CHICAGO, Ill.—With two Bengali tigers at his beckoning side, you might take Ric Gazarian for some Las Vegas act like Siegfried & Roy.
Ric Gazarian finds the tigers in India quite friendly during his travels abroad.
Quite the contrary. He befriended the cats during a stop in India to produce a film that’s suddenly hit the popularity charts big time. The full-length documentary, “Hit the Road India,” was premiered last summer at the Golden Apricot Festival in Yerevan and is currently the No. 3 sports film and No. 5 documentary on iTunes in the United Kingdom.
“The tigers are cared for by a group of monks at a monastery,” he explains. “The attraction wouldn’t be allowed in the western world. You enter a small canyon and are met by 10 giant grown tigers lounging around unchained and unrestricted, almost oblivious to tourists.”
The movie comes from a book he’s written, joined by another titled “7000 KM to Go.”
If anything, the tigers provide that extra kick in his octane when he hits the road. Gazarian is a worldly traveler. He’s been to over 75 countries and 7 continents—and he’s hardly through.
The film defines the experiences he had in India while competing against other teams in an auto rickshaw through unimaginable challenges.
It’s been nothing short of a whirlwind tour for the young adventurist, whether it was the time he was shaken down by Russian cops for a suspected bride in the streets of Moscow; quarantined by the Chinese government in Tibet for five days; felled by a case of unbearable food sickness in Yemen; or surviving a mafia encounter in Taiwan.
All said and done, it’s Gazarian’s work in Armenia that has set him apart. He spends months volunteering at the Zatik Orphanage and with an after-school group in Yerevan.
He also spent eight months volunteering at an orphanage and homeless shelter in Thailand. But it’s the Armenian experience that has left him with an indelible impression.
His first visit in 2003 came with his dad. It was a pleasure trip. He met an Armenian woman working at the hotel who encouraged him to work for USAID, thus planting a seed.
Gazarian already had a traditional career in the financial industry, but no vacation time per se. He hooked up with Jason Demerjian, founder of the Armenian Volunteer Corps, and moved to Yerevan the following year, renting a studio apartment in the center of Yerevan on Sayat Nova Street.
Gazarian soon found himself at Zatik Orphanage caring for 120 children (ages 6-18) and teaching them English. His efforts were also being spent at the Manana Center, an after-school group where children learned about photography, journalism, and film.
As a gesture of gratitude, he organized Zatik Fest, a carnival for the kids with horse rides, cotton candy, ice cream, clowns, music, and a moon bounce.
Since 2003, Gazarian has made annual trips to Armenia to spend time at Zatik and Manana. And each time, Zatik Fest is part of his itinerary. Every dram comes out of his pocket.
“When they turn 18, it becomes more difficult to stay in touch with the children,” he notes. “They leave the orphanage and proceed on their own across the land. Facebook and e-mail make it easier to stay connected. Last year, I hooked up with 10 former students and we spent the day bowling.”
A moment he’ll never forget was visiting an 18-year-old graduate in her new home after being placed out of Zatik. As she gave Gazarian a tour of her room, there was an enlarged photo of the two of them covering the wall. It was taken the day of a Zatik Fest in 2005.
“The lesson is important: Small gestures can mean a lot,” he points out. “Take the time to make the extra effort, the extra phone call, the extra e-mail, and extra visit. It pays off in the end.”
Like others making return trips to Armenia, Gazarian is impressed with the building that’s taken place—the trendy European-city look in Yerevan.
“What really matters is seeing how people live and prosper with so much less than the average person in America,” he says.
His work “7000 KM to Go” traces a 17-day journey he took in 2010 driving from Budapest to Yerevan. The rally, called “Caucasian Challenge,” went through 11 countries covering the 7,000 kilometers.
“We were competing against 10 other teams,” he recalled. “When I learned about the rally and saw that it ended in Yerevan, I knew I had to participate.”
His team raised $9,000 for the Armenian Volunteer Corps. The real winners were the children of Zatik and Manana.
One of his protégés is former student Gor Baghdasaryan whom he met as a lad of 13. They stayed in touch through the years, sharing adventures of the Caucasian Challenge. Gor is now a full-fledged film director and founder of Manana Films.
During a conversation, they decided to create a travel-adventure documentary and wound up participating in the Rickshaw Challenge. Gazarian drove 2,000 kilometers over 12 days across India in a rickshaw, a small 7 hp vehicle, while Gor and his brother Moosh filmed the amazing journey for two weeks, trailing Gazarian in a car.
“A most challenging event,” describes Gazarian. “Awful roads. Brutal traffic. Monsoons. Heat and cold. Police intervention. Terrorism. Food Poisoning. We got hit with all kinds of obstacles but made it.”
After a year of hard work, the film premiered at the Golden Apricot Festival before a packed house. It’s now being marketed and tops the iTunes charts.
Gazarian grew up in Wellesley, Mass., born to Armenian parents. He was educated at Boston College and worked in financial services in Boston before moving to Chicago in 1999. He left the industry in 2008 to start www.drivemesafely.com in Boston, where he remained five years. A recent speaking engagement at St. James Church in Watertown drew a packed house.