When people talk about car race, rallies or drives, the only thing that comes to my mind is F1/ Formula1, FIA ( Federation Internationale de l’Automotive), Schumacher, Raikkonen. This was only until a couple of months ago….

Now it is- Time, Distance, Speed! Vroom.

Cars, Driving and Me

I was never fascinated by cars. The status remains the same. But, I am fascinated by adventures and roads- journeys and the way you take these journeys. That is what drove me to even get a driving license (Special mention & thanks to ever persistent & supportive husband & in-laws and people who taught me to never say no to learning- parents).

Driving to any place is an adventure, even if it is the monotonous route to work. Why? Just because you experience different things every time you drive, even if it is the same route.

This is the second thing that drove me to say YES to Amruta (my childhood friend since we were 6 or something) and her sister-in-law (And now a very good friend)- Sharvari. For what?

THE TIMES WOMEN”S DRIVE 2018- From Pune to Goa.

The Times Women’s Drive (TWD) and what drives it? My third ‘Drive’

As the name suggests, TWD is a drive (not a race) for women and for the cause of women related health issues- mainly breast and cervical cancer. Started by Devika Bhojwani, a cancer survivor herself, the main aim of this drive is to raise funds for Breast Cancer patients who cannot afford the treatment (It is backed by Tata Memorial Hospital). I was aware of her work, as I have done a couple of Pinkathon runs and she is associated with it as well. It is also a cause for women which I deeply care for because of the impact it has had on women in my family as well.

All this, along with the fact that I would be driving all the way to Goa (via Ganpatipule) definitely drove me to say a BIG YES for this event!

Pre-event Preps

Pretty enthusiastic about the drive, we started planning for our social cause- Promoting Solar Energy to enhance the use of renewable resources in the world. Two weeks to go, we planned our car decorations- vinyl stickers- solar panels to be precise and slogans; as well as our dresses to go with the theme.

Understanding Time, Distance, Speed and Tulip charts was another challenge. Attending the briefing in Pune, a week prior to the drive, helped us with this. I remember solving TSD sums in the management entrance exams (CAT). The formula was still hidden somewhere in my Long Term Memory. We had to use this formula for the rally!

Tulip chart is nothing but a map, with a difference. Here is an example:

Can you follow anything?

It is not so easy? The tulips are each row. The official distance would be on our Tripmeter and the intermediate distance would be the distance to cover in between two tulips. The drawings are very specific- bumps, right turns, left turns and of course Y- forks, villages etc. Our tulip for the rally did not have speed on the side.

Living in the era depending on ‘Google Maps’, the tulip chart was definitely an exercise to the brain. We realised in the rally though, once you get used to it, you feel like a boss. Enough exercise to the brain, now when is the rally?

The Rally- Day 1: Goa to Ganpatipule: 314kms

 

At 6.45am, as we entered Royal Entrada Hotel, Wakad, we saw a pool of dressed up cars waiting to get inside- just like a fashion show for cars. The first flag off was at 7am. Since our car number was 405 (105th car from Pune), our estimated flag off time was 8:45am. We reached way before our that so that we could see other cars and admire their efforts to put their social message in the right way using their creativity and play of words.

The atmosphere at the start point was very vibrant and full of colours and enthusiasm. The women drivers, navigators and the coordinators were all charged and raring to go. With the decorations and the social messages, it felt like the cars were there to tell us something.

The organisation was idyllic. We were given breakfast boxes as well as goodies for on the way, which included cashews, almonds, biscuits and chips. Apart from which we carried our road trip stash: With the preparation and the wonderful vibe, we were ready to flag off at 8.45am. 4 minutes before our flag off, we were give the Tulip chart and our Distance and Speed chart.Before we took off, we randomly checked our tulip chart and it pointed out that our route was via Tamhini ghat.  As we approached the flag off moment, Sharvari’s daughter got the opportunity to flag off our car. Not a moment more, not a moment/ second less- 8:45:00 am and we were off.

