Saturday, August 9, 2008

lets Bike

Lets go for BIKE

Rtn.Ashrafuz zaman Uzzal

mohaphoto@gmail.com

www.bangladeshadventureclub.com

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. "Albert Einstein



Let's see the world with a bicycle without money or less money? You may think I'm a dreamer! I'm indeed and in fact I'm not the only one who make it happened. I can tell more than 20 great cyclists or globetrotter's name that did it. Thomas Stevenson had a single penny laying his pocket when he began his journey. Bimal Dey from India went out with only 46 rupees; Andre Brugiroux left France with 10 francs in his pocket to begin an epic eighteen year journey round the world that was to take him 250,000 miles. Ramnath Biswas who was very famous in 1930 to 1940 in Bangladesh who traveled around the world without a single farthing. He wrote more than 30 books on traveling. Last year I met one Indian man of 60 from Kolkata who is traveling without money. Traveling is a challenge too. The challenge comes from immoderate and harsh weather out of difficult circumstances. It is also like challenging to own self. Jules Verne wrote 'Around the world in Eighty Days' while sitting in an attic. And interestingly people have traveled through the earth in 79 or 80 days as they were influenced by the idea of the writer.

To someone traveling is like an addiction. Once it has got into your head, there is no relief. Perhaps, this is why trekkers had undergone immense labor to go to the peak of the Himalayas. This is why traveler had gone out by boat, by bike or on foot to discover the unknown. But why? It's difficult to explain. Perhaps, people travel to gather new experience, to meet new people and make friendship with them, to discover that yet not discovered. It is quite impossible to explain in words the rationale behind traveling. Someone who is thirsty will not get relief unless he/she drinks. The information like –any good story or information on water to a thirsty person is meaningless unless he is not getting it to drink. In the same way it is not possible to explain the sheer delight that overcomes the tourist while on tour. The true traveler has got two eyes-an outer eye and an inner eye. The inner eye is the eye of the mind, the eye of the experience. The more one goes on journeys the more the inner eyes become sharp. How one is going to profit from traveling depends on ones feelings and the way that person looks at life. The same scene emerges with different significance to different people viewing the scene. That's why we see writers depicting the same scene from different perspectives. The man who treads on earth after death is not dead.


Tell me how many miles do I have to go to be known as a traveler

Tell me how many miles do I have to go to know people….


Why do you travel? This question was asked to me many times. I answer –because I like to travel. Life cannot be defined with cone definition. Life is beyond any limited understanding. Every man has a distinct life. Every man is a separate being. As you cannot measure the breadth of the sky by simply looking at it, you cannot confine life in one tiny cage. Life will go on treading over its own path, time and circumstances will change its course. And all that people do: submitting to religion, listening to music, singing, writing verses, going on chatting are all but the need and responses to time. Life goes on by simply being busy. It depends on the person what sort of life he is opting for; on that particular person's tastes and likings and disliking.


There is another reason for traveling- to change our viewpoint towards life. People living in separate countries think in different ways. The nature of climate in different geographical conditions influences the way people's thoughts. Sunlight and rainfall change the mood of the person. The seas and oceans also influence people. Social scientists have found out that people living in cold countries behave in different ways in certain situations. People living in tropical countries are generally intemperate. While people living in cold countries, for an example, the inhabitants of the Scandinavian countries, Canada, Japan and Korea are shy and introvert.


The most common question for a traveler faces while he/she traveling a different country is "what is the use of traveling this way?" Will you get anything at the end of it? Listen to my advice, stay somewhere and start earning money! Won't we ever be able to get rid of this unnecessary greed for money? As if without the material well being there is nothing on this earth.


Is it possible to get the sheer delight of traveling by any other means? People would travel through the Earth by flipping the pages of the books they are reading, but that's not possible. There is a world, which is beyond our knowledge and perhaps imagination and only for knowing the unknown we should travel. And this is only possible for a human being because they want to know furthermore.


So far I have traveled 54 countries in 6 continents. The great Antarctica is calling me. When I started my tour in 1997 I was on a bike for 10 months. I had only 950 US$ with me and I did it successfully as because I got lots of moral and logistic support from my native Bangladeshi people abroad, Alliance Française, Goethe Institute, Iran Cultural Centre, Olympic committee, Cycling Federation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh Missions in abroad and many more.


