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) Image
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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