Udupi: The 23-year-old Prajwal Shenoy, who took his father to Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh Mela on his 25-year-old Hero Honda Splendor motorcycle, was offered a Centennial Collectors-Edition bike by the company as a gift.When he failed to get train or flight tickets, Prajwal commenced his journey on the bike with his father, Rajendra Shenoy, as a pillion from Machakal in Shirva of Udupi district on Feb 6 and reached Prayagraj on Feb 10. Recognising his passion for adventures on the bike, Hero MotorCorp gifted Prajwal the Centennial Collectors-Edition bike.Vijay Kumar T Karne, managing director of Shakti Motors, Udupi, handed over the bike and safety gear to Prajwal in the presence of manager Rahul Mirajkar on Saturday. Prajwal told TOI that he received the Centennial Collectors-Edition bike as well as safety gear as gifts from the company.“They recognised my adventure of riding with my father to participate in the Maha Kumbh Mela and other trips. I covered 16 states of India on the bike earlier. While some of the rides were solo, the majority of the trips were accompanied by my father as a pillion rider. My father and I travelled to Ladakh too,” said Prajwal, who is a second-year student of the hotel management and tourism course at the Srinivas Institute of Hotel Management and Tourism.The TOI highlighted the father-son duo’s ride on a 25-year-old Hero Honda Splendor motorcycle to Prayagraj in Feb. Prajwal said his father readily agreed to traverse nearly 4,000km on a bike when there were no other options for travel. He recalled the spiritual moment that made him and his father happy to reach the sacred Sangam for a holy dip during the Maha Kumbh Mela, a rare spiritual gathering that occurs only once in 144 years.“We rode the bike throughout the day and rested in a tent near petrol bunks. We covered over 3,900km in nine days while riding an average of 550 to 600km per day,” he said. Prajwal’s father, Rajendra Shenoy, is a businessman.
