Wheeling through the good old days

Framroze Davar and Gustav Sztavjanik in Lima, Peru, in 1928. The two rode across 52 countries. Pic courtesy/The Bicycle Diaries

How far can you go on a bicycle? Anoop Babani and Savia Viegas's new book should help you with a quick answer - around the world. The Goa-based couple have written and self-published The Bicycle Diaries, the first-ever title on the country's cycling history which introduces readers to 12 Indian cyclists and their global cycling expeditions between 1923 and 1942.

Savia Viegas and Anoop Babani

The title emerged from two photo exhibitions the couple had curated in 2018 and 2019. They then put pen to paper, chronicling adventures of Indian cyclists who rode across great lengths - the Sahara desert to the Alps. Closer to home, six Parsi men from the Bombay Weightlifting Club set off from Gowalia Tank on a cycling tour around the world - a first for Indian cyclists. Three, Adi B Hakim, Jal P Bapasola and Rustom J Bhumgara, completed the trip spanning 71,000 km between 1923 and 1928.

Babani, 68, shares that the research process entailed tracking down and speaking to families and friends related to these cyclists, reading old books, filtering historical records, and trawling through personal diaries and albums, apart from extensive interviews. Viegas, 63, adds that it was a challenge to present these stories 100 years later. The most important discovery, she says, was the apathy of our society. "A century later, even the few remaining memorabilia have been hanging aimlessly in family archives."

To spread awareness about these achievements, Viegas, an academician, says that she and Babani have been canvassing for a dedicated museum in Maharashtra. The title is a product of collaboration with the cycling community in Goa; the state's largest cycling club Xaxti Riders has committed to buying 500 copies pre-publication.

Looking back at how cycling in Mumbai has evolved, Babani, a former city-based journalist, shares that it started with cycling being restricted to the British and Indian elites before being adopted by the masses: "Within a decade of their introduction, cycles were widely used by the working class for daily commute. In fact, Mumbai has a ‘Bicycle Mayor' who is mandated to encourage cycling to work."

Email: saxttibooks@gmail.com (for copies)