Praveen Mehta’s lessons in hope from 74,000-km drive across 60 countries

Praveen Mehta, a storyteller and global traveller, recounted his 74,000-km road journey across 60 countries as a "lived lesson in hope", saying the world is “diverse yet seamless” and far kinder than headlines often suggest.

Speaking to an industry audience, Mehta described his 330-day drive from India to Argentina not as an adventure but as a people-centred exploration. The objective, he said, was not to set records or chase milestones, but to experience humanity first-hand.

“This drive was not about targets or goals,” Mehta says. “The purpose was to experience. Experience over outcome. Experience is invaluable and does not need a reason.”

One early episode in Kazakhstan set the tone. After a 300-km stretch without food, Mehta and his team stopped at a busy cafe and requested vegetarian food. None was available. The cafe owner, Sophia, nonetheless seated them and served bread and cranberry juice. When he tried to pay, she refused. “She said she could not find us proper food, but nobody can go hungry from her cafe,” Mehta recalls, adding that the incident still gives him chills.

The journey took him across Asia, Europe and the Americas, each country presenting its own regulatory realities. Bhutan’s anti-smoking stance, Bolivia’s fuel rules for foreigners, Costa Rica’s refusal to allow his right-hand-drive car, and China’s insistence on local plates and licences required constant adaptation. Drones were restricted in several countries, and language was often a hurdle.

Yet Mehta says people themselves were rarely a barrier. “Not a single case of hostility, discrimination or intimidation,” he notes.

A major setback came in Milan, where his car was broken into, and his valuables were stolen. He considered aborting the trip. The journey continued after an Italy-based host, Rupa, sheltered the team for eight days while a replacement windshield arrived from India, which took eight days to arrive. “Some people are born humane; others decide to be. Either way, humanity is borderless,” Mehta says.

He also observed the global pull of Indian soft power. Yoga, Bollywood and Ayurveda frequently helped start conversations. In parts of Central Asia, he even sang Bollywood songs to traffic police to ease tense moments.

His conclusion is simple. “You really have to be very unfortunate to find the wrong person in the world,” he says. “Judging people by clothes, food, or language blocks your access to a new world.”

For Mehta, the drive confirmed one belief above all. Hope, he says, is “still alive and kicking” across borders.