[Yo's]

Dear All,

The first ever Pune's Blind Men's Car Drive finally announced to happen on 8th April, 2012.

Let's participate in big numbers and make it a big BHP event....

Send in your confirmations and I'll populate the list...

[Yo's]

Here is the list..

1. amitwlele
2. moralfibre
3. thewhiteknight
4. jalsa777?
5. sandip
6. Yo's
7. Vikram18
8. Amey
9. noopster

Give your confirmations guys.. This is gonna be a fun filled Sunday...


Attaching the Registration form

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[vikram18]

Originally Posted by Yo's

Here is the list..

1. amitwlele
2. moralfibre
3. thewhiteknight
4. jalsa777?
5. sandip
6. Yo's



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7. Vikram18
8. amey

[noopster]

Noteworthy cause. Added my name as well to Yo's post#17.

Some of the Bombay folks have attended this in the past and were saying it is most enjoyable. Hence urging Pune folks to join the fun and make this event a huge success!

[Swanand Inamdar]

Its a noble cause, and Im sure should be a fun filled event.
Added my name to the confirmed list.

Just continuing with the confirmed attendees:

1. amitwlele
2. moralfibre
3. thewhiteknight
4. jalsa777?
5. sandip
6. Yo's
7. Vikram18
8. Amey
9. noopster
10. Swanand

Please continue to add names to the list.

P.S: Vikram, thanks for the notification PM .

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by noopster

Noteworthy cause. Added my name as well to Yo's post#17.

Some of the Bombay folks have attended this in the past and were saying it is most enjoyable. Hence urging Pune folks to join the fun and make this event a huge success!

It's an experience of a lifetime!

My navigator from the Mumbai rally had actually called me up a few weeks ago and told me he would be visiting Pune for this rally along with twenty other navigators. And I am trying my best to join in as well, but haven't got the time to get some things done with the car yet.

[sandip]

Great to see at least 10 TBHpians on the list.
I have registered and have got a receipt of the registration fees that I have paid.
Is there anything else that should be in my hand before I turn up on 7th Apr for the pairing ?

Can't wait to meet up with fellow BHPians

[thewhiteknight]

All, I wont be able to make it for this anymore. :( Office travel plans had been on for a while but got advanced just this morning; I'm travelling out to the Netherlands.

All the best guys. I really really wished I could have been around for this.

[amitwlele]

I am in Tentative list as of now. Would confirm by Friday and send the registration form.

[vikram18]

Had a nice time at the pairing and dummy run today. I'm frankly disappointed by the extremely low turnout of bhpians from Pune.
Sandip - We are car numbers 47,48 and 49. That's noopster, myself, and Amey respectively

[noopster]

Hearty congratulations to Vikram18 for finishing P5 out of 77 contenders in yesterday's Blind Man Rally in Pune. Was a proud moment for all of us when he and his visually impaired female navigator went on stage and collected their prize. Especially since they announced the name as "Vikram from Team-BHP". Kiran aka Moralfibre was his passenger/co-driver.

Overall, 96 cars registered. 77 were flagged off and only 14 completed the full course with all time checks registered. I wasn't one of those but it was an incredible experience. My navigator is an assistant physiotherapist at Sassoon hospital. He is married to a sighted person and has 3 kids. The youngest of those, an 8 year old boy, joined us in the car as passenger. A lot of the visually challenged people who were at the event were educated, earning, contributing members of the community including a Padmashri winner Dr. Pandya. I don't know why that fact surprised me but it did and rang home an important point: most of what passes for common knowledge about the handicapped in general is based on myth and half-truth. Simply put a lot of the navigators were more "normal" than you and me. They just can't see and don't allow that fact to get in the way of living, experiencing and enjoying their lives.

I also know that I will never use a phrase like "Are you blind?" again when referring to someone driving or riding without care or consideration for others on the road. Because one thing I learned is that the blind are anything but unobservant or uncaring about their surroundings.

Kudos to the young men and women of Round Table India for organising an inspiring event like this without any glitches and in the grandest way possible. Special shout-out to Yogesh who coordinated the Team-BHP entries. Like Vikram said, it was rather disappointing to see just the 3 cars flagged off bearing our stickers, and hoping that we have greater participation from our member ranks next year.

[Yo's]

Friends, Indeed it was fantastic event.. Since i was part of the organizing team let me know much comment about how good the event was & leave it to Vikram, Noopster & Amey do the talking about it.

But hearing the experiences of some of the navigators & participants too, it was evident that this is one experience each & every car driver must go through.

Here are some pics of our BHPian participants...
Car no 47 : Noopster
Car no 48 : Vikram
Car no 49 : Amey

Kudos to all 3 to make it for the event & ofcourse special to Vikram to make it to Top 5 of the Drive.

Enjoy the pics....

Yo's
Yogesh

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by noopster

Overall, 96 cars registered. 77 were flagged off and only 14 completed the full course with all time checks registered. I wasn't one of those but it was an incredible experience.

The turnout was more or less equal to the Mumbai rally, only the number of people finishing the rally in Mumbai was, IMO, much higher. But then for the Punekars, it was the first time.

Why don't you and the others write up your experience of the entire rally? It is interesting (and many times funny) to read what you guys went through.

[sandip]

Hello

I could not make it for the dry run and pairing up on Sat.
Office work you see, and then it (the work) spilled on Sun too.

But I was determined not to miss the event. I reached there at 0815 hrs on Sun morn. Registered, paired up with my navigator and off we went.
BTW my car number was 60.

I did see Noopster's blue swift around Kalyani nagar in the initial stages.

Although I could not complete all the check points, I came back with a WONDERFUL experience. The only sore point being, I could not catch up with the BHPians which I so much wanted to do ( Note to myself : ATTEND the next Pune meet).

YO's - You guys have done a stupendous job. Please accept our wholehearted ( and I speak for the entire fraternity here), applause.

I went to the courtyard after the event but could not wait till the results as I had to come back to work.

And a special shout out to Vikram for flying the BHP flag high.