Aussie vows to promote Kashmir after Spirit of India run

The Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir run by Australian ultra-marathon legend Pat Farmer to raise funds to educate Indian girls culminated here on Tuesday.

Farmer, a former member of Australian Parliament, minced no words to appreciate the beauty of Kashmir after culminating his 4600 kilometres ‘Spirit of India Run.’

Fifty-three-year-old Farmer, who started his marathon from Kanyakumari on January 26, completed his 64 days marathon after taking his last running steps at historic Mughal Garden at 11 am.

“The Spirit of India Run is my way of making a difference. I feel elated to have finished this marathon at this Garden. This is historic day for me to have finished it in Kashmir. I had never imagined Kashmir to be this beautiful,” Farmer told reporters.

He said he would promote Kashmir for tourism on his social networking sites including twitter and his personal website.

“I have already given interviews to international media especially from Australia where I talked about Kashmir’s beauty. Kashmir is very beautiful. I would definitely promote it among Australians and in other countries,” said Farmer. Farmer said the purpose of the run was to include strengthening the relations between Australia and India, to raise funds for disadvantaged girls in India through the Nanhi Kali Foundation and to inspire people, both in India and Australia, to follow their own dreams and make a difference as individuals.

Farmer also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying, “Your Prime Minister has many dreams, many goals for the country.” “He has also talked about creating clean sanitary conditions, clean water, air and environment for the people here in India. Those are tough things to do for one man but if all of us work together, those are achievable goals,” he said.