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Giant-hearted globetrotter Somen Debnath passed through Bahrain for the second time last weekend, after a stint in Saudi Arabia, hoping to inspire more young people to find their purpose and follow their dreams.
The 39-year-old Indian national has been cycling for the cause of HIV and AIDS since 2004, covering 170 countries so far, and hopes to reach his mission of 191 countries by mid-2023.
“It is great to be back in Bahrain, even if it is just for a short while. When I was last in the region, I was able to cover all countries except for Saudi Arabia, and once the country started opening up visas to Indian citizens in 2019, I knew I had to come back,” he told GulfWeekly in an exclusive interview during his three-day stay in Bahrain.
“From here, I plan to fly out to Nepal, from where I will be launching the final leg of my nearly two-decade-long journey, covering Southeast Asia and Australia.”
Somen was last in Bahrain in 2013, as part of his Africa and Middle East leg of the trip, which ran from 2012 to 2015.
He cycled through 52 countries in Africa and eight countries in the Middle East, before embarking on his South American leg, from 2016 to 2017.
The intrepid traveller has reportedly met 72 prime ministers, 38 presidents and numerous royal members all over the globe since he embarked on his journey.
Somen’s mission was inspired when, at the age of 14, he read an article in which AIDS was called more deadly than cancer.
The accompanying picture of a homeless AIDS patient left to die at the door of a prominent medical college in India, left a deep mark on Somen.
“I started asking teachers at school about the disease, but no one knew much about it,” he explained.
“But I yearned for more and to do more, so two years later, I trained with the Society of West Bengal State AIDS Control, and started an awareness campaign on HIV/AIDS and education.”
Embodying the ideal of charity beginning at home, he expanded his goal soon and began an all-India trip in 2004, mere days after he graduated with a Bachelor’s in Science degree from the University of Calcutta.
He travelled through all the 28 states and five union territories of India between 2004 and 2007, meeting chief ministers and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, most of whom wrote letters of appreciation lauding his achievement.
As he approached the end of his Indian tour, the External Affair ministry of India granted him a visa to five countries and his once-local dream was on its way to becoming a global vision.
“In addition to being driven by my mission to raise awareness around HIV-AIDS, I had read some books by Swami Vivekananda, in which he said that the world is within India, just as much as India is within the world – and this inspired me to carry my country’s flag proudly, finding fellow Indian nationals wherever I went.”
