“Meeting at a car park near Juhu Juhu beach, we all drove the last 800 meters to the Marriot, our finishing line, together. A very sad last part of the journey as we’d had so much fun that it was a group consensus that no-one was ready to go home yet but it was fun driving in convoy together, with everyone filming everyone else on their camcorders and digital cameras.
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And so it was outside the Marriot in Mumbai, where our 2000 km’s journey ended and where more red bull drinks and media crews met us. We then very sadly handed over the keys to our rickshaws so that they could journey back to Chennai ready for the next set of insane explorers.”
Aravind Bremanandam, 32, an autorickshaw enthusiast, wants his passion for the “national vehicle” to go global. In 2006, this proud owner of 40 autos began a rally called the Rickshaw Challenge where he provided autos to teams.
The participants— most of them foreigners— included a 70-yearold woman from Canada, a male porn star from the UK, a former Miss Hungary, an actor from Japan and a competitor with a prosthetic leg. About 20-30 teams signed up for the nine-day race from Chennai to Kanyakumari.
The Rickshaw Challenge continued, and there are other races too now: the Mumbai Express (Chennai to Mumbai, 12 days), the Malabar Rampage (17 days), which traverses the Western Ghats to reach Kerala and the Tech Raid (five days), which is a technological and cultural exploration through Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. He hopes to start a Delhi race—the Rajdhani Express—in 2010. “It’s more of a way for people to see India,” says Bremanandam… Full article here
Popcorn and soda, and check out the fast auto-ride comedy titled “Oram Po” (2007) or “Auto” movie, where the characters believe in having auto rickshaw races to settle scores.
Go on a ride with team Ruby Murray from the 2009 Mumbai Xpress:
