By Express News Service BENGALURU: Since 2017, Upendra Tripathi was gearing up to run a 42.195 km marathon in Antarctica and was all set to travel in March, but now with the lockdown, his dream of running a marathon in the Southernmost continent – where the temperature is anywhere between -20° C and -30° C – has got delayed by a year. Just like Tripathi, many Bengalureans had to cancel their travel plans that were due this summer. Tripathi was supposed to travel from Bengaluru on March 21. “I was supposed to fly to Buenos Aires, with a transit at London airport, before travelling on a ship from Ushuaia to Antarctica. But due to Covid-19, all plans are put on hold. It was disheartening for me but it makes sense because around 120 people from across the world were travelling for the marathon and it would have put all our lives at risk,” says 47-year-old Tripathi, who also cancelled his trip to Brazil in July to take part in the Rio marathon. He added that one of the reasons that was mentioned for the cancellation was that, right now, due to lack of inhabitation, Antarctica is considered to be the only continent without any sign of Covid-19 and just for safety reasons, the organisers had to cancel this trip. But all is not gloomy. While the whole trip was an expensive affair for Tripathi, the organisers gave him an option to take refund with a deduction of a minimal amount. Rather than taking it, he has decided to run for the marathon in Antarctica next year. It was not long ago that Parameshwara Holla, who is currently living in Canada, was making a to-do list when he would arrive at his house in Bengaluru at the end of May. But all his plans had to be shelved due to the Covid-19 lockdown. “I had plans to visit India by the end of May. This trip was to take care of some of the medical requirements at home but now, due to government orders, I had to cancel all my travel plans,” says 31-year-old Holla, who is an IT professional. He has been working from home in Canada for the past three weeks. “More than 6,000 cases of Covid-19 have been reported from here and the Canadian government is taking strict precautions to stop further spread of the virus. Since there has been a lot of panic buying due to the lockdown, certain places have limited food stocks,” says Holla, who lives in Victoria BC. He is still not sure when he can come to India, but hopes to return home soon. Businessman Rahul Shyamsukha says the grief of cancelling his travel plans has been more for him since he had two travel plans that he was eagerly looking forward to. “In March, I had plans to travel to Thailand for a trip with my friends and in April, I was going to explore Arunachal Pradesh on a bike, through its rough terrains. But eventually, I had to cancel all my bookings,” says Shyamsukha. He further adds that he does not want to give up on his plans and will make the road trip happen once everything settles down.

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