Kharas Kaikee J., Ghandhi Rustom D., Shroof Ratan D. (w2131)
Kharas Kaikee J., Ghandhi Rustom D., Shroof Ratan (NCPA Facebook Page, Mumbai)

Kharas Kaikee J., Ghandhi Rustom D., Shroof Ratan D. (w2131)

When Kaikee Kharas, Rustam Ghandhi and Rutton Shroff were lost in the snow-clad mountains of Afghanistan in the mid 1930s on a nine-year cycling expedition around the world, they knocked on the door of a shepherd asking for food and shelter. The herdsman shared his humble meal with them and provided them place to sleep in, but was nowhere to be seen next morning. When the trio went looking for him in the snowy wastes, they found him deep in slumber and nearly dead. They had to rub his limbs and revive him.

This was but one anecdote from the exploits of the trio who between 1933 and 1942 cycled 84,000 km over five continents. The photo show "Our saddles, our butts, their world: Global rides on humble bikes by Indians in the 1920s” at the National Centre for the Performing Arts’ Piramal Gallery covered three separate journeys completed by seven Parsi cyclists who travelled the world in the first half of the 20th century.

NCPA Facebook Page, Mumbai