The best way to be a proper modern person is traveling. Westerners who take time to travel in the East are inevitably transformed by the experience (and probably vice versa), but Westerners who stay home have an unfortunate tendency to believe that their technological Prowers confers both knowledge and wisdom. They have forgotten that the great spiritual masters came from Asia, from the East. The human race as a whole has the potential to create a civilization based on true happiness. The key is to unite Western technology with Eastern wisdom. The only thing is the will to do so. I learnt a lot form my traveling. I learned, for example, that each of our actions generates waves of energy which come back to us like a boomerang. But people tend not to see things that way, and the large cloud hovering over mankind is heavy with the negative energy of racism, violence, hatred and prejudice. Our accumulated wickedness threatens humanity like an approaching electrical storm.


I learned how to praise this life, this strong friendship so unique on earth. I felt good, indeed too good……..


Many realizes as time flees

That dreams are left untouched

Before it's too late get to know the truth,

Only to travel and travel is all that is life.


For those who like to travel by bike –need courage, strength and confidence. But before the decision to travel, should read especially books by bicycle travelers to acquire knowledge and experience. Every one must have at least little knowledge of literature, art, history etc of specific destination. Traveling gives birth to an inner eye in a human being. But that doesn't mean that it will give you the knowledge that people used to acquire in a school or college. A traveling enables someone to learn from real life experience.


A few titles are mentioned here for people interested in traveling by bike or on foot:


1) The whole story: A walk around the world-Fyona Campbell

2) Bicycle Touring International- Kameel Nasr

3) Paddling to the ends of the Earth- David Duncan

4) Around the world on a penny farthing- Thomas Stevens

5) Riding the Desert Trail- Bettina Selby

6) One People One Planet-Andre Brugiroux

3 comments:

Dakabuko said...

Its a great initiative you have taken. Go ahead. Wishing you a glorious success from Beyond Adventure Club.

Syed Akhteruzzaman
President
BAC

Unknown said...

প্রিয় শুভানুধ্যায়ী,
এটা আমার একটা কমেন্টস নিচের দেয়া অয়েবসাইটকে। আমার খুব সন্দেহ লাগে মানুষ এতকিছু এত সহজে কিভাবে জানে? এটা খুব অদ্ভুত মনে হয় আমার কাছে।
তাই আমার এই কমেন্টসটা আপনাদেরকে পাঠালাম। যদি আপনাদের কাছে অন্যরকম মনে হয়, প্লিজ রিপ্লাই দেবেন যে আপনার অনুভূতি কেমন এই বিষয়ে:-



comments | www.btwa.wordpress.com

এটা একটা সুন্দর অয়েবসাইট। এই অয়েবসাইট থেকে আমরা অনেক কিছুই জানতে পারবো, আমাদের দেশের বিদেশের কোথায় কি আছে দেখার জন্য আর ঘুরার জন্য। আমি ভ্রমন বিলাসী, কিন্তু অন্ধ ভ্রমন পিপাসু। কারন আমার এই অন্ধতার জন্য এখনো অনেক কিছুই ভালো করে দেখা হয়নি। অনেক জায়গার গিয়েছি পৃথিবীর। হয়তো ১০০ ভাগের ৩ ভাগ। তার মানে এখনো ৯৭ ভাগ বাকি আছে। মাঝে মাঝে আমার মনে হয় মানুষ তাহলে কি পৃথিবীর সব ঘুরে। না সব জায়গা ঘুরে না। তাহলে কিভাবে তারা পৃথিবীর ব্যাপারে সুন্দর অভিজ্ঞতা রাখে। কারন হলো: বই পড়ে, গল্প শুনে আর ছবি দেখে। কিন্তু ইদানিংকালের মানুষ অনেক জানে আগের মানুষের চেয়ে। এর একটা মুল কারন অনলাইন / ইন্টারনেট। এই অয়েবসাইটটি হলো তার একটা দৃষ্টান্ত: www.btwa.wordpress.com. সত্যিই এরকম আরো কিছু ভালো ভ্রমন বিষয়ক অয়েবসাইট থাকে আমাদের দেশে, আশা করি বাংলাদেশের মতো এই দেশের লোকদের সারা বিশ্বকে জানানো দরকার নাই যে সুন্দরবন আর কক্সবাজার নাম্বার ১। আসলে পুরো বাংলাদেশই একটা অন্যতম কালচার সারা বিশ্বের জন্য। এখানে অনেক কিছুই আছে দেখার আর শিখার। আসুন আমরা সবাই আমাদের দেশকে তুলে আনি সারা বিশ্বের সামনে...


ভালো থাকবেন সবাই।




মোহাম্মদ রায়হান মজুমদার
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Unknown said...

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