In a rally car on a tricky road in Marrakesh, Morocco, navigating heavy traffic is not exactly the kind of situation where you’d be struck by life-altering inspiration. As it turns out though, that was exactly when Aravind Bremanandam decided to organise the Rickshaw Challenge in India in 2006.
“I was in a 400-dollar car, moving along merrily, while others in their SUVs were having a hard time. When everyone asked me how I was doing so well, I told them that this was a cakewalk compared to the roads and traffic in India!”
Aravind’s brainchild, the Classic Run 2010 is the race to be part of if you call yourself an adventure junkie.
There’s no escaping the ubiquitous three wheeled auto rickshaw in India. Cheaper than a taxi and more convenient than a bus, their loud buzz can be heard all over the country.
However, your experience of India’s auto rickshaws doesn’t have to be restricted to merely riding in them. It’s possible to take the controls and actually race one! And lets face it, who hasn’t at one point in time, wanted to get into the drivers seat of an “auto”? Better still, you’ll be raising money for charity by doing so.
The Rickshaw Challenge operates four auto rickshaw races around India. The Mumbai XPress 2009 is about to get underway on July 31, 2009. However, this year there’s also the Tech Raid 2009 (which starts out from Chennai on October 16, 2009), and the Classic Run 2010 (which makes its way through Tamil Nadu, commencing on December 29, 2009). Next year, the Malabar Rampage through Tamil Nadu and Kerala will kick off on April 2, 2010.
They warn you well in advance: this is an amazing race for the clinically insane. This coming August, 40 teams won’t mind being called that, as they compete in the Mumbai Xpress, an autorickshaw rally from Chennai to Mumbai. For the past three years, The Autorickshaw Challenge has drawn loyal fans to its annual rickshaw rallies, which includes the Tech Raid (Chennai-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Chennai) and the Malabar Rampage (to Kerala and back). Software techie Aravind Bremanandam has even set up an event management firm to handle the show. The victorious world champions get, apart from ‘major bragging rights’ and ‘an outrageous trophy’, free entry into the Caucasian Challenge, a drive-anything motor rally that kicks off from Budapest every year. Says Bremanandam: “Our mission is to provide an unparalleled experience to the rallyists by combining adventure, sight seeing, fun and charity. And what better way to do it than in our own homegrown autorickshaw?” Racers who fall in love with their zany, multi-coloured rickshaws have the option of buying it. For a fee of e900 (Rs 60,000), an autorickshaw, paper maps, traffic reports, road conditions, GPS co-ordinates and even internet access at pit stops, are provided. Enroute, teams adopt-a-village and provide it with school supplies, medicines and the like. Participants are urged to think of the rickshaw as “a covered bicycle with a fuel-efficient lawn mower engine”.
We are getting a bit nostalgic here as the Mumbai Xpress 09 is just around the corner… I came across the below clip which is a glimpse/taste of Mumbai Xpress 2008 madness.
We are eagerly waiting for this year xpress as it’s going to be a BLAST!
Rickshaw on fire/ there goes the pimping team were just fine:)
Yes, more text and lots of Pink stuff on the Rickshaw Challenge, this time in the illustrious Kungumam Magazine, which is the top-selling Tamil weekly magazine in India.
Just ask Dave Potts who bought 2 of them last month:
“After hearing that it can take between one month and two years to get a Auto Rickshaw (if you can get one legally on your own!), Aravind Bremanandam got us not one, but two at the drop of a hat. Never have we seen anything in India move so quickly, and we are not talking about the AutoRickshaws! Fast. Efficient. Friendly. Quality service.” David Potts
10.30-12.30pm – Special Program ( Venue and program TBA)
12.30 – 2.30 pm – Reunion Lunch and Festivities
3.30 pm – Closing
8.30 pm – Party with participants of the White Russian Run http://wrr.notlong.com/ ( optional)
Subscription includes:
• Luxury Hotel room on the 18th of April
• Entry to Welcome party with complimentary drinks on 18th of April
• Reunion lunch on the 19th of April
• Alumni gift bag ( T-shirt, Cap, beer mats and other)
• Help with Visas.
• 30% discount on White Russian Run- 2009 Participation fee. http://wrr.notlong.com/
Fourteen teams of world travelers will kick of the New Year 2009 with an epic 11-day endurance race which will see them making their way across southern India in auto rickshaws.
In what is hailed as “An amazing race for the clinically insane“, the 2009 Classic Run is an endurance motor rally organized by Chennai Event Management Services (CEMS). The rally will see 27 like-minded adventurers from the US, UK, and Ireland form 14 separate teams and work their way across southern India in small, three-wheeled auto rickshaws. The rally will last for 11 days, and the participants will cover over 1000 kilometers of road, starting from Chennai and passing through every imaginable landscape, from modern and bustling cities to rural farmland and costal oases. The finish line is in Kanniyakumari, a city on the southern tip of India.
Autorickshaws are not fast vehicles, and are not designed to travel great distances – this makes the Classic Run- 2009 a race of endurance, not speed. In previous years, teams have worked to customize their rickshaws with everything from new paint jobs and rear spoilers to fancy, multi-speaker sound systems.
Charity has also played a big role in past races, and this year is no exception. The event’s official charity partner is Madras Midtown Round Table – 42 (MMRT-42 ), a Chennai-based group whose major project is “Freedom through Education”. Through the Rickshaw Challenge’s adopt-a-village program, teams will be bringing school supplies, medical supplies, toys, and other basic items to villages throughout the route.
This will be the fifth Rickshaw Challenge in India since CEMS pioneered the event in 2006. Each year the event attracts more and more followers, and this year the public is eagerly awaiting the rally. CEMS is also responsible for similar rallies throughout Europe and Asia, including the Rainbow Rampage, the Caucasian Challenge, and the Bus Number 7 adventure race.
In a rally car on a tricky road in Marrakesh, Morocco, navigating heavy traffic is not exactly the kind of situation where you’d be struck by life-altering inspiration. As it turns out though, that was exactly when Aravind Bremanandam decided to organise the Rickshaw Challenge in India in 2006.
