Making the world much closer, one story at a time
280 kms from the Chinese border. In the deserts of Kazakhstan. We stopped cycling near the kebab shop for dinner. After munching on some really good chicken and duck kebab, we tried to find a place to rest for the night. The Kebab restaurant owner offered to let us stay the night in his home and asked us which route we were planning to take. We told him we were on the traditional silk route and we had 280 kms until we reached Khorgos, the border of China. He told us not to take that route, instead, take a newly laid Chinese one belt road -- significantly flatter, better roads, and only 170 kms instead of the 280.
We jumped on the opportunity. We could potentially cover it in one day instead of the planned two. After the months of biking -- we just wanted to be done. We woke up early like we planned, just kidding, we woke up at 10:30am the next day, found a beautiful cute little Kazakh cottage home for breakfast, and started biking. The kebab shop owner mentioned to us that the roads we were about to embark on were surrounded by desert on both sides -- no shops, no homes, and most importantly, no trees to rest under. We would have to refill our water bottles by asking cars that were passing by us, something we had done before, so we had no worries!
We biked at our usual 20km/hr pace and decided to skip lunch, one because there was absolutely no food, and two because it would take 2 hours to digest, and we didn’t have that kind of time. At about 1pm, we ran out of all the snickers we had. Refilling our water bottles from the already refilled bottles of hospitable Kazakh cars, we made our way.
At around 4pm, I started to feel unusually dizzy. This feeling had never happened on the trip. I told Jerry we needed to stop and found a 3 feet shrub to go hide under -- I passed out.
In 20 minutes, Jerry had found water and biscuits and juice by stopping the cars on the highway. He woke me up with a small splash of water and gave me juice to drink. We checked the temperature and that’s when we found out that it was 122 Fahrenheit (48 Celsius). I gulped down all the juice, played upbeat music, and got back on the bike.
We continued biking and covered about 130 kms of the planned 170 for the day. It was 8:30pm and the sun went down. We were in the middle of the deserts of Kazakhstan, with almost no water, no food, and cars passing by in 25 or 30 minute frequencies. We switched on our headlamps and continued biking. It was 10:20pm, and if things couldn’t get worse -- it slowly started to rain. With our bodies soaked in the rain, we kept biking until 10:45 and reached 171 kms, with absolutely no sign of China. We pull out our phones to see no phone signal either. We’re in the middle of a desert in Kazakhstan, with no water, no food, and almost no people.
We stopped waiting for a car or truck to arrive. As time passes, our anxiety crept upon us. Finally, we see two huge container trucks coming by. We literally go to the middle of the road and wave our arms up and down. The container trucks stop. We quickly type on our google translate into Russian “We are two bikers, we are lost, can you take us to the nearest town?”
We put our bikes in their container trucks and get on. It’s about 12:15am when the drivers drop us off at the nearest town. I’m in a state I’ve never been in. I can see things move along. I haven’t eaten anything since the morning. We find a small hostel and walk in. I ask the receptionist -- “is there any restaurant around?” she says “no it’s 12:15am”
I then type into my google translate “I haven’t eaten anything since 10:30am, I feel dizzy. Is there anything I can do?”
She shows the number “5” indicating the amount of time, and asks me to wait. She goes back home, and out of the kindness of her heart, cooks a full course meal: Chicken Dumpings, Bread, and Tea. That day completely changed my attitude of an entire culture I had never interacted with.
Over the summer of 2018, along with three other friends, we cycled from Turkey to China passing by 2500 miles, about 4000 kms, across 9 countries to become the youngest in the world to cycle across the Silk Road. Our little Silk Road Biking group weaved what we learned from different people in each country and passed it all along. We wanted to promote intercultural understanding and peace by sharing our everyday stories like I did -- just now.
Misconceptions about other cultures are inherent in our world today, especially within more marginalized countries. Growing up as an immigrant in the Middle East, I was asked by members of my Indian community to not interact with the local Arab community. The media I was exposed to portrayed the Middle East in a certain negative way. Due to isolated incidents, my family and community also told me the same. I was confused. I was born Indian but I grew up in Dubai and I did not know where home was. Both the communities I was part of were pitted against each other and I did not know which side to pick, or whether I should pick a side at all. So what really caused all of this tension when nothing major really happened? How do these kinds of tensions and misconceptions spread?
We all played a game of Telephone, you know -- the first person in the line or circle whispers a word or phrase into the ear of the person sitting or standing to their right. A magnification of isolated incidents. What one person experienced went to another, and that continued evolving as the story slowly shifted as it passed by thousands of whispers. Our media and stories today are all a game of Telephone.
Throughout the trip, we published many of these stories on different media platforms. Instead of continuing to play this game of Telephone, I did a little experiment. We designed randomized control trials to understand what the stories that we published did for the readers. After our impact evaluation, we found out that many of those that read our stories changed their descriptions of unknown countries, from negative terms scary and dangerous to more positive terms like beautiful and hospitable. If a few stories like these can change someone’s perception of an entire country, then imagine what millions of them could do.
Sharing the stories of our interactions with other cultures can facilitate a more globalized world with deeper intercultural understanding.
Every time you travel to a new place or meet someone from a different background, every story you tell, with the right intentions, will completely change the perception of someone who has not had the same experience. Consciously sharing these stories, beyond just Instagram stories and posts can reshape how your community will think. So this is what I’m asking you to do: let’s all play the game of Telephone, but instead of whispering, let's shout -- let's be open and tell our stories to the world.
Simple misunderstandings and stereotypes are what lead to animosity, war, and the lack of peace. So let’s change that with our new and improved game of telephone: making the world much closer, one story at a time.