Without a care for the pandemic, two enthusiastic cyclists have set off on another expedition across the state. Partha Mukherjee and his friend Supratim Majumdar set off on a Monsoon Bicycle Expedition 2020 with the objective of spreading awareness about the Covid 19 pandemic. The duo planned the 701km cycling expedition through Kolkata-Purulia-Bankura and back. “We will be distributing masks, sanitizers among people on the way. We want to spread awareness about the pandemic and at the same time see the condition in which people are living these days,” said Partha.
The expedition flagged off from Belur Math on 27th September. The two-week long expedition has already reached its 4th day and duo have covered almost 70km so far. The first stop was at Rajbalhat in Hooghly, the second stop at Kamarpukur and the third stop at Bishnupur. “The weather is too humid and it sometimes becomes very difficult to cycle. The pandemic situation in these parts of the state is not as bad as the city. We noticed that people in the districts and villages are maintaining social distancing and are wearing masks. In the villages, houses are anyways built at safe distance from each other, so the chances of the virus spreading are lesser here,” said Partha.
From Bishnupur, the cyclist duo are heading towards Mathaburu Camping Ground in Purulia.
On the ninth day of the expedition, Partha and Supratim arrived at the Ayodhyay Hills after crossing the Laharia Dam. Then started the difficult part of the trip where both cyclists had to push the loaded cycles uphill to reach the top. Taking several breaks on the way, the cyclists stopped at Rugoru Ghutu and Saheb Ghutu villages where they distributed masks among the villagers. By afternoon they had reached the top of Ayodhyay Hills. After a quick lunch with a Santhali family and rest at Durga Lodge, the duo left for Bagandi village to distribute masks. They spent the day distributing masks at neighbouring villages like Bhurshabera, Lahadangri, Puniasashan, Kalapunia and so on.
This actually answered my drawback, thank you!