Gyandev Choudhary (left) and Sunil Kumar Singh at Tarumitra Ashram on Tuesday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

After 10,000km on the saddle, home at last.

Gyandev Choudhary (42) and Sunil Kumar Singh (45), both residents of Barh, have accomplished the rare feat of cycling.

With an aim to spread the message of saving trees, the duo started their journey on May 28 this year and covered nine states — Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Both Sunil and Gyandev were at Tarumitra Ashram on Tuesday to talk about their arduous yet green mission on bicycles.

“We had only around Rs 16,000 when we started the journey. In order to save whatever little possible, we spent most of the nights in shrines. On many occasions, we had to spend our nights on the roads also when we did not find any accommodation. In Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, we took rest under a tree for two consecutive nights, as we did not find any temple nearby while on many occasions we spent our day on biscuits only. We did not take dinner many a night as well and slept after drinking nimbu-sherbet (lemon drink). In spite of hardship, we also got to meet some good people who provided us food and accommodation,” said Sunil, who left the job of principal of a private school at Barh to embark on this journey.

Sunil was so desperate for embarking on the journey that he did not even tell his wife about it before leaving home. “I had left a message for my wife and called up her only after a month. My wife’s reaction was as I expected it to be. She told me to come back immediately by taking a train. I told my wife that this journey was like finishing a puja (worship) which I could not leave in the middle,” said Sunil.

Gyandev said riding the hill station of Mount Abu was quite difficult. “Riding in the scorching heat was very irritating. We used to take a break after every an hour’s ride. This trick helped us quite a bit in retaining our stamina for rest of the journey,” he added.

The duo told people to plant trees and save the existing ones. “In our every meeting with the local people, we tried to make them aware about the benefits of greenery. We hope people understood what we wanted to convey to them, only then our journey would be considered successful,” said Gyandev.

Tarumitra Ashram founder Robert Athickal said: “Both of them have done a commendable job. It requires a lot of courage to do what they have done.”