With Cyclists Around the World

Jal P. Bapasola, Rustom B. Bhumgara, Adi B. Hakim

Description

Travelling 44,000 miles, at times in 140'F heat - for days without food, at times without water, at times in pirate-infested territories, at times in swamp-lands - they cycled through dense jungles and notched up many 'firsts' while pedalling round the globe. They were the first to cycle the world - six young boys from Bombay Weightlifting Club, who started this journey of adventure on 15 October 1923. Crossing the deserts of Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Sinai, they became the first globetrotters to cover the most arduous journey of their lives in four years and five months. A must-read story of adventure and endurance.

Sujets

• Bicycling
• Special Interest
• Skills
• Forests
• Adventure (Guyana)
• Road trip
• List of cyclists
• Skill
• Travel
• Cycling
• Journey
• Adventure
• Survival
• Endurance
• Jungle

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351940975
• Langue: English

Extrait

About the book
“Such deeds of heroism and adventure deserve all praise and encouragement.” – Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister of Italy

“A great feat of endurance.” – H.E. Lord Reading, Viceroy of India

“Three Indian boys show they’ve got the right stuff … It seems these stunts are necessary in this ultra-modern age if one has to secure any recognition.” – Japan Times , 15 December 1925

“Many people have made world-tours in steamships, railroad trains and airships, and many have made long trips on foot, but this cycling trip around the globe is unique.” – The Pagoda , Shanghai

Travelling 44,000 miles, at times in 140’F heat - for days without food, at times without water, at times in pirate-infested territories, at times in swamp-lands - they cycled through dense jungles and notched up many ‘firsts’ while pedaling round the globe. They were the first to cycle the world - six young boys from Bombay Weightlifting Club, who started this journey of adventure on 15 October 1923. Crossing the deserts of Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Sinai, they became the first globetrotters to cover the most arduous journey of their lives in four years and five months. A must-read story of adventure and endurance.

Disclaimer

Any addition\deletion on the factual accuracy is not the responsibility of the Hakim family.

– Darayous Adi Hakim
ROLI BOOKS
This digital edition published in 2015
First published in 2008 by The Lotus Collection An Imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd M-75, Greater Kailash- II Market New Delhi 110 048 Phone: ++91 (011) 40682000 Email: [e-mail] Website: www.rolibooks.com
Copyright © Darayous Adi Hakim & Roda Darayous Hakim
No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, print reproduction, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Roli Books. Any unauthorized distribution of this e-book may be considered a direct infringement of copyright and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
eISBN: 978-93-5194-097-5 Cover: Supriya Saran
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Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Preface
ONE The Start
TWO Across the Ghats
THREE Through the Heart of Hindustan
FOUR Mountainous Baluchistan
FIVE Persia – The Land of Lion and the Sun
SIX Crossing the Syrian Desert
SEVEN Palestine and Transjordania
EIGHT In the Land of Mussolini
NINE Crossing the Alps, Transalpine Tour
TEN Transcontinental Tramp
ELEVEN In Old Vienna
TWELVE Through Germany and the Netherlands
THIRTEEN The Cockpit of Europe
FOURTEEN So This is Paris
FIFTEEN Across the British Isles
SIXTEEN New York and Westward
SEVENTEEN ‘The Wild West’
EIGHTEEN In the Geyser Land and Over the Rockies
NINETEEN In the Land of the Rising Sun
TWENTY Korea – The Hermit Kingdom
TWENTY-ONE Through Manchuria
TWENTY-TWO The Forbidden City
TWENTY-THREE Tramp Through China
TWENTY-FOUR French Indo-China
TWENTY-FIVE Burma, Bengal, Madras and Ceylon
TWENTY-SIX ‘Rolling Home’
Foreword

I ENVY THE YOUNG MEN WHO HAVE MADE THIS BOOK. I too have some of the red blood which seeks adventure; some thing of the wanderlust which even drives one forward. But fate and circumstances have prevented me from satisfying it in the ordinary way – I seek adventure in other ways. And I envy those who like our young friends have girdled the globe and tasted adventure to the full. I hope other young men will read this brave record and that it will fire their imagination and make them do great deeds.
– J AWAHARLAL N EHRU
Acknowledgements

