Tech raid – Rickshaw Challenge

Calling All Adventurists. Go Rickshaw Rampaging in India!

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:05:10 +0000

There’s no escaping the ubiquitous three wheeled auto rickshaw in India. Cheaper than a taxi and more convenient than a bus, their loud buzz can be heard all over the country.
However, your experience of India’s auto rickshaws doesn’t have to be restricted to merely riding in them. It’s possible to take the controls and actually race one! And lets face it, who hasn’t at one point in time, wanted to get into the drivers seat of an “auto”? Better still, you’ll be raising money for charity by doing so.
The Rickshaw Challenge operates four auto rickshaw races around India. The Mumbai XPress 2009 is about to get underway on July 31, 2009. However, this year there’s also the Tech Raid 2009 (which starts out from Chennai on October 16, 2009), and the Classic Run 2010 (which makes its way through Tamil Nadu, commencing on December 29, 2009). Next year, the Malabar Rampage through Tamil Nadu and Kerala will kick off on April 2, 2010.

The auto pilots

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:22:20 +0000

Rickshaw Challenge article in India Today:
Aravind Bremanandam, 32, an autorickshaw enthusiast, wants his passion for the “national vehicle” to go global. In 2006, this proud owner of 40 autos began a rally called the Rickshaw Challenge where he provided autos to teams.
The participants— most of them foreigners— included a 70-yearold woman from Canada, a male porn star from the UK, a former Miss Hungary, an actor from Japan and a competitor with a prosthetic leg. About 20-30 teams signed up for the nine-day race from Chennai to Kanyakumari.
The Rickshaw Challenge continued, and there are other races too now: the Mumbai Express (Chennai to Mumbai, 12 days), the Malabar Rampage (17 days), which traverses the Western Ghats to reach Kerala and the Tech Raid (five days), which is a technological and cultural exploration through Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. He hopes to start a Delhi race—the Rajdhani Express—in 2010. “It’s more of a way for people to see India,” says Bremanandam… Full article here

The Ultimate Rush

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:05:22 +0000

Cool piece in businessworld.in on the Rickshaw Challenge:
They warn you well in advance: this is an amazing race for the clinically insane. This coming August, 40 teams won’t mind being called that, as they compete in the Mumbai Xpress, an autorickshaw rally from Chennai to Mumbai. For the past three years, The Autorickshaw Challenge has drawn loyal fans to its annual rickshaw rallies, which includes the Tech Raid (Chennai-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Chennai) and the Malabar Rampage (to Kerala and back). Software techie Aravind Bremanandam has even set up an event management firm to handle the show. The victorious world champions get, apart from ‘major bragging rights’ and ‘an outrageous trophy’, free entry into the Caucasian Challenge, a drive-anything motor rally that kicks off from Budapest every year. Says Bremanandam: “Our mission is to provide an unparalleled experience to the rallyists by combining adventure, sight seeing, fun and charity. And what better way to do it than in our own homegrown autorickshaw?” Racers who fall in love with their zany, multi-coloured rickshaws have the option of buying it. For a fee of e900 (Rs 60,000), an autorickshaw, paper maps, traffic reports, road conditions, GPS co-ordinates and even internet access at pit stops, are provided. Enroute, teams adopt-a-village and provide it with school supplies, medicines and the like. Participants are urged to think of the rickshaw as “a covered bicycle with a fuel-efficient lawn mower engine”.