Karnataka - Bangalore

Cycling across continents

Special Correspondent

MAN ON A MISSION: Anil Kumar Chakravarty on his bicycle in Bangalore on Thursday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Free-flowing grey beard notwithstanding, Anil Kumar Chakravarty, who got tired being a bank official one day, decided to bicycle his way across the world and has weathered the experience well.

When he landed up at our office on Thursday, he had already covered three continents and 12 countries, having started from Ranchi in 1990.

Of course he has not been pedalling away for 15 years, but for the most part.

"I had a very good mountain bike to start with but it got stolen in Sydney, Australia," he said.

Since then, he has stuck with an ordinary bicycle: less temptation for thieves. Newspapers and TV stations in Australia ran stories about this intrepid cyclist and this earned him an entry into Fiji.

"The Fijians of Indian origin are very hospitable," he said.

He has also covered most Asian countries including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia.

The State Bank of India fraternity also helped him in his endeavour.

While travelling across Indonesia, he visited Bali where he found among the Hindu temples, inscriptions in Sanskrit, which he read out and translated for the locals.

"Usually I cycle about 200 km a day in countries where the roads are really good, but managed barely 50 km within India," Mr. Chakravarty said.

Despite a doctorate under his belt, this ex-banker is quite modest about himself and his ambitions. "I want to start a sports ashram somewhere and start training young athletes to compete in the Olympics... no other way are we going to improve our meagre medal tally at international events," he said.

What he plans to do once he has covered Europe on a bicycle is to go around schools and spot budding sports talent. Then convince parents and teachers to enrol such children in his sports ashram and get trained with the help of some good coaches.

He would also like Indian footballers figure in regional and international meets.

"Soccer takes more skill than stamina though strength and endurance do count. We can surely have a good football team, if only we try," he said.

He is a man with his dreams intact.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu