'Panchi' wants to go around the world again on a cycle

The bird is fighting to break free and fly once again.

"I am ready to fly again," said 62-year-old Subash Sehgal, who cycled across the world two decades ago and was bestowed with the name Panchi. However, he is sour over the fact that nobody tried to emulate his feat.
"When will someone in our country, especially a youth, try to recreate the idea behind the tour?"

From the lanes of Sadar Bazar in the Capital to the wide highways of the US, the spirit behind the indomitable courage of this man is still strong.

Sehgal got his name registered in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1976 for covering the maximum distance by an individual on a bicycle.u00a0

Sehgal, who is now settled in Boston, US, is visiting the country of his birth to meet his friends and relatives in the Capital.

"The book Ghumakkar Shastra by Rahul Sankrityayan inspired me. The book encourages the reader to go out and explore the world. Sehgal aspires to spend his life touring the world, like Sankrityayan, who spend 45 years of his life travelling. "If I succeed it will be most satisfying," said Sehgal.

Born in a lower middle class family at Sadar Bazar, Sehgal graduated from Shyam Lal College.

Rejecting the notion that using a motorised vehicle would have been a better idea, Sehgal said the human effort linked to bicycle makes it more interesting. "I thought it was the best means of reaching out."

Sehgal started his journey on January 26, 1972, from Sadar Bazar, which was flagged of by Young Blood Organisation. "I was very young at that time. People showered love and affection on me wherever I went. It was the golden period of my life," reminisces Sehgal.

After he managed to get an air ticket for Kabul from where he cycled his way to Kandahar, Herat, and Ghazni in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Europe, the US and Africa.

"It was very difficult for a boy like me to get a air ticket but destiny had its own way," he remembered.