Veditum means “to understand” in Sanskrit. Four years ago, a serendipitous moment led Siddharth Agarwal to the banks of Ganga. He wanted to walk the entire length of the river, navigate its landscapes and connect with the local people. His ultimate goal? To understand India’s largest river basin. “I grew up in Kolkata’s Bara Bazar. For much of my life, I was unaware about life outside my bubble. One day, I just took off to learn the river by heart and foot,” recalls the 30-year-old during a telephonic interview from a hill-top in Sikkim. Network is low, but the enthusiasm for storytelling is high. “The river is talked about and written about a lot, and yet, there is so much more to it. I started Veditum India Foundation to use modern multimedia tools and create public archives of my observations there,” shares the IITian, who majored in aerospace engineering from Kharagpur.

Siddharth Agarwal crosses the Ganga with pilgrims in Sultanganj, Bihar