Pedal power: Around the world on a bicycle
They survived weeks without food and days without water, traversed vast swathes of pirateinfested terrain and treacherous swamplands; rode through dense jungles teeming with unknown wildlife and ascended ‘up to 6,000 feet amidst the terrible solitudes of the Alps’. In order to circumvent the oceans they rode over the most difficult routes where no cyclists had ever been.”
Marketed as the first book on Indian cycling history, The Bicycle Diaries chronicles the journey of 12 Indian cyclists -- all of them Parsi -- who, in five separate cycling expeditions, circumnavigated the globe between 1923 and 1942. Along the way, they saw a world as yet unshaped by the consequences and politics of the Second World War but still suffering from the effects of the First.
For their book, the authors Anoop Babani and Savia Viegas, a married couple, who are avid cyclists themselves, relied on the meticulous diaries that the riders maintained during their journeys and on conversations with their grand and great grandchildren, now spread across the globe. Many of them offered up family albums and recollections. The stories of the motivations of these cyclists, their sponsors, and the reception they received at each stopover all come together to recreate the lost world of the interwar years. Take Adi B Hakim,
Gustad G Hathiram, Jal P Bapasola, Keki D Pochkhanawala, Nariman B Kapadia and Rustom J Bhumgara who, in 1923, set off on what would be the first instance of Indians circumnavigating the globe on cycles. Only three completed the journey -Kapadia returned home from Tehran for ‘personal reasons’, Pochkhanawala sailed back from London to be with his ailing father, while Hathiram decided he had enough once they reached New York. The team didn’t make it through Africa, save for passing through Egypt, and South America. That was left to another Parsi, Framroze J Davar, who set off on his own. In Vienna,
Davar met Gustav Sztavjanik and decided to accompany him as he travelled the globe. Theirs was not a race to circumnavigate the world but to enjoy the ride. Unlike the previous group that took four-and-a-half years but visited only 27 countries, Davar and Sztavjanik visited 52 countries over seven years.
These cycling endeavours were followed by three others. While two solo attempts ended prematurely, Rustam D Ghandhi, Kaikee J Kharas and Rutton D
Shroff, who set off in 1933, successfully cycled across the globe, ending their ride in 1942 at the height of World War II. As post-war politics made the world a less welcoming place and as the Partition cut off the country’s primary land route with the rest of the continent and Europe, Indian cycling attempts to circumnavigate the world largely ceased.
Written in a breezy style, the book lists the significant encounters during the perilous journeys undertaken by those Parsi pioneers. However, it stops short of fleshing out the details – the near-death experiences, the joy at leaving dangerous stretches behind, and at completing the journey. Perhaps those bits are best left to the imagination of the reader.
What The Bicycle Diaries does really well is transport the reader to a different time -- one where ease of travel didn’t mean the same thing as it does today. It was an era of telegrams, postcards, railways and steamers; of provincial leaders, tribesmen and cultures cut off from the mainstream. Traditional routes and caravans were still common, letters of passage would go a long way, and trinkets and tobacco were enough of a bribe to allow a possible killer to spare your life. The British were still the dominant force across the world and were it not for their British passports, the cyclists would not have been able to make the journey at all.
The authors began writing the book after Babani was forced off his saddle by a fall. He then devoted his time to researching the history of cycling and cycling clubs in India. Babani and Viegas were further encouraged when Xaxti Riders, Goa’s largest and most active cycling club, helped cover the publishing cost by committing to buy 500 copies or half of the initial print run.
Replete with the black and white photographs clicked by and of the cyclists, this book is an interesting attempt to document a forgotten fragment of India’s cycling history.