the man and his wheels: Satyen Das with his rickshaw near Manali on the way to Jammu

A rickshawpuller from South Garia, a village near Garia, pedalled across north India with his wife and child to fulfil his wanderlust.

Thirty-five-year-old Satyen Das’s 7,500-km journey took him through six states — Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Satyen, who earns around Rs 1,500 a month, took to the road in May and returned home in September. A mere Rs 3,000 — collected by neighbours and well-wishers — started them off on the journey.

A professor in Champahati, near his village, paid for the lights for his rickshaw.

They reached Jammu at the height of the Amarnath conflict. “There was a curfew and we couldn’t enter the Jawahar tunnel connecting Jammu with Kashmir. I saw bombs go off, broken cars and people in bandages,” said Satyen.

For five months, the family would take shelter in temples and religious houses on the way. Satyen’s gift of the gab endeared him to strangers. “The man who repaired my rickshaw in Himachal Pradesh offered us a night’s stay in his home,” he recalled. In Punjab, they would find a meal and shelter in gurdwaras.

Satyen was amazed at the generosity of the common people. “Despite the turmoil in Jammu, the local people sheltered us until the bombings stopped,” he smiled

“I always wanted to travel,” admitted Satyen, who had criss-crossed the country on a bicycle at the age of 22.

They often ran out of money. “On the way to Manikaran in Himachal, we had only Rs 5 left. I did not know how we would feed our three-year-old daughter,” said his wife Munni. But they found help each time. Whether it was the youths from Serampore they met in Himachal Pradesh who gave them Rs 1,000, or the policeman in Asansol who offered Rs 500.

“I knew I could always drive my rickshaw and earn money,” Satyen smiled.

Satyen knew that if saving enough had been a priority, the journey would never have happened. Behind the ready smile and simple face, the boy who left school to work as a lorry help always had the determination to follow his dreams. He even did a dry run of the plan, pedalling to Puri in 2007.

The three faced their share of setbacks, too. “We were almost buried under sand during a storm on the way to Jaisalmer,” Satyen recalled. While on their way back, near Lucknow, their rickshaw collided with another vehicle and Munni was injured badly. She had to be admitted to hospital.

Despite the arduous journey, Munni prefers to accompany her husband rather than stay home, worrying.

Neighbour Ashim Sardar has always backed Sayten in his ventures. “He hardly earns enough to feed himself, but his spirit is unfailing,” he said.