By all accounts, the start of Ramnath Biswas' life in 1894 was quite ordinary. Born in the Sylhet district of Assam, Ramnath dropped out of school when he was in the 8th standard due to the death of his father (1/9)
He managed a job in Jatiya Bhandar Samiti, Sylhet - a Swadeshi organization. The Samiti had a car repairing workshop. Working on stricken automobiles, Ramnath learnt driving and also became proficient in riding bi-cycles (2/9)
Caught up in the nationalistic fervor, he also joined the Anushilan Samity. However, his association with the secret revolutionary group came to light and Ramnath, who had found a new job by then, was fired (3/9)
At this time, WWI broke out. Ramnath signed up in the British Indian army and went to serve in Mesopotamia. Some years after war ended, Ramnath joined the Royal Navy & moved to British Malaya (4/9)
In 1931, Ramnath Biswas embarked on a bi-cycle world tour from Singapore. His cycle was fitted with a metal board that read "Round the world, Hindoo traveler." He cycled through Malaya, Siam, Indochina, China, Korea, Japan and reached Canada (5/9)
He returned to his native village in 1934 and soon, was off again. This time, he travelled through India, Afghanistan, Persia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium & France (6/9)
His journey ended in Scotland. In 1936, Ramnath Biswas returned to India. The long journey he had undertaken had taken a toll on his health. But as soon as he was recovered, he went to meet Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan (7/9)
But bitten by the travel bug, Ramnath could not sit still. In 1938, he traveled to Mombasa from Bombay. From Mombasa, he set out on his 3rd bi-cycle tour. He travelled through Kenya, Uganda, Nyasaland, Rhodesia and reached South Africa (8/9)
From there, Ramnath took a ship to USA from where, he eventually returned home in 1940. That was the final homecoming of this unusual man. In his later years, spent in Calcutta, Ramnath Biswas published several travelogues based on his experiences (9/9)
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Today is International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, a perfect day to remember the 12-year-old slave boy Edmond Albius, who forever changed the taste bud of the world. A thread. (1/6)
Edmond was born enslaved in Madagascar, where the French colonists started to grow vanilla but failed miserably as the insects refused to pollinate the vines (2/6)
The teenage slave, who lost his mother during his birth and never knew who his father was, came forward and invented an incredible and simple technique to hand-pollinate the vines (3/6)
On World AIDS Day remembering patient zero of Goa, who changed the course of the human rights battle for AIDS patients in India. A thread to remember the indomitable legacy of Dominic D’Souza (1/n)
Dominic was a frequent blood donor and worked for World Wildlife Fund. In 1989, he contracted HIV after undergoing mandatory testing under the Goa, Daman, and Diu Public Health Act, 1985, making him Goa's patient zero for the virus (2/n)
Dominic was summoned to the local police station in Mapusa. He had no clue what was going to happen with him. The police handcuffed him and took him to Asilo Hospital (3/n)
#OTD in 1955. Montgomery, Alabama. African-American Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist, is traveling in a city bus when the bus driver, James Blake makes an unusual demand (1/7)
With the "whites " section of the bus filled up, Blake orders Parks to vacate her seat in the "colored" section for a white man. Parks and Blake had old history. In 1943, Parks had boarded a bus from the front door when the driver told her to get down (2/7)
Since the "colored" section was usually at the rear, the driver asked Rosa Parks to board from the rear. As Parks got down to board again from the rear door, the bus drove off without her. That driver was also James Blake (3/7)
Every year, when the Ratha Yatra of Lord Jagannath of Puri rolls out, a strange ritual happens when the divine chariot passes through the Bada Danda (Grand Road). The procession comes to a halt for about a minute in front of a mazaar (Muslim shrine) (1/n)
To know about the origin of this strange tale, we need to travel back 500 years in time, to the reign of the 4th Mughal emperor, Nur-ud-din Jahangir. In 1607, the emperor appointed Jahangir Quli Khan, a.k.a. Lalbeg as subehdar of Bengal (2/n)
While leading a military campaign in present day Odisha, Lalbeg saw a young and beautiful widow stepping out of a pond after her bath. He was lovestruck and forcibly took her away on his horse (3/n)
#KnowOurLand How the tale of two star-struck lovers helps to cure an animal disease, a thread (1/n)
This fascinating story comes to us from the rural heartland of northern India, from parts of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, where the dreaded Foot and Mouth disease among cattle is widespread (2/n)
The FMD as it is commonly known as is a highly contagious viral disease of livestock that affects cattle, swine, sheep, goats, and other cloven-hoofed ruminants (3/n)
The Kote Venkatramana temple in Chamarajapet, Bangalore (Bengaluru) was constructed during the reign of Chikka Devaraja, 14th ruler of the Wadiyar dynasty in 1689 and is dedicated to Lord Venkateswara (Vishnu) (1/6)
Chikka Devaraja was the king who founded Bangalore after acquiring the land from the Mughals in exchange of some villages and payment of three lakh pagodahs (currency). In front of the main temple is an imposing 80 feet pillar (2/6)
The pillar is dedicated to Garuda, Lord Vishnu's vahana (ride). The pillar has an intriguing and hidden history. The Wadiyar dynasty was effectively deposed by Hyder Ali, the commander in chief of Krishnaraja Wadiyar II (3/6)