A one-of-a-kind treasure hunt was organised in the city by the Classic Drivers Club recently, on March 10, which featured a lineup of 20 vintage and classic cars, including a 1964 Fiat Super Select, a 1958 Standard Vanguard and a 1968 Mercedes Benz 220. The ‘Rallye Historic of the Senses’ took off from the Indian Life Saving Society, Rabindra Sarobar, with visually impaired children from Ek Kadam Aur Foundation acting as navigators, interpreting clues in Braille. The event, sponsored by Motul, traversed six different spots across the city, including Geetanjali Stadium, Science City, Birla Mandir and Kala Mandir, before concluding at The Saturday Club. The best part of the event — it brought a big smile on the face of every child.
My Kolkata rode along in Arijeet Doss Mullick’s 1964 Fiat Super Select with Anikul Islam as the navigator
My Kolkata rode along for the treasure hunt in Arijeet Doss Mullick’s 1964 Fiat Super Select in search of the clues. With Anikul Islam reading the Braille clues with much excitement to finish the treasure hunt before the other participants, we made quick work of most of the clues before reaching The Saturday Club.
Anikul expressed his excitement and enthusiasm for such an event, he said: “This is the first time I’ve sat in a vintage car and it was quite an experience. I have taken part in another rally before but that was more directions and not clues so this was very different. Trying to decipher the clues and help the team get to the finishing line first was what I wanted to do.”
Speaking about taking part in such an event involving vintage cars rolling around the city Anikul said: “It was a very unique experience to hear such an old engine and I hope this kind of event becomes more regular so that there is a sense of inclusivity that comes through such initiatives.”
(From left) Gautam Sen, Subhankar Satt and Gabriela Magureanu flagged off the cars at ILSS
The treasure hunt was flagged off by Gautam Sen vice-president, communications, FIVA , Subhankar Satt the senior area manager of Motul for West Bengal and Gabriela Magureanu vice-president, membership, FIVA. Gabriela Magureanu spoke highly about the initiative by Classic Driver Club to partner with Motul and Ek Kadam Aur for such a unique event.
Gabriela rode along for the treasure hunt in Sarojesh Mukherjee’s 1958 Vanguard and spoke to us about her experience: “I have been part of several rallies over the last 15 years. This is a very unique event that I attended and it was an honour to flag off these vintage wheels. CDC has done a brilliant job to get these children from Ek Kadam Aur to experience something like this, CDC is a newer member of FIVA and for them to get Motul, one of our main sponsors, on board for the event is commendable. I was in the Vanguard and the ride through Kolkata was a beautiful one although the car did overheat so we had to stop in the middle of the road for a few minutes. The public tried to help us start the car by giving a push which was nice to see.”
Gabriela spoke further about the visually impaired child in the car saying: “He was so excited about finishing that he didn’t want to eat anything and he was being so lovely throughout the whole trip doing his best to give us the clues so we could figure out the different spots before getting past the finish line. He was very excited and seemed to enjoy the experience and we too enjoyed driving along with the child giving us clues.”
A Braille script was given to each of the visually impaired children with the clues of the treasure hunt
To find out more about the initiative and how regular this kind of an activity can become we spoke to Prithvi Nath Tagore one of the founding members of the Classic Drivers Club, who said: “CDC was formed in 2017 and we registered as a trust in 2020. As a trust we felt the need to do something for the society, something that would leave a lasting impact. The idea of this event came from Gautam Sen who gave us this idea a year back along with some other members like Sourojit Palchoudhuri. Within a very short period of time we got this event together but the idea was born from two of our members. This was more of a trial run, we got this together in a very short time but we are lucky that we have very supportive members and a fantastic sponsor like Motul who helped bring everything together. The feedback from all those who took part in the event was fantastic and hopefully going forward we can do it with many more cars and many more children.”
Asked if this would become an annual event on the CDC calendar, Prithvi said: “We didn’t get too much time to plan this so it ended up being in March and with the heat setting in it isn’t the ideal weather for our cars but we are looking to make this an annual event and next time it will happen in the peak of winter so that its a nice day out for everyone involved.”
The members from Ek Kadam Aur who took part in the Rallye Historic of the Senses
All of the clues were riddles about each location so the children had to narrate the clue as best as possible for everