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| Avijit Chakraborty has bicycled 29 countries in 9 months in an attempt of a Guinness Book of World Records of bicycling around the world, covering 60,000 km across 61 countries. (MARK R. SULLIVAN / MyCentralJersey) |
WOODBRIDGE — They say it's a small world. Anders Forselius of Sweden and Avijit Chakraborty of India know better.
The two men have never met. Yesterday both bicycled through Central Jersey, each halfway through their separate journeys around the world.
As they travel tens of thousands of miles across dozens of countries on all of the continents, they hope to fulfill their own spiritual missions - and possibly set a world record in the meantime.
Every place he goes, Chakraborty, 36, shares his message about protecting the environment. He's visited about 90 schools in 29 countries. At the end of his journey, Chakraborty hopes to have traveled 37,283 miles across 61 countries in 19 months and 20 days.
More than 10 years ago he made a similar trip, biking more than 37,000 miles through 54 countries. He says former President George W. Bush gave him the bicycle he's used on this trip.
Forselius, meanwhile, is fulfilling the last request of a California boy who wished that his remains be scattered all over the world.
So far he's traveled 13,000 miles since 2008 and hopes to complete 15,000 miles, including three marathons, by the time he gets back to Athens, Greece, where he started.
Chakraborty hasn't seen his wife and 7-year-old daughter in nine months. He calls them every two days with a cell phone. He said he misses them, but his mission "is very important."
"This global warming is coming to our world. Just to stop it we should have to stand just now " not tomorrow," he said Wednesday, during a two-day rest at the Sikh temple Gurudwara Dashmesh Darbar Sahib in the Port Reading section of Woodbridge.
A Hindu, he has stayed at about five such Sikh temples that welcomed him, as they would for anyone of any religious persuasion, with a free room and free food.
Chief priest Baldev Singh and other religious leaders share Chakraborty devotion to God's world.
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| Anders Forselius of Sweden passes through New Jersey, including Clinton, pictured here, and East Brunswick, in his trip around the world. (Submitted Photo) |
Forselius, 42, taking a break in Atlantic Highlands before riding up to East Brunswick Thursday afternoon, said Americans are "so friendly and open."
Last year he was hit by a car in San Diego and resumed his trip in May. While in California, he met the mother of Alex Blackburn, who died nine years ago when he was 12. She gave Forselius her son's ashes to take on his trip.
"She told me the story about her son and he became very alive for me," he said. "People who have crossed my path, I ask them to be a part of this and scatter the ashes for me."
He takes photos of the ceremony and posts them on his website.
"It's a big honor. I don't feel I'm traveling with his ashes but that I am traveling around with him."
He doesn't miss home too much, and some day he'd like to live in the Hunterdon County town of Clinton, where he's stayed with friends. He likes the historical downtown and Main Street coffee shop, Citispot.
"I have been so many years in Sweden, I am done with that country."
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Sergio Bichao