8 Years on a Bike and He Is Halfway Home

Tourist Ram Chandra Biswas came the long way.

How else can he explain why it took him eight years and five months--and 125,000 miles--to travel from his Calcutta home to Los Angeles?

The 33-year-old textile worker arrived last week on the second half of an around-the-world tour he started in 1982 on his bicycle.

Biswas and his bike pulled into Los Angeles on a bus, however. After pedaling from South America to El Paso, he found that U.S. authorities frown at bicycles on the interstate.

“I respect the laws of all countries,” Biswas said. “They don’t want bicycles on the highways. I respect that.”

Such obedience is important to Biswas, who was talking with friends in India about 10 years ago when he came to the conclusion that the world is in danger of ending by the year 2000.

“I promised God to sacrifice 14 years against nuclear war, drugs, divorce and injustice,” he said. “I promised to sacrifice for peace.”

That means no alcohol, drugs or sex before his unusual pilgrimage ends six years from now. It may not save the world, but Biswas is convinced that it will send him to heaven when the end comes.

Biswas has visited 75 countries since pedaling off with $1 in his pocket and, in his backpack, letters of introduction from Indian officials and a snapshot of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi bidding him farewell.

In each country he has sought out presidents, prime ministers, generals and chiefs of police. In every major city, he has come away with proclamations and personal notes of support from officials.

Less than 24 hours after arriving in Los Angeles and checking in to a $16-per-night Skid Row hotel--”I looked for the least expensive,” he said--Biswas obtained a signed letter of endorsement from Mayor Tom Bradley. He also wrangled an appointment to meet with police commission members.

“May God be with you through your journey for peace and may you serve as an inspiration to all you meet along the way,” wrote Bradley, who also gave Biswas a poster of more than a dozen photographs of the region’s most famous attractions.

By the time he leaves the city today, Biswas hopes to have ridden his bicycle to six of the sites: “the Olympic stadium, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Disneyland, Universal Studios and the white building where you see the stars”--the Griffith Observatory.

Never mind that he only has $150 in expense money, less than half the cost of an airline ticket to his next destination, Hawaii. After that it is off to San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. and then into Canada and on to 49 other countries.

Biswas said he gets by on cash donations, free meals and lodging he receives from sympathetic strangers. He said he also earns modest fees from two hobbies: juggling and performing magic tricks.

“When you are good, God takes care of you,” said Biswas, a Hindu. “I might go two days without eating. I might sleep on the ground next to the road. I don’t worry. I’ve never met any bad people. I’ve never been robbed or had an accident.”

He was warned to be cautious in Los Angeles, however, by more than one person.

“Everybody told me to be careful about nighttime Los Angeles. I’m not going out alone any place,” he said.

His evening hours are spent writing in his journal, he said. Every 12 days, he mails his latest batch of official letters, proclamations and snapshots of him posing with this general or that mayor to his parents in Calcutta for safekeeping.

“I’m not worried about any place, not even Iraq,” he said. “I’m going there in 1993. I’m not afraid.”

That said, Biswas turned his battered bicycle around and headed back toward his hotel. He stayed on the sidewalk as he leaned over the curb and pushed the bike along the street.

No use getting flattened in downtown Los Angeles traffic when you are more than halfway home.