POCATELLO — An Indian cyclist who left the motherland of the Royal Bengal tiger 17 years ago to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and once cooked curry to escape Taliban captors made a stop in the Gate City last week.

Somen Debnath, a 38-year-old globetrotting humanist who says, “People are my God,” received a certificate of recognition from Pocatello City Council member Linda Leeurwrik on June 16, the 6,228th day of a worldwide trek that will culminate in Debnath having bicycled nearly 125,000 miles through 191 countries on all seven continents.

“In 6,228 days, I have learned two words: positive and optimistic,” Debnath said with a smile. “Those are my master keys. We want to live in peace, but peace comes from within. We are content from within and we can feel genuine happiness when we can share with others. What you share, you will get back, no?”

Debnath, who was born and raised in the mangrove forest village of Basanti in Sundarbans, east India, officially launched his global odyssey with only 422 rupees (about $17) at age 21 on May 27, 2004. However, his mission to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and social inclusion — the process of improving the ability and opportunity for those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity to take part in society — started about seven years beforehand.

“When I was 14, I read an article about someone affected by HIV/AIDS that said, ‘AIDS is more deadly than cancer,’” Debnath said. “There was this stigma and the person was thrown out of the village and left to die alone. I didn’t know what AIDS was, nobody taught me. School teachers could not explain it. I talked to society and communications experts and they could not tell me. So I promised myself that when I would come to know about HIV/AIDS, I would tell the teachers. I did that when I was 16 years old.”

Soon after obtaining a degree in zoology from the University of Kolkata, the 16-year-old Debnath received special training from the Society of West Bengal State AIDS Control. He spent about the the next four years walking all of India while working to erase AIDS-related stigmas and educate his country about the deadly but preventable disease.

He visited AIDS Control Societies in India who would facilitate presentations at schools, colleges and red-light districts.

He would talk about practicing safe sex, the effects of addiction and encouraged sanitary practices.

“I visited 28 states in five Indian territories,” Debnath said. “I was received by 25 chief ministers and 26 governors. This is how I received a letter which I sent to the central ministry. I was rewarded by the Prime Minister and President of India. Then the external affairs minister of India, along with four other ministers — information and broadcasting, health, tourism and sports — each recognized me and this global journey.”

A vertical line dissecting India served as a starting point for Debnath’s tour, which he would pursue heading east to west. From 2004 through half of 2006, Debnath traveled all over India. The next three years would take him through 24 countries in Central Asia and into the Middle East. The latter half of this juncture of his excursion involved one of the most terrifying experiences a person could encounter.

As Debnath traveled through the remote region of Herat, Afghanistan, he inadvertently wandered into Taliban territory where he was assumed to be a spy and taken hostage by armed militants. He spent three weeks blindfolded strapped to a chair in a pitch black 10-foot-by-10-foot dungeon living in daily fear that he would be killed, The Telegraph reported in 2009.

“I was traveling from Kabul to Herat when a Jeep came from behind me, stopped in front of me, five men jumped out and then started beating me with the end of their rifles,” Debnath said. “I forgot how to speak. Tears were running down my cheeks.”

Two of the men began arguing, said Debnath, adding, “One man was yelling, ‘Shoot him,’ and the other was saying, ‘Wait, wait, wait, he could be an informant for the Indian Army.’”

Debnath told the men that he was just a simple man traveling the world and that they were his brothers, pleading, “Don’t kill me, if I’m a bad person you can kill me later.”

After he was starved for the first four days, Debnath found a translator who spoke English in monosyllables and was able to convince his tormentors to allow him to clean their homes, wash their clothes and polish their weapons.

Debnath spent his last 11 days with the Taliban cooking for them, making a spicy Bengali curry. Two days before his release, he was asked what he would tell the world if they released him.

“I told them that I should be thankful, man,” he said. “I never thought that you would release me and I can now seek my world. Everyone has their own world and I have my own. Whatever you are doing is not actually for me, but who am I to judge you. I am very ready to visit the whole world and meet those people that are waiting for me.”

Debnath said he wanted to go home to the comfort of his family but he was determined to continue his mission. He spent 2009 through 2012 visiting 45 countries in Europe before crossing the Norwegian Sea to hit Greenland. Between 2012 and 2015, Debnath visited 52 countries in Africa and 10 more countries in the Middle East.

Between 2016 and 2017, he visited 13 South American countries and Antarctica. Three years ago, Debnath visited eight countries in the Caribbean and then completed his journey into Central America and the Panama region. Debnath traveled his first 13 states in the U.S. in 2019 before heading up into Canada, Alaska and over to Japan. In 2020, Debnath visited Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China and South Korea before the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to hunker down in New Zealand.

“Wherever I put my tent, that is my home, my country, my world and nobody can buy it from me,” Debnath said. “Not even the landlord whose land I am on. I say, ‘Sorry, I am not buying your land, I am just staying one night and tomorrow I will leave.’”

Though he was originally supposed to finish his 16-year journey in December 2020, Debnath had to resume his pursuit this year and now plans to return home in December of next year. The final trek will involve 15 more U.S. states, the continent of Australia, the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia.

“December 2022 is when I plan to be back in India and will launch a creative global village with the guiding philosophy of living together, working together and playing together,” Debnath said. “You all are my family members. Come and stay here. That is my dream to give back. It will be close to Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where it will be easy to connect to the Himalayas. Please come stay for a few weeks and work in the village.”

Throughout his long adventure, Debnath said he has been robbed 28 times, beaten almost 20 times and had three bicycles stolen, yet he has never lost sight of his goal. He will ride for most of the day and at night settle down and document his journeys for a manuscript he intends to call, “World Biking Odyssey: 191 Countries and Seven Continents.”

When asked if this global trip also served as a path to enlightenment — an adventure of self-discovery to uncover his place in the world and his reason for living — Debnath said he believes the idea of achieving enlightenment is malarkey (though he used the American slang term that rhymes with bull spit).

“You could say it’s enlightenment, but it’s really about discovering the simple philosophy of life,” Debnath said. “Life has a very simple philosophy, we make it complex. If we can find the correct tune of life, then that is a good thing.”

Debnath continued, “My understanding is that enlightenment and other things are (bull). What is more important is to get positive life experience and you will make your life better. There is no heaven or hell, this is heaven and hell and you make your life heaven or hell. If you want to live in hell, live in hell. If you want to live in heaven, live in heaven. Enlightenment is a totally bombastic word.”

By the time his mission is complete, Debnath will have traveled far enough to have encircled the globe along the equator line four times. He will have visited megacities down to unincorporated villages with no modern amenities, reaching nearly 20 million people along the way. None of the people along his journey are strangers, however; they’re his brothers and sisters and he’s simply reconnecting with his global family.

“I believe that I am meeting my own people, my own family members who I may have left behind in the last incarnation,” Debnath said. “It is a great opportunity to remember that this world is one home. We are all family members. I believe nothing is abstract. Everything that is happening is happening for a reason. I believe that if the almighty eternal soul is giving me this great opportunity, I have somehow risen to fulfill this dream and do something for my people.”

He continued, “It is written in Vedas, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,’ an ancient Sanskrit phrase that means ‘the world is one family,’ and this journey has been about reconnecting with my family.”