Travelling is usually a young man’s game, something you do in your 20s or 30s, when you have the required stamina and energy to take risks and see all the beautiful sights you want to.

But there come stories that can break those stereotypes and make you realise that love of travelling is not restricted to age, and one such story even managed to impress the chairman of Mahindra Group.

Anand Mahindra, is the chairman of the company whose cars and travel company we are most familiar with, has been named among the ‘World’s 50 Greatest Leaders’ by Forbes and currently has a net worth estimating $1.7 billion.

He is known to tweet about inspirational stories and people on his official Twitter, but his tweet on 9th January 2019, about how a tea-selling couple from Kerala was achieving their dream to travel the world by selling tea, took over social media.

Who Is This Couple?

The couple, Vijayan and Mohana, have been selling tea at Sree Balaji Coffee House somewhere in the middle of Kochi since 1963 that Vijayan started in order to fund his and his wife’s dream of seeing the world.

In order to save costs, only the husband and wife work at the tea stall and as per Vijayan, make around Rs. 300 per day. The amount they save from not having any additional employees and with help of bank loans, the couple till date have been able to travel to 23 countries.

Once they return from their trips, they work non-stop, in order to pay off the loans they took.

The clip that Anand Mahindra used in his tweet was from a story by Drew Binksy, a travel blogger, who even revealed that it takes as much as 3 years to pay off the bank loans after each trip.

The walls of their tea shop are covered with framed posters of all the countries they have visited so far and even has a small exhibition of bills of all the countries in their shop.

The couple that is now close to 70 years in age and been married for almost 45 years were also covered in a documentary film made by director Hari M Mohanan called Invisible Wings that won the Filmfare Award of the Best Film (Non-Fiction) in 2018.

Vijayan and Mohana have travelled to countries like Switzerland, Singapore, New York in America and more, and want to visit places like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands etc next.

Not only Mahindra, but the couple’s inspiring story was previously noticed by superstar Amitabh Bachchan when he tweeted this:


Read More: Meet Aditi: A 23 Yr-Old With Down’s Syndrome Who Battled All Odds To Open Her Own Eating Joint


Funding Their Next Trip

In the subsequent tweets, Anand Mahindra then suggested funding their next trip on their anniversary when someone pointed out how the couple usually takes up big loans to sponsor their travels.

Not only this, but a sudden interest in the story of this couple rose up on social media with people applauding the couple for not giving up no matter what.

When someone questioned whether the couple would even accept such a generous gift in the first place, considering they are not ones to take any charity, Mahindra said this:

It is certainly an inspiring story of how to not let anything get in the way of your dreams.

Will you donate if a crowdfunding program is started to sponsor this couple’s next trip? Also what lesson have you learned from their story?

Tell us in the comments below.


Image Credits: Twitter

Sources: Hindustan Times, Business Today, The Indian Express

Find the blogger at: @chirali_08


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