Malini MA has had an adventurous life. At 16, she trekked across Shivaganga; at 30, she was given the ‘nature girl’ award on a trip to the Bannerghatta forest; and at 50, she travelled across the country from Rameswaram to Badrinath and Shimla.
Decades later, as a retired music teacher (from BEL school), she retains her adventurous spirit, having won the Car Rally for the Blind over five times, since its inception in Bengaluru 10 years ago.
“The rally is a treat for us because we are usually confined to the house, even more so being women. The organiser, Srikarunya Subrahmanyam, has helped bring out the talent in so many visually-challenged people through this. Besides, the rally usually takes place on Friendship Day; it offers us an opportunity to meet people and make friends, exchange our thoughts and views. It is nice to come out into the limelight and get some exposure,” says Malini.
The Car Rally for the Blind was initiated over 40 years ago in Chennai by the Madras Motor Sports Club, and this was the 11th edition in Bengaluru, says Srikarunya Subrahmanyam of 90degree. The 11th edition was hosted by the Rotary Bangalore Abilities Club and 90degree, under the aegis of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI). The event was supported by JK Tyre as a co-sponsor. Subrahmanyam’s 90degree is into concept event design and execution, specialising in events for social causes.
The rally was flagged off at the Vega City Mall, Bannerghatta Road and covered a 50-km distance through Electronic City, back to the mall. The rally comprised 32 cars, with one visually-challenged co-navigator and three other participants in each car.
“The idea is to foster friendship between sighted and the visually-challenged. The rally is conducted in the Time-Speed-Distance format, also known as the regularity rally. The visually-challenged co-driver or the navigator reads the instructions and route map in Braille,” explains Subrahmanyam. Each car passed through 10 checkpoints to reach the finish line.
In a regularity rally, explains Malini, the driver has to maintain an average speed. There is a penalty for arriving early and arriving late (at the checkpoint). “Since we don’t venture too far away from the city, we move through the city traffic and follow all the rules. That makes it tough, but it can be done with the cooperation of all the others in the team. It is a team effort and it shows us the importance of teamwork. That makes the bond of friendship stronger,” adds Malini.
- Malini’s dream is to make audiobooks and music books in Braille to assist visually-challenged children in learning music. Being a pensioner, she is seeking financial assistance, through crowd-funding and donations.
Over the years, participants from previous editions have formed teams. And this time, participants in 20 cars met for the first time. “It was an incident-free rally; out of the 32 cars, over 25 went through all the time controls. This shows that the event was a success, and that both the visually-challenged and the sighted participants were confident of each other,” says Subrahmanyam. There is no age restriction for the visually-challenged participants. The youngest participant this time was just 15.
Subrahmanyam has had over 25 years of experience in motorsports as a motor rallyist. He holds a Guinness World Record (2013) for driving the Tata Nano over 10000 kms in 10 days across 25 states. He is also a member of the Rotary Bangalore Abilities Club. “It is this experience that I gained as a participant that inspired me to organise these events.”
“With the support of the FMSCI, we want to turn this rally into a championship event and ensure it happens across the country. We would also like to take the event to smaller towns,” he says.