Racy Sunday

“I have been driving for the past 30 years,” said Shard Dixit,65,honoured for being the senior most participant,driving a Volkswagon Polo. “Traffic has increased manifold,but it is the rowdy behaviour of drivers that I find tough to handle now,” said Dixit,who has met with an accident just once in the past.

The youngest participant,Sonali Agarwal,pursuing MBA from the Jaipuria Institute rallied in a WagonR. “I started driving when I was 17 and in class XI,” she said,but would not say anything even if she had a history of crashes. Participants like Kiran Anand and her partners formed a Go Green Club and drove wearing tiaras made out of green leafy creepers. “Oh,the games we played on the way,dodging other participants,racing ahead of some and chasing others.” M Kapur,who has been an assistant teacher in La Martiniere Boys College for 20 years,confessed about the fight she had with her husband,who was playing navigator showing the way as she drove on.

The Vintage Car Rally,on the other hand,was a display of proud affection for heirlooms as cars,jeeps and motorcycles up to 80 years old drove across Hazratganj to the culminating point,Colvin Taluqdar’s College. “There were 61 entries in all,including 42 cars,” said Sandeep Das,secretary of the Vintage Cars and Motorcycles Club that organises the event.

The array comprised rare models of the Beetle,Land Rover,Ford,Mercedes,Chevrolet and Jeep. A 1936 model of Morris 8 was driven down by B R Swarup,who retired from the Union Carbide. “I was born in 1938,two years after this car was manufactured. I inherited it from father,who had bought it from a city trader,” said Swarup,about the car that had a Lakhimpur registration number USH 74. “It starts in one go even at 3 AM on a December night,” said the proud owner.

There were no prizes,except the adulation the old and precious automobiles drew from all.