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Bengaluru-born musician visits ‘every country in world’; shows off 16 passports filled with stamps, visas
A viral video shows Bengaluru-born musician Benny Prasad, who shared that he had visited 245 countries, including Antarctica.
Globetrotting musician Benny Prasad has captured the internet's attention after sharing a staggering visual record of his journey to visit 245 countries. He has spent years navigating international borders to achieve the rare milestone of seeing ‘every’ nation on Earth. The viral video posted on a social media account shows him flipping through 16 passports, each completely filled with colourful entry stamps and official visas.
Prasad’s story was shared on the Instagram page MTP - Most Traveled People. “How to beat the world travelling record with a weak passport? Musician and world traveller Benny Prasad @bennyprasad became the fastest person to visit every country on Earth, completing the journey in just 6 years, 6 months and 22 days,” read a caption of a post.
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It continued, “While performing around the globe he filled 16 passports with visas and stamps. For many travelers, planning a trip means just booking a flight. For others it requires a lot more work. And Benny knows that better than anyone else. Can you relate?”
The video opens with a text insert that reads, “This man needed 16 passports to visit every country on Earth.”
In the video, Prasad says, “So this is my passport,” while holding a bunch of Indian passports.
He continued, “I am from India and I’ve been to every country in the shortest time. So, it was 245 nations … including Antartica... Both sovereign and dependent in six years, six months, and 22 days.”
He then flips through the pages of his passport, which are overflowing with a dense collection of international stamps and visas. Some of the older pages have turned distinctly yellowish with age.
Who is Benny Prasad?
Born in Bengaluru in 1975, Prasad had a tough childhood due to his health. According to his website, he “suffered from severe asthma which required him to take cortisone steroids from which he developed rheumatoid arthritis, 60 % lung damage and an immune system regularly failing him, which threatens his life even to this day.”
He was the eldest son of his family, and at one point, he became depressed about keeping up with the expectations of his family. Things worsened so much that he contemplated taking his own life at the age of 16, but things slowly changed after he attended a youth retreat.
Slowly, he went from being the shame of the family to their pride. Then he found music, which led him to travel to various nations around the world. Today, he has a music career and a record for travelling the world. He is also an author who wrote a book about his experience.
What did social media say?
An individual wrote, “Legend made it before there was social media.” Another expressed, “Way to go. Wonderful and congratulations.”
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A third commented, “This is amazing.” A fourth posted, “The real OG traveller from India.”