I started calculating, Amruta started point out the Tulips and Sharvari, driving. For a TSD rally, everyone has a key role to play at every moment. We literally had playlists of music ready, but no time to play the songs. Pretty intense! 🙂

Our main aim was to remain well within the average speed mentioned on the time chart. My job was to calculate the time to be taken in between two points A & B; B& C and so on. The most important factors were the Time Check Points and our OdoMeter (Tripmeter).

1. Time Check points (TC) were randomly placed on the route and we had to stop as soon as we see a Red Clock- that looked like the one under this paragraph. We crossed several surprise Time Check points where the marshals recorded our ATA and ATD on their timesheet and our timesheet. My job was to sign their timesheet and make sure we get our car’s timesheet filled. All the marshals on the job were smiling and encouraging us throughout. This also made us feel good about our drive and our confidence to calculate and go through the journey perfectly.
2. Why was the tripmeter/ car odo an important factor? Because we did not know the difference/ error between the car tripmeter and the odometer from which the distances were calculated. We had to take into account all of this and keep counting our distances to go. Our tripmeter and their odo calculations went from a difference of 0kms to 5kms at the end of the day.  As I said, the non-drivers too had a lot of work to do!

Within 20-25 minutes of the drive, we got the hang of calculations as well as reading the tulips and following the Speed limit. As the car paved the way through Tamhini Ghat, we got pretty comfortable with the settings- Measure the time- set the ETA, write the ATA, simultaneously pay attention to the tulips and enjoy the drive!

TSD rallys usually have a free zone where in you can take the speed in your own control, have your bio breaks, eat and fuel the car too. We noticed we had a free zone for 135 minutes and the kilometers to be covered in 135 minutes were just 82.84. Thats 2hours 15 minutes and just 83 kilometers. Also, we knew we were going to hit the NH66 and it would be a smooth ride and we need not worry about the time. We halted at Vitthal Kamat at Mahad. Many others halted too. Not more than 25 minutes for our Pav Bhaji and buttermilk to gulp down our throats and we were on our way. I got behind the wheels, at least until the free-zone was done, before I resumed my calculations. After about 30-40 off kilometers of straight free- highway, we read a board- ghat starts. I took it upto a point after which I was finding it difficult to manage the gears and the speed. Amruta took over and we were ok with our speed. It got me thinking about what ghat this could be, because there were no signs of the name of the ghat. After getting on to a substantial height, here comes a signboard- Kashedi Ghat. ‘Woah!’ went my mind. According to my knowledge, this is one of the longest ghats in Maharashtra, with a lot of SOCA (Series of Curves Ahead, your welcome!). And hence, the time given to us was that long, that we totally took for granted. At the end of the free zone, we were almost 30 minutes behind our scheduled ETA. We should have never stopped for that long!! Lesson learned well.

We got back on track. Out ETA to Ganpatipule was around 18:05. Khed- Chiplun to Ganpatipule was a smooth drive because we got our energy back after that foolish glitch in the free-zone. Reanalysing our time in our results, we were pretty accurate with our time minus the few seconds here and there. We reached Ganpatipule at 18:04, few seconds before of ETA. We were welcomed by the marshal at the end point and were guided to our Hotel Landmark through a small information sheet. The view that you are welcomed by into Ganpatipule is mesmerising. Going down a winding road from a cliff to the sea level, while the large ocean greets you with a still calmness. I cannot get over that moment we turned a winding road just to see the blue sea of Ganpatipule.

Status of the car at the end of the day: Looked just the same, except some of the decoration had come off! Also, we just had a minor technical glitch in the car-  water dripping off from the air conditioner, in front of the co-passenger seat but only when the car was on sharp turns. We were yet to figure if it would affect our drive the next day.

Day 2- Ganpatipule to Goa: 315km

Our stay at Ganpatipule was pleasant. We were tired yet satisfied with our effort on day 1. For the next day, the rules were the same. We had to line up at the start point at around 8am (1/2 hour before our flag off i.e 8:45am). As we woke up at around 5.30am, Sharvari read her email and said “Girls, we are 18th for Day 1” and Amruta and I said “What?” out of joy! Now the key was to maintain the position or go ahead!

