Soliloquy of a Wandering Pilgrim

The morning of 31st December, 2017 makes me wonder yet again- what if I never wandered off the beaten path? How different would my life have been if I had stuck to the syllabus laid down before me by my society and economics? After all, what is the use of living this wanderer's life; if in the end of all my adventures, I have to come back repeatedly to the society for its recognition and beg for its support?  The freedom I find through my adventures loses all its sanity instantly when I try to sell it. But nevertheless I keep going, in hope, that someday soon my society will respect an adventurer and will not deem his or her stories aimless or pointless anymore. The year 2017 saw me bike across the Sahara desert by its Atlantic route. Here is a YouTube link to the story: And here is my full Sahara story broken down in two different blog posts: Inception and Execution The Route and Description Later this year (July) I helped a group of young aspiring Indian mounta...

The Sahara Quartets My route of cycling by the Atlantic route of the Sahara As I started to pedal my way across the Atlantic route of the Sahara , on the very first day a rhyming quartet came humming in my mind. It was inspired by a conversation at a shop where I stopped en route that day. I tweeted that when I reached Tan Tan, just for fun. When Agnidip Mukherjee, a friend, a poet, liked it and wrote words of encouragement; I decided to stay at it. Thus for over next 3 weeks, almost everyday, whether I rode or took rest; I wrote a quartet. Each was inspired either by the people I met or the elements of the desert itself. Just for fun. There were 34 such.  Agnidip had called it the 'Sahara Quartet' and I liked the coinage.  I have put them together here knowing fully well that I do not have what it takes to be a poet. But since they are harmless little quartets after all, there is no harm in sharing I guess. Read at your own risk.   ( Note: Photos and the ...

I have already written about the background, planning and preparation of my cycling across the Sahara. I also have provided a brief outline ( itinerary with distances, observations and notes) of my journey ( March 2017) in my previous blog post. It can be found here: Read my previous post    Read the Sahara Quartets   In this post I will cover two major aspects of the journey:  1-The routes/roads of the Sahara.  2- A description (in a precise form 😊 ) of my ride. Instead of a narrative that describes my daily preoccupations and the subsequent events that came my way, I have broken it down in 5 stages.  Disclaimer:  Before you read on please understand that I do not consider myself a cyclist. I simply find the bicycle a wonderful companion on a long journey. I have never had the time to set out around the globe, for months and years and cover millions of kilometers,though my admiration for those who can or could is nevertheless pr...