A TRUE STORY OF GRIT, COURAGE AND PERSISTENCE of three Parsi youths – Jal P. Bapasola, Rustom B. Bhumgara, and Adi Hakim, who ventured out on an unimaginable adventure of circumnavigating the world on bicycles, covering a distance of 44,000 miles in four years and five months. Starting from Bombay on 15 October 1923 and back again on 18 March 1928, in spite of untold hardships, they were focused and achieved their goal with pride not only for themselves but for India as well!
Acknowledgements are due to Esther David the noted art critic and author without whose help this major task of directing us to the right publishing house for reprinting this book would not be possible.
As also my wife Roda Hakim who spent innumerable hours diligently being the buffer between the book and Roli Books, her unstinting dedication has certainly paid off!
Last but not the least our heartfelt gratitude and thanks to Roli Books who inspired confidence by agreeing to come out with this book.
– D ARAYOUS A DI H AKIM
Preface

T HE AGE OF ROMANCE NEVER DIES. ROMANCE RELIVES through ages in different forms; whether it be the knight-errant of yore, or a Drake sailing round the world or a Lindeberg in a trans-Atlantic flight or a trio or cyclists, like ourselves, scantily-equipped, traversing obscure regions on a pair of fragile wheels. As Goethe writes, ‘The presence of danger generally exercises on man a kind of attraction and calls forth a spirit of opposition in human breast to defy it.’ The wide world was calling us; it proved a siren’s call for us; we could not resist it and we undertook this enterprise.
People accustomed to reckon the value of things in terms of ‘utilities’ or in terms of rupees, annas and pies may deprecate undertakings such as ours. Opinions will always differ on the question whether the sum of human happiness is advanced by anaemic students ‘with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books’, or by men, who brush conventions aside and have graduated in the academy of intense popular ridicule in the pursuit of a seemingly phantastical ideal. Generally, one has to pay a price for brushing aside conventions. We paid the price, as the pages that follow will bear out amply.
What induced us to accomplish this task was no love of winning a wager; it was no mere foolhardy spirit which makes ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread;’ it was certainly not a spirit of vain glory to which we all are prone in more or less degree; it could not be any hope of material gain; nor was it a pleasure trip – we knew well, it was far from it. We do not think any of these motives or all of them can sustain a human constitution through four years and more of an unceasing round of dangers, difficulties, hair-breadth escapes from death and all else that goes to make up a world tour. Young as we were, we were fired by an intense desire to carry the name of our country – Mother India – to the far-flung corners of the earth, where India is yet a mere geographical name. In the realm of sport, as others do in the realms of politics and finance, we wanted our country to hold a premier place: to be a link of no small importance in the international comity of sporting nations of the world. We wanted to know the world more intimately and to acquaint the world with India and Indians. It was a small effort on our part towards a colossal mission; but we decided to contribute our mite. We may, with legitimate pride, maintain, we wanted to contribute our tiny, ever so tiny share to the cause of international goodwill. International goodwill – a potent factor this promises to be in the generations to come! Human welfare will depend increasingly upon cultivation of this factor than of any other for years to come. It is as important as the conferences for limitation of armaments. Nay, it is the very basis of it. If there were more intermingling amongst nations of the world, if there were more intimate interchange of views and cultivation of that spirit international brotherhood, we would have less of wars and God’s world would be a place certainly worth living in. Is that not a sufficient excuse for our enterprise? If this be not, we plead guilty to the charge of being foolhardy or whatever else you please.
We want you to look at our tour from another angle of vision. The youth of today is the statesman of tomorrow. Character counts for everything in this world. In future India will need people of character, who are bold, energetic, pushing, careless of convention, capable of planning enterprises with ingenuity and executing them with ability. The lads of today need an ideal. If our adventure reveals to them the possibilities that lie dormant in every one of those promising lads, if our undertaking teaches them that everything comes to him who tries, if our enterprise indicates to them that you never know your own powers unless you have put them to test, if our adventure instils in them a sense of legitimate pride that Mother India lacks no sons capable of holding their own against the nationals of other countries, it is our firm conviction we have not undertaken this world tour in vain, we have not lived through four years of difficulties and dangers in vain, we have not toiled through deserts of Mesopotamia, Persia, Syria and Senai in vain, we have not jeopardized our lives, on more occasions than one, without a purpose.
With a pardonable pride we may summarize our achievements:
We have been the first world-cyclists (1) to cross the deserts of Persia, Mespot, Syria and Senai; (2) to cross Korea, the Hermit Kingdom, hitherto a sealed book for globe-trotters; (3) to hold a world record for covering 171 miles in 16 hours on cycles. Add to these, lesser feats, for example, scaling the solitary Alps in the worst part of the year; going over the Rockies and the war-zone of fighting China, and may be, you have some idea of our tiny enterprise. We travelled 44,000 miles, at times in 140 0 F heat, for days without food, at times without water, at times in Alpine blasts, at times in pirate-infested territories, at times in regions and swam