2011 Gulf Monsoon Scooter Rally : Riding Down The Opposite Side

We all have our own memories about the age old two wheeler known as the scooter. I for one have always associated them with the feeling of being free. The simplicity of hopping on one of them and taking it for a spin down open roads, feels all so surreal and peaceful. And for most of us, atleast in this era, it has become the vehicle of choice for those weekend trips down to Goa. What better way through the small winding roads of a coastal town, then on a scooter?

Even when you step out of our boundaries, to lands across the seas, the scooter doesn’t fail to mark its footprint. Its association with being an easy and fun vehicle to handle has taking it across the world making it a symbol of freedom.

But not too long ago, all my perceptions about the scooter drastically changed. I don’t say that in a negative way, because what I saw open up, was a world of possibilities that even I wasn’t aware of. A world where general notions on how to use the scooter were tossed into the bin, and new ideas were born. That was the day when I witnessed, ‘The Gulf Monsoon Scooter Rally’. Held on the 17th of July, and in its 22nd year, the ‘Gulf Monsoon Scooter Rally’, took scootering to a whole new high.

But what is a Scooter rally you wonder? To start with, it’s an annual event that sees about 30 odd riders take their modified scooters across some very bad terrain. A rally track to be exact! And to top it all off, because it wasn’t hard enough in the first place to ride low capacity, low clearance two wheelers across a rally track, the event is held during the monsoons.

When I received the invite to cover the event, my mind was filled with a whole lot of skepticism and criticism. I wasn’t sure about how anybody was going to manage such a mammoth task. But things soon started to make a whole lot of sense.

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The event was flagged off from a school in Parel, Mumbai, and riders then rode to a start point in Belapur, a small suburb on the outskirts of Mumbai. There, waiting for them was a track that cut like a serpent through some treacherous forest terrain. And what followed were 3 excruciating laps of down right aggressive riding. Like any other professional race, riders were given a few days of practice time before the final event. This gave them a general idea of the route and enough time to prepare their scooters accordingly. But even they weren’t prepared for what happened on the day of the race. Ironically it rained! I say ‘ironically’, because this was the first time, in 22 years of the event, when it rained.

Even for a ‘monsoon rally’, that surely came as a surprise as the track transformed into a river of breaking streams, and water filled potholes. This was the true test of the scooter and its rider. But held firmly on their saddle and like soldiers in a battle field, the riders cut through, though not all intact. 31 riders started the race, and only 12 riders managed to reach the finish line, marking it as one of the toughest races of all time and a remarkable show of perseverance and bravery.

So what do I take back from the whole event? Well to begin with, I soon realized the whole potential of the scooter. No longer did I see it as peaceful, fun, cruising machine, but rather as a powerful, aggressive beast. A beast which in my mind, has found a place off the tarmac road, and on the off-road route. A reminder of the fact that never judge a book by its cover!