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Most people would take a long break from travelling after getting kidnapped by the Taliban for 24 days, being robbed six times in Central Asia and getting beaten eight times by skinheads, but Indian cyclist Somen Debnath is not most people, writes Naman Arora.
Last weekend, Somen returned to Bahrain on his way back from Saudi Arabia, before jetting off to Nepal from where he has begun the final leg of his 191-country cycling tour to raise awareness about HIV-AIDS.
“I have been blessed to have lived more in the last two decades than most people would, in 10 lifetimes,” he told GulfWeekly as he sat down to discuss his travels over a cup of Indian ‘chai’.
“Yes, I have been in some scary situations, but, the way I see it, if you want to do something exceptional in this world, you have to be ready for the world to put you through some exceptional circumstances.
“I am a big believer in destiny and the will of God, who has been carrying me and all the people around the world through our missions and journeys. Ultimately, my motto is that “People are my God” and I have been blessed to find goodness and godliness wherever I have gone.”
Somen’s ordeal with the Taliban began when he was cycling to Herat, Afghanistan and was stopped by militia members who deliberated over whether to shoot him on the spot.
Unable to decide, they blindfolded him and took him to their base, where they interrogated him about his mission and his stance on Islam.
“I told them that I am a student of science and I consider the Quran to be one of the world’s great scientific books,” he recollected.
“When they asked me what I’d do if they did not let me leave, I asked them to assign me a job within the base that did not involve handling a gun, in line with my principles of peace and non-violence.
“And that’s how I came to first clean and then cook for the Taliban for the rest of my time with them. Several weeks later, convinced that my mission was true and noble, they dropped me off near Herat and I have continued my journey since then.”
After the life-changing experience, he went on to travel through 45 countries in Europe and Greenland, between 2009 and 2012. This was followed by a four-year expedition through 52 countries in Africa and eight countries in Middle East including Bahrain, but excluding Saudi Arabia.
In 2016 and 2017, he visited 13 countries in South America, six countries in the Carribean as well as the South Pole before moving up through Central America and North America.
He also visited and cycled through Japan, Russia, Mongolia, China, South Korea and New Zealand, during this time. He ended up getting stuck in New Zealand during the pandemic, but once he got his Covid-19 vaccine, he kept going, and plans to finish his trip with an Australian and Southeast Asian leg.
Having cycled 185,400 kilometres on eight bicycles, three of which were stolen, he will have covered more than 200,000km by the time he is done, hopefully by May 2023.
And even though he has been almost everywhere between the Arctic and the Antarctic, the 39-year-old Indian is not even close to world-weary.
“My plan, once I am done, is to create a global village in the shadows of the Himalayas, where all the friends and family I have met through the years are welcome to come and experience an eco-friendly and sustainable way of living,” he added.
For more details, follow @worldbikingodyssey on Instagram.
