LWD 2011

Circa October 2007, my memories when my Maruti Swift had arrived are ever green.  After buying a brand new vehicle, I was even so scared to take it out and drive in the jammed peak hour highway traffic to reach my office which is just about 15 kms away from home. Comparing that to the Lavasa Women’s Drive (LWD 2011), I have indeed come a long way. Thanks to VT, who was instrumental in motivating me in coming out of the shell and start vrooming in the roads – sometimes, even I am (and probably he is, too) amazed at myself at the progress I have made in pursuing my passion for full-throttle driving!

So, came the rally day. To be chosen as one of the short-listed participants was itself no small task, considering the number of contestants. I was obviously over the moon (or should I say geared up..:D) when I knew that I was on for the rally. Firstly, to convince my mom that it was a rally and not a race was something. Knowing my temperament, it was no surprise that she was feeling edgy when she came to know that I was participating in it. Be that as it may, and after a series of last minute glitches due to a change of partner and consequent anxious moments , I was on, all set to be flagged off in the early hours of 27^th Feb, 2011.

I and Maninder (my navigator/team mate) reached the assembling point dot on time and took in the atmosphere as much as we could. Around 350 plus cars from Mumbai, another 200 approx from Pune, we all had just a single point agenda – Destination Lavasa. Several cars, all decked up in varying colourful avatars, with posters, sketches and designs on them, conveying a message which their respective drivers/navigators wanted to communicate. The entire event was conducted in a truly professional manner - well spelt out rules and regulations and a clear adherence to the same. Cars were flagged off from 7.00 am onwards on rally day by a few celebs. Each of us were given a route card and time chart just a minute before being flagged off. We were to go through the route given in the map to us with a halt at the Time Controls (TCs) at various points on the way. We were also required to stick to the speed and time restrictions – reaching a TC before time meant penalised severely in the net tally of points.

In our case, in our typical over-enthu spirits, we simply went zip zapping from the minute we were flagged off. By the time we realised we had missed the initial TC near the starting point itself, we were almost on the outskirts of Mumbai. And following yet another decked up LWD rally car was our second folly – little did we realise that odd and even numbered cars were given different route maps. :P :D. This adventure was at Khopoli, just about the end of Mumbai-Pune express way. Instead of taking a halt at the Food Mall in the highway, we went exploring places interior in Khopoli and Pen, and as a result took nice 40 mts. to get back on track!!. By now, it was fairly clear that we had atleast missed 2 of the marshals/TCs. That was the realisation! Remembering damn very well that we would not get a rank if we’d missed the route, we decided to throw all caution to winds and drive @ a speed that was worthy of a NH drive J. Personally, I enjoyed the hair pin bends and the hilly terrain - things that are non-existent in my typical home-office-home drive.

It is usually said that one must enjoy the drive as much as the destination itself. So very apt in this case. Lavasa, honestly, is an over-hyped destination. Most of it, thanks to Mr. Jairam Ramesh’s ministry, is only work-in-progress. The thought of converting plain hills and nothing else to a self-contained township is definitely praise-worthy. But then, most of these are still at the stage of conception. Around 2011 women (drivers plus navigators plus co-participants seated at the rear) all assembled at one place, let their hair down for a couple of hours at destination Lavasa with some typically girly activities which the organisers had arranged over there – tattoo counters, hair braiding, flea market stalls, chaat counters and a rock band to make us groove.

After a bit of hanging out at the place and a sumptuous lunch at the convention hall, it was time to head home. What was interesting was that we noticed that a few rally cars were still on their way to the destination while we were already on our way back – little did we know that they were the wiser ones of the lot who, after missing their way en-route, had bothered to go back to the correct routes and got themselves marked by the TCs. 

For someone who had never crossed the limits of Thane before, I was indeed impressed with myself for clocking about 500+ kms in a day. Probably, the most critical lesson learnt in my inaugural attempt @ car rallies is that going through the correct route is more important than reaching the destination on time. It is a promise that we made to ourselves.

See you soon Lavasa, next time around – we will take the route that we are supposed to drive through!! J