An astonishing 6.5 percent of the Indian population battles some or the other form of mental health issue. Gaurav Warman is addressing depression through his 4,000 km cycle ride. By Kumar Shree
Mumbai resident Gaurav Warman, a corporate professional, social activist and a motivational speaker is on a mission to create awareness about depression. Gaurav has opted for a unique way of creating awareness. He has coupled his love for cycling with the cause and is on a mission to cover 4,000 km in a matter of 72 days. His cycling tour for the cause, ‘Fight Against Depression’ will take him from Kanyakumari to Vaishno Devi in Jammu. He started on August 15 and is looking at October 25 as the culmination day for his tour.
This is not the first time that Gaurav is taking up an endeavour of this nature. He has been on similar expeditions in the past for the Akshay Patra Foundation (APF) and the Nanhi Kali Foundation (NKF). He cycled through 1,200 km from Mumbai to Jaipur for sponsoring the mid-day meal programme for AKF. He managed to raise INR 4,00,000 for the AKF, which was used to feed around 400 kids. For the NKF, Gaurav cycled 1,800 kms from Mumbai to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, where he raised more than INR 5,00,000 that was used for the education of around 200 underprivileged kids.
Having battled depression himself, Gaurav is aware of the stigma that lingers around the subject. He decided to address the same and that’s how the idea of this humongous cycling tour came up. He aims to reach around 10,000 people through seminars and talks whilst this journey and sensitise them about depression. He wants to share his knowledge and understanding about fighting depression and coming out of it, so that people not only understand the issue for themselves, but are also sensible towards people facing the issue.
What Gaurav is doing is certainly a noble thing and we wish him all the best for it.
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