The initiative wants to increase conversations around sites
After sightseeing and lunch at a local hotel, they managed a ticket and got back on a train and slept through dinner. When they woke up late at night, they were famished. But there was nothing to eat. “The coach attendant offered to share his dinner with us,” Reddy said.
Travelling off the beaten track is something the former electrical engineer and founder of goUNESCO has always enjoyed.
As far as India is concerned, Reddy wants to change the whole conversation aroundheritage—that it is something that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is the manager of.
It was then that he decided to make that his project for 2012— travelling to all those World Heritage Sites. He went on to visit 9-10 that year itself and at last count has visited 15. “I’m travelling less after GoUNESCO kicked off,” he said, a trifle ruefully. When he started that year was to focus on his own personal travel goals. “I told my friends about it and a few said they were interested in travelling too,” said Reddy. So he decided to make it more fun by starting a common blog to record the journeys.
Also, he was working on the gamification of travel at a mobile start-up back then. “You were getting points for every check-in at a different place. So I decided to do something similar here.”
“ASI is only the caretaker, we are the real owners,” he said. Mint has a strategic partnership with Digital Empowerment Foundation, which hosts the Manthan and mBillionth awards.