Like Maharana Pratap riding into the battlefield to protect the motherland, Krishna Kumar, 41, took off on his 20-year-old Bajaj Chetak scooter with his 70-year-old mother, Choodarathna, to fulfil her dream of visiting holy places across the country.

Kumar, from Mysore, told The Telegraph here on Tuesday that he had named his journey, the Mathru Seva Sankalpa yatra.

He reached Dharmanagar in North Tripura district on Monday and reached here on Tuesday.

“This is the Mathru Seva Sankalpa yatra to fulfil my mother’s dream. Belonging to a joint family, my mother’s role was confined to the kitchen. She never got any chance to step out of the house,” he said.

Kumar said while chatting with his mother one day, she revealed that she had not visited a single place near Karnataka.

“Four years ago, my father passed away while I was working as a corporate team leader in Bangalore. After that, I took my mother from Mysore to Bangalore with me. One day while chatting with her I asked if she had seen Tiruvannamalai, Tirupattur. She told me she hadn’t even seen Vellore. It really broke my heart. I decided that I would leave everything and told her that not only Vellore, I would show her each and every temple across the country,” Kumar said.

On why he opted to go on the tour with a two-wheeler, he said that the scooter had memories of his father and would be like having part of him along the journey.

“I started travelling on my scooter, which was gifted by my father 20 years ago. I strongly believe that my father accompanies us on our travels,” said Kumar, adding that the scooter carried all essentials, including, fruits, cucumber, flat rice, knife, raincoats and mattress, among others.

He said January 14 was his last day of work and the journey began on January 16, 2018. “I worked for 13 years and all my hard-earned money is kept in my mother’s account. Every month, we withdraw the interest and use it to travel. Many people offered us money but in this yatra, we shall not accept gifts or money. We will take love, and shelter for night halts.”

Kumar covered 42,390km and 18 states and two countries, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nepal and Bhutan.

“So far, we haven’t faced a single problem. Almost 95 per cent of people are very kind-hearted and helpful. We are enjoying ourselves. At the end of the journey, I want to work as a social worker,” he said.

His mother said she was proud to have such a great son. “It’s very hard to get a son like him nowadays. I am very lucky to have him. He is showing me temples, towns and villages. He cares a lot about my health. People have really helped us a lot, and even invited us for food and shelter. The people of the Northeast are very polite and helpful,” she said.

Kumar will continue from Tripura on Thursday and said children should spend time with their parents. “The time we spend with parents is the most precious time of our life. What we are doing now is for them only,” he added.

Subrata Sengupta, the owner of the house where Kumar and his mother are lodged here, said, “It’s my privilege to give them shelter at my home. It’s very rare that a son takes his mother on a pilgrimage on a scooter. This man is really amazing. We can learn lots of things from him. I am very happy to have them here.”