Before we flagged off, we were warned that some portion of our route were changed due to work on the main road. Basically, we were off roading for about 7 kms, which showed us 35 minutes on the Time chart we got on day 2, 4 minutes before the flag off!

The free zone for today was only for 10 km- 80 minutes. We decided to go all the way to 9kms and the take a break, for which we packed bread butter sandwich from our hotel in Ganpatipule.

We left exactly at 8:45 am and we started our jobs. We switched our roles for the day- Amruta calculated and I took over the reading of the Tulip. Even though we had an idea, we confirmed after a few kilometers that we would be taking the coastal route, all the way up to GOA!

We also realised, the water is still dripping off the airconditioner. Sharvari made a few calls and we decided to show it to the any mechanic on the way. Luckily just before Rantagiri, we saw an mechanic and fixed our problem within 5 minutes. The A/C pipe was clogged and the mechanic took 2-3mins to remove the blockage. Once this was out of the way, we were stress free and back on track. In fact we realised we speeded a bit more than the average, which got us the a TC point earlier! After which we were back on track.

The highlight of this route was the scenic beauty as well as a few surprises- bumpy roads! All the roads were village roads, which made it simple at times (as there was no traffic), but tougher where the roads were in a poor condition. The stretch up to Kunkeshwar was very picturesque and serene. The windmills that can be seen from Kunkeshwar beach are a rare and wonderful sight.

Once that was done, then we went through a 30 minute terror. Just 6 kms, but completely off-roading! Sindhudurg has decided to come up with an airport in its vicinity. Though the airport is done, the road is just not around. There are stones, rocks and nothing else on that patch. Complete credits to Amruta to drive on that patch of road!

Within 1 hour of driving from that patch of ‘road’, we entered Goa. By this time, my brain had slowed down. Calculations were on, so were the tulips but, we heaved a sigh of relief since we were approaching our end point soon.

Our original ETA until the flag down point was 7.30pm. We reached at 8.10pm thanks to all the massive flyover work that is happening in Panaji. We misread a tulip and ended up going towards Ponda. Most of the vehicles ended in that direction. At that moment we received a message from our team coordinator stating the last TC point has been cancelled. The moment we entered our flag down spot, we saw many rally cars parked and all the ladies were dancing and having a ball! We got our medals too!

At the end of the day, we were extremely exhausted. The route was tougher compared to day 1, but the end result was Goa 😉 We entered our Hotel Radisson Blu at 9:45pm, had our dinner and just went off to sleep, because the next day we had a day to spend in Goa and an evening to remember with the TWD awards night at Holiday Inn, Goa.

In closing….

Overall, we had a blast for the three days! The icing on this cake was our guest for the awards night- Ranbir Kapoor! All the winners deserved the awards and all the participants deserved to celebrate. We came 31st in Pune and we were very happy about it.

At the end of the three days, I took back a lot of memories and teachings from this drive. Team spirit, trust, allowing women to drive and take the lead, driving on tough terrains without underestimating women, courage to stay steady and move consistently and of course, maths 😛

A big shoutout

• To the organisers for managing the 3 days so smoothly, no major glitches and taking care of the cars and women who went through issues in the drive- flawlessly.
• To the recovery vehicle which was always around every 30 cars, to see if everyone and the car is doing well.
• To the winners and all the participants who gave it all they had in the two days
• To all the people involved in organising the awards night! Especially Cyrus Sahukar, the host and of course, RK to keep the night alive!
• To all the women who are fighting breast cancer, stay steady 🙂

 

• To my two co-travellers! The best I could ask for!
• My Other half and 4 parents 🙂 and also to all the family members and friends who encouraged us!

It was not about going to Goa and having fun, it was about the excitement on the road, the fun of not knowing what is going to come in the next tulip (that Google maps just gives on a platter) and the adventure that each turn or hair-pin bend gives the driver as well as the co-passengers and of course, coming together in big numbers- 1500 women to be precise, from 4 different cities, to raise awareness and funds for a bigger cause- that is all what this drive was about.

Here is to all the women who drive 🙂 You are the drive of your life #IAmTheDrive