened 'sanDRina' — all the way from Chicago! The journey began in March 2010, but only after he crossed the first international border, into Mexico, did it sink in, "that I'm never going back to my life in the US. It had changed forever. Next destination was India." His parents though were far from impressed. "They couldn't understand why I am throwing it all away to come back home on a motorbike. 'What are you going to get out of it?' my dad fumed. I told them to please give me these three years, and they agreed reluctantly," recalls Jay.
The big plan
He'd planned for four years, saving up all the money he could and researching visa regulations, fine-tuning his bike, reading up on the weather patterns, etc. The plan was to ride around South America for a year, ship over the Atlantic to Africa and then head towards India. "I wanted to travel through land and water. I wasn't sure if my finances would last the whole trip, so I decided to take stock in Africa. But I spent much lesser than I anticipated as I was sharing 50% of the time on couches of friends — most of them I'd made through couch surfing," shares Jay, who reached Chennai after a 1,118 day-long sojourn, clocking 94,933 kms, through 32 (excluding India) countries spread across five continents! The trip included a 378-day stay in Kenya, where he, "took a break from driving, to complete the project work for my masters (a distance course) course in sustainable development. It was nice to reconnect with regular life after a year of riding."
Admittedly, he did not experience a single untoward incident en route, barring six flat tyres and a handful of breakdowns. "Only once I got stuck for almost a month in Africa, but that was because I was looking to fix the electrical circuits when the fuel stopper went bust. But every time I had a breakdown, it changed my trip, and invariably I ended up meeting someone interesting who I wouldn't have met otherwise, and became more interesting," he contends.
Trans-Amazonian adventure
Incredibly, there were no glitches along the epic 2,000 km drive along the Transamazonica-BR-230 (The Trans-Amazonian Highway). Start point: Humaita (Brazil), End point: Maraba (Brazil) and untamed Amazonian rain forests in between. "Due to incessant rains, the forest mud gets so sticky that it gets difficult to even walk, forget driving. August is the only dry month of the year. There are no places to stay, and just six towns en route. I learnt basic Portuguese online to ask permission to pitch my tent along small ranches along the road, thankfully everyone was very kind," recalls Jay who finished the ride in two weeks flat.
Salar de Uyuni
However, the toughest challenge of the expedition was a 400 km long drive from, Salar de Uyuni, (the famous salt dessert of Bolivia) — what he calls the "the world's natural highlight" — to Chile. "It's a 400 km drive through sand and rock at an altitude of 4,000 to 5,000 meters. The track is only meant for adventure travel and you'll find no people or animals in sight. It's so peaceful you could meditate there. I saw a huge flock of pink flamingos at an altitude of 5,000 meters at 2-3 degree centigrade! It was heavenly," shares Jay adding, "It was just the bike and me, and that's when you form a special bond with the machine. It becomes your lifeline and partner."
Perito Merino
He counts Perito Merino glacier in Patagonia as the "most spiritual experience," of the journey. "It's a 250-square kilometre ice formation stretching 30 kilometers in length. There is ice for as long as you can see. It felt like being in a natural cathedral. Watching ice fall off the 80 meters tall glacier was divine," explains Jay who drove through Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina before hopping on to a month-long-boat ride to Germany.
Finding Eudaimonia
It was a cargo boat with no TV or Internet and he got on it expecting a long idle boat ride. "Every night after dinner, I'd get up on top of the ship and watch the great hunter, Orion, slowly change position night after night. At the equator, it was right above us. It was like we moved under the stars as the earth revolved. Also, Orion looks so different on either side of the equator, that was the most Eudaimonic moment of the journey for me," recalls Jay, explaining that Eudaimonia is a philosophical term that guided his travel. "It's something that exists at the intersection of what's true, good and beautiful. It can happen over a good meal and good conversation. I am trying to do this through food and saw this happen over South Indian chicken curry!"
Curry diplomacy
Wherever he stays over, Jay makes it a point to cook his famous South Indian chicken curry. "This curry is what got me accepted into different societies. It's a simple curry with onions, ginger, garlic, turmeric, coriander, and cumin, yet they say it's so spicy. You can communicate with someone when you feed them something... you see this change in people, they eat your food and they say wow. That a biker from India has cooked a chicken curry at their home makes it a grand experience for them, and it leaves a positive impression," he says.
Wild Africa
After driving through Paris, Prague, Switzerland and Venice, his big plan went for a toss in France when he was denied a visa to enter Morocco. "I'd planned on driving through West Africa, but I abandoned that and took a ferry to Egypt instead. The people's uprising had just finished and on the whole ship, which usually takes 200-300 passengers, there were just 8 passengers! There were hardly any tourists in Egypt because of the conflict. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. That's the thing with plans, it's good to plan, but life doesn't always work to a plan," reasons Jay.
One of the most fulfiling part of the journey was going back to the place of his childhood. "Going back to the home I grew up in Zambia was incredible. It's become a lodge now, and I had to pay to stay in the room that used to be mine," he quips.
Jay who was in Hyderabad to visit the hospital he was born in, is now headed off on a six week drive to Delhi. "I am hoping to stay in Delhi for a bit, may be find some work," says Jay who is also planning to write a book on his travels.