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Globe-trotting peacenik Vikas Singh, who was handed over to Indian authorities at Wagah on Thursday, proposes to walk down from Amritsar to New Delhi.
Vikas who spent three months in a Peshawar jail for entering Pakistan without valid documents was released on Wednesday on the directions of Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf as a goodwill gesture ahead of the Indo-Pak summit.
Vikas, who hails from Lucknow, spoke to his parents over telephone late on Thursday night following which his brother Vivek rushed to Amritsar.
"Vivek took a late night train that will reach Amritsar on Friday afternoon, to reunite with his brother whom he had last seen 14 years ago," their father Dr Surendra Singh told rediff.com.
"Vikas has expressed his keenness to walk up to India Gate in New Delhi from where he had set out on his globe-trotting mission in 1987," he informed.
"Vivek was barely 16 when Vikas (then 23) set out on a round the world tour on a self-designed cycle," he added with nostalgia.
Vikas's mother Vidya Singh likened his absence to Lord Ram's exile and said, "He has changed so much in these 14 years."
"From the photographs appearing in the local newspapers, it is quite evident that my son has gone through a bad time. He has started looking so old when he is still just about 37," she pointed out. Down with an illness, she was not able to go to Amritsar.
The parents had waited in vain the whole of Thursday at the Star News studio where a telephonic talk between them and Vikas has been planned soon after he was to be handed over to the Indian authorities at Wagah.
However, since his arrival at Wagah got delayed, they had to return disappointed.
"It was so frustrating, specially since, we were unable to get an official confirmation about his release from any quarter," Dr Singh said.
He was rather sore with the external affairs ministry where their umpteen calls landed on deaf ears. "Every official we contacted kept passing the buck. Ultimately, it was a journalist who telephoned us and gave us a phone number where Vikas could be contacted in Amritsar," Dr Singh said.
He feels totally indebted to the media and Gen Pervez Musharraf.
"I am particularly grateful to Begum Sehba Musharraf, who is believed to have played a major role in urging the Pakistani president to order our son's release as a goodwill gesture," he said.
Vikas is expected to reach Lucknow in the next 15 days.
Starting with Bangladesh, he covered 62 countries on his peace mission across the world over the past 14 years.
A boxing champ, Vikas decided to undertake the mission when his civil engineering degree from the Benaras Hindu University (BHU) failed to get him a decent job.
"Perhaps, the boy was destined to do greater things," observed Dr V Kumar, a BHU professor who remembers Vikas as a student who stood out from the rest of the 1985-86 batch.
EARLIER REPORT Vikas Singh's case taken up with Pakistan: PTI
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