The ‘Joy’ Ride

Little did Jaideep Khanna,Aashish Contractor and Prashant Mehta realise that they would be able to raise a whopping Rs 85 lakh when they decided to support a cause and achieve their philanthropic goal by cycling from Mumbai to Pune and back non-stop,a total journey of 320 kms.

Little did Jaideep Khanna,Aashish Contractor and Prashant Mehta realise that they would be able to raise a whopping Rs 85 lakh when they decided to support a cause and achieve their philanthropic goal by cycling from Mumbai to Pune and back non-stop,a total journey of 320 kms. “Last year we rode from Mumbai to Pune non-stop,covering 175 km (110 miles). The ride was self-funded and we raised over Rs 15 lakh for St Jude Child Care Centre,a charity that works with children suffering from cancer and for Akanksha,an organisation that provides education for under-privileged children, says Contractor,who is a preventive cardiologist and head of the department of cardiac rehabilitation at Asian Heart Institute in Mumbai.

This year,they raised the bar and aimed at raising more than Rs 35 lakh. They met this expectation and were surprised as the amount had more than doubled. On April 1,the trio faced temperatures ranging from 20 C to over 40 C and had to dodge erratic truckers,rowdy motorists,dogs,stray cows,road kill and assorted potholes.

Says Contractor,”From the time we set off at 7 pm on Saturday evening,we covered a distance of 329 km,averaged over 24.2 km per hour,gained a total of 5900 feet (and lost the same amount),braved rush-hour Mumbai traffic,encountered temperatures of 21-34 C,brought a little bit of joy and hope to incredibly courageous children struggling with a horrible disease and made memories to last a lifetime. He also adds,As unbelievable as that sounds,what is far more incredible is that three idiots on a bike could raise more than Rs 85 lakhs in 10 days for children suffering from cancer housed at the St Jude’s Cancer Centre in Mumbai.”

All in their 40s,Contractor,Mehta (CEO,Komli.com) and Khanna (MD and head of corporate and investment banking,Barclays,India) have been good friends and athletes. “We are all interested in charity. Along the way,when our legs were flagging,what motivated us was the need for sick children to survive, says Contractor.

Ahead of their cycle ride,they had displayed several posts asking friends and well-wishers to pledge an amount per km of distance that they covered. “For example,Rs 10 per km would result in a Rs 3200 pledge; Rs 100 in Rs 32,000; and Rs 1000 in a Rs 3,20,000 pledge, Contractor says. To establish a minimum corpus,the three of them pledged Rs 3,50,000 of their own money.

“We did the 320-km stretch in 13 hours and 11 minutes of ride time. Including stoppage time,it was 14 hours four minutes. The 329 km,University to University stretch,took a total time of 14 hours and 30 minutes,” he adds.

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