Walking around the world to spread the word of Gandhi

By Rita Kyriakides

TWO TRAVELLERS being supported by the United Nations are walking around the world promoting peace, racial harmony and non-violence.

Forty-year-old Indian Debasis De and his 21-year-old Romanian wife Florentina Grosu are touring Cyprus for a week and will be visiting UNESCO affiliated schools, colleges and universities to spread a message of peace, tolerance and the non-violent philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi.

” Our trips are guided by non-violence. Young people need to be more determined and less affected by hatred,”De believes.

De, a former Maths teacher from Calcutta, began his journey by foot 10 years ago from New Delhi. He has walked over 120,000 kilometres through 75 countries and has visited over 3,000 schools, colleges and universities in Europe and the Middle East, sometimes accompanied by students from the country he is visiting. Grosu joined him on his journey last year and according to De, she is ” much braver”than him.

The UNDP has been supporting De for 10 years by providing him with accommodation and food as well as travel documents.

” Cyprus is a very nice country and the people here are very helpful. We have met with the Indian Ambassador to Cyprus and the UNDP officer who has arranged our programme while we are here,”said De.

He told the Cyprus Mailthat there next destination was Africa, where they would visit several countries to spread their message.

The couple, who cover an average of 30 kilometres a day, are planning to end their journey in Hiroshima, Japan in 2014.

They are in need of clothing and shoes and anyone willing to help the couple can contact De at 99-833367 until next Monday.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.