Ahmedabad witnesses blind man heritage rally

The Ahmedabad Round Table India successfully hosted their flagship event 'Blind Man Car Rally' in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The rally started and got over at the Blind People's Association.

The main idea behind the event is to empower the blind and build a friendship among the blind and the sighted person. The route of the rally was 70 km long and 85 cars drove in the rally.

To highlight Ahmedabad as the first heritage city in the country, the theme of the event was 'Heritage' in which the rally covered all the major heritages of the city from Jama Masjid, Gandhi Ashram to Bhadra Kaali Fort and Calico Dome.

Pulkit Goenka, Chairman of the Round Table 40, part of the organisation which plans and executes the rally said, "It was a successful event in true sense. For us every year the most satisfying moment is when we see the blind people enjoying themselves and communicating with a sighted person. The aim of the event is to help mingle the blind people with the rest of the society, so they're not different from the society but part of it. This year the event was more special because of the heritage theme. The kids especially loved seeing the old part of the city."

The route of the rally was 70 km long and 85 cars drove in the rally today.

Many blind and sighted people were first time participants. One such team was Devar Shah and his wife Salas Shah, who drove the car said, "We were unaware of such event taking place in the city, it was when one of our friends informed us about it that we got interested in the event. We loved the rally and enjoyed when we were guided by the blind person. Its something we had never experienced before".

Varkar Pravinvira, who was the blind man who navigated for the 1st time told I loved the rally and it was a lot of fun. I would like to take part in the rally next year too and really look forward to it".

There is also an exclusive 'All Woman's Team' in the rally. Jignasha Kadia, who guided the sighted mentioned that there was much excitement even for us who have been participating in the event for the last 10 years because of the novel theme of the event. She lives in the pol and told it was a very homely feeling passing through all those places in the rally.

There were several groups of participants who have almost made it their ritual to take part in the rally every year. They have been participating in the rally since last 17 years and it was the concept of the event and the noble cause which have attracted them.

A lot of youth also took part in the event. Vijaylaxmi Saxena, Homica Arya, Nirali Desai and Khushi Kaurani, were students from Ahmedabad University who said, "The coordination is the most important aspect of the rally. There were few mistakes in the Gujarati Braille map which were not there in English part. The navigator who was blind were really helpful. It was a good experience interacting with them".

This year was the 22nd edition of 'Blind Car Rally' event is hosted every year, in which the blind person navigates and guides the sighted man to drive the car. The concept is to make the Blind man the leader and controller of the rally.