This is going to be a fun story to follow...thanks NPR!

NPR

For a route of such enormous historical stature, the Grand Trunk Road makes a surprisingly modest start to its journey across the breadth of northern India, through Pakistan to the Hindu Kush.

Maps suggest that the road sprouts out of the heart of India's great eastern city, Calcutta (also known as Kolkata), not far from the banks of the mighty Hooghly River, a distributary of the Ganges.

But if you go there — as NPR did, at the outset of our trip along this ancient highway — the starting point is not particularly easy to find.

Residents of Calcutta love nothing better than a good debate; the city's famous for its militant left-wing political activism.

Stop in the street and ask local residents where the road begins, and they will happily launch into a lengthy argument on the subject.

We were finally directed to a large banyan tree, beside a railway crossing, where a small throng of truck drivers were sitting in the shade, drinking tea out of clay cups, and playing cards. There was a consensus among the drivers that we had found the right place — the spot where the Grand Trunk Road began during British colonial rule when Calcutta was the imperial capital.

The original age-old trade route, overhauled in the 16th century by northern India's last Afghan ruler, "The Lion King" Sher Shah Suri, arcs across into what is now Bangladesh. The Mughals, who succeeded the Suri Empire, extended and improved the road to the west.

The purpose of NPR's journey across the subcontinent is to meet some of the multitude of young people living along the route, and to hear about the challenges and issues they face in the 21st century. More than one-sixth of the world's population lives in South Asia; roughly half of them are under the age of 25.