Around the world on two wheels (Dui Chakai Duniya) (Bengali: দু চাকায় দুনিয়া ) by Bimal Chakraborty.

Around the world on two wheels (Dui Chakai Duniya) (Bengali: দু চাকায় দুনিয়া ) by Bimal Chakraborty.

This is the daring story of a young Bengali cyclist who set about to travel the world on his cycle in 1926, 12th December. He had very little money but all he had was his extreme passion and attraction for the unknown. After cycling through Iran , Syria, Turkey, Britain, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia , Greece, US, Germany, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru , Vietnam, Egypt, Greenland, Tanzania, Thailand, Japan, China and many other countries he returned to Kolkata in 1937. It took him a decade as he had to earn his way to travel. In the process he worked as a photographer, sailor, speaker, teacher, day laborer and many more. In his one life he lived many lives and many times over. Mr. Chakraborty is definitely the first Indian and probably the first man in the entire world to do such a thing. Yet this extraordinary story of adventure lay hidden and obscure in a small out of print Bengali book he published years ago. Sometimes I wonder as to what kind of race we Indians are?  We do not take pride in our own heroes; we do not publicize the achievements of our world conquering children. Why ?

Even in today’s interconnected world with all the hi-Tech gadgets this is a audacious feat. To think about the fact that this journey was undertaken in 1926 , with very little money, in a fragmented , low-tech ,post  war intolerant world dominated by colonialism, slavery and absolute ignorance is astounding.

The book is about three hundred pages, packed with personal observations and opinions on an extraordinary broad variety of people and places. It is a compilation from the letters, describing his experiences, the author sent to his mother in Kolkata, from all the places he visited around the world. It is written in a fluid language, humble tone and with deep empathy towards the human race. The book begins with Ashok Mukherjee, Ananda Mukherjee, Manindra Ghosh and Bimal Mukherjee  as they start their epic voyage  from The Town Hall in Calcutta on 12 December 1926. Ashok Mukherjee led the team of four friends on their bicycles. As the days went by and adventures starts accumulating, one by one his friends drop off or get lost in the swirling currents of multiple events. It was left to Bimal Mukherjee to survive with steadfast focus on the end goal and complete this extraordinary journey.

As I turn the pages of the book I see the radiance of humanity glowing through all his varied experiences. An Eskimo in 1930 might not ever have seen a Bengali before, yet he trusts a fellow human being, welcomes him to their home, so did an Old Danish couple and the tribal’s from a remote African village.  The book is about people. Ordinary people and their lives. These are the people the author lived with and interacted during his journeys.  Even through Europe, at that time , was undergoing tremendous change, Germany was preparing itself for Hitler, Russia was fresh from Bolshevik revolution, there was astounding prosperity in some countries with the money obtained from their colonies, Mussolini was rising in Italy,  author looked at all these  from a distance. Like a detached tourist, who was watching a play in a foreign language. Nature, the scenic details that he encountered during his travels also get a passing mention. It was the people that the author focused on. It is their culture, customs as he lived through them, intermingled with, experienced, is what he wrote about.

He also mentions is interaction with many expatriate Indians at various places. How he was spurned and insulted in London by Indian bureaucrat soaked in colonial mentality, greeted by a Guajarati trader in Africa, received and appreciated by a Bengali Indian Independence revolutionary fighter in Russia.

He was a proud Indian, a pride that acted as his backbone and base to absorb all that he experienced throughout the world. It is also this pride that drove him to keep travelling and complete his mission and return home triumphant. In his travels, he got love, he got riches, he got everything a youth can possibly want, yet he threw down everything to embrace his will and zeal for adventure. He kept a detachment to all the linking that might have fettered him down, always surging forward like a true explorer.

This is a fascinating story and observation of life from a heroic individual who conquered all the obstacles to succeed. Truly  inspiring.