Cycling chronicles

If you would like to be transported to an age when adventure was king, the sport of cycling had just reached maturity and world communications were not as advanced as they are today, The Bicycle diaries by cyclist-couple Anoop Babani and Savia Viegas is the read for you. The tome has put together their research into the adventures of 12 Parsi cyclists who, in five separate cycling expeditions, circumnavigated the globe between 1923 and 1942. Relying on books written by the cyclists, newspaper reports from Bombay and other cities around the world they travelled through, and interviews with their descendants, the narrative is replete with the dangers involved in such travel: These include being mistaken for spies in Turkey, encounters with "men who sold lions in Africa and ate monkeys in Amazonia,” enduring extreme heat in the deserts of North Africa and rescuing a cycle from raging waters of a river in flood. The authors had exhibited their collection of images and other memorabilia of the cyclists in Bombay two years ago (see "Perilous pedaling,” Parsiana, June 7-20, 2019).
The first batch of six cyclists from 1923, Adi Hakim, Gustad Hathiram, Jal Bapasola, Keki Pochkhanawala, Nari-man Kapadia and Rustom Bhumgara, were also the first Indians to circumnavigate the globe on cycles. Three completed the journey. Kapadia returned home from Tehran; Pochkhanawala sailed back from London to be with his ailing parent, while Hathiram "dumped his cycle in the Hudson River,” as Babani narrated to Parsiana. Framroze Davar, who set off on his own in 1933, met up with fellow adventurist Gustav Sztavjanik in Vienna and continued their travels together (see "Around the world in seven years,” Parsiana, June 21, 2012). The duo visited 52 countries over seven years. Rustam Ghandhi, Kaikee Kharas and Rutton Shroff, who flagged off their journey in 1933, successfully cycled across the world, ending their ride in 1942. These three expeditions, where the adventurists collectively pedaled 265,000 kms, form the bulk of the book. Babani and Viegas also detail the journeys of Manek Vajifdar who set off in 1934 but terminated his journey in London in 1938 and Jamshed Mody who cycled 48,000 kms for three years or so. The last chapter refers to the adventure of Adil Govadia who travelled to see the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 (see "Wheeling to the Olympics,” Parsiana, June 7-20, 2019).

Authors Savia Vegas and Anoop Babani

There are fuzzily warm moments in the book: accounts of the heroes being felicitated by Parsis on setting off or on their return; images of meetings with important people like Sarojini Naidu and the Shah of Persia; being mobbed and greeted on the streets of New York. The journey of Ghandhi, Kharas and Shroff was eased in Afghanistan by a Parsi residing in Kabul, a close friend of (King) Nadir Shah. "Mr Dubash made it possible to cross this territory which would have been almost forbidden without his splendid assistance,” stated one of the adventurers. One set of cyclists had their "travel book” signed by American president Franklin D. Roosevelt and another by Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. They met film stars Marian Marsh and Lionel Stander among others.
It was not as if the cyclists were feted only by the noteworthy. The book carries an image of Tuareg women in the Sahara regions begging them for riding lessons and receptions by Boy Scouts in Nigeria. "In every city and town of Korea, the trio was invited to hugely-attended public meetings which were held in local cinemas, schools and even churches,” stated Babani and Viegas about one set of riders.

The 140 photographs, though often dark and fuzzy, bring alive the journeys, be it the swag of the adventurists, advertisements for cycles from that day and age, group photos of cyclists with "members of the Indian community in Hong Kong;” family portraits of sola hatted men and kor-ni-sari clad dowagers with their heads covered. An image adorns nearly every page of this volume.
Readers are introduced to the "birth of the bicycle and of the adventurous cycle-tourist” in the first chapter, replete with anecdotes and images of the "small yet influential and westernized Parsi community who were at the epicenter of India’s biking adventures.” Read here about Homi Soonawala who began cycling in India since 1896 and paraded his decorated cycle all over Bombay in 1935 to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V!
Each chapter in The Bicycle diaries opens with a quote about cycles or cyclists. The last chapter quotes British writer H. G. Wells: "When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.” With the resurgence of cycling today, if not in the spirit of adventure, but to save the environment and to keep fit, Wells may indeed be prompting us towards this model of transport.
As note the authors at the conclusion of the book, "With the ever-increasing prices of petrol, commuting to work on cycles is an attractive alternative. But the cycle’s tomorrow is also unpredictable — full of climbs and slopes. That is how it ought to be, anyway.”
Babani and Viegas write they began working on the book after the former was forced to take a break from cycling following a fall. They were spurred on in their efforts by Xaxti Riders, a cycling club that helped partially cover the publishing cost. For copies of the book, readers may contact saxttibooks@gmail.com. The cyclist-couple have informed Parsiana that "we offer discounts for individual and bulk buyers.”
FARROKH JIJINA