Avishek Tunga (AT) is not your regular professor. Beyond lectures and dissertation sessions, he is a trailblazer who set on a cycling journey from Leh to Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh.
Pedalling nearly 3,700 kilometres, Tunga completed the journey in 20 days and 17 hours. This etched his name in the Guinness World Records as he achieved 'The fastest unsupported crossing of the Himalayas W-E by standard bicycle.' In an exclusive interview with News Ei Samay, Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology professor Tunga talked about his gruelling journey.
Q: What inspired you to take on this 3,700 km trans-Himalayan cycling challenge?
I come from a mountaineering background. The Himalayas are itself a challenge. I have explored the Himalayas in multiple ways, sometimes through tough climbing, sometimes through trail-running by myself. I have covered routes in one day which take seven to eight days for others. So, cycling the Himalayas from west to east or vice-versa was on my cards for a long time. That's why I took this cycling challenge.
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Q: How did you manage your sleep, food, and rest during such long stretches on the road?
When I was passing through high-altitude passes, the air pump of my bicycle stopped working, leading to a wastage of time. Then, when I came down, the heat was scorching on the route from Chandigarh to UP. I had a heat stroke once. As a result of this, I was resting in the daytime and riding at night. I rode for whole nights on the highway, alone. After that, when I was nearing Nepal and then crossing northern Bengal and Assam, I was hit by intense rainstorms, which resulted in floods in north Bengal. So, I wasted quite some time because of that. Then, my stomach got upset when I was crossing into Arunachal Pradesh from Assam, for which I was put on saline drips for a day. This is how different challenges hit me at different times. Sometimes, my pump stopped functioning; other times, the chain and gearbox of my bicycle malfunctioned, for which I had to take a detour to Lucknow to get a chain, and then return to the Himalayas again. This is how I planned to avoid hazards. One can't ride in mountainous areas at night. Again, the blazing heat prevented me from riding on the plains in the day. That's how I managed my schedule.
Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced during the ride?
When I had mechanical challenges, I knew that I had to handle them anyhow. I was repairing my cycle in the middle of the night on the Uttar Pradesh highways. I took help sometimes to fix my bicycle. At one point, I thought of quitting the journey when I was crossing over to Arunachal Pradesh from Assam, and suffered from a severe stomach infection. I was extremely exhausted with no calorie intake, and I was dehydrated. How could I cycle on the mountains for another three hundred kilometres amid this? After recovering, I started again. The stomach infection was the biggest challenge that I faced.
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Q: What message do you want to give aspiring endurance cyclists?
There are many challenging routes for long-distance cyclists, like from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Gujarat to Kibithu, other long tours across India, the Golden Quadrilateral - people participate in these challenges. I took the route from Leh to Kibithu, and a lot of the Himalayas fall on this journey. I had to cross several high-altitude passes. Not just riding for long distances, but surviving in a high altitude is a challenge. Whatever hazards happen, those are upon yourself, and one has to remember that. Those who want to become endurance cyclists should not just cycle - of course they should practice and cover long distances to improve speed. Along with that, they have to learn how to survive in the outdoors and get themselves out of trouble. This is a wonderful mix of adventure and cycling, so if one can prepare themselves like that, it will be possible to cycle long distances.
{Avishek Tunga, an assistant professor at the Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology and a proud Jadavpur University alumnus, has become a beacon for adventure seekers and adrenaline enthusiasts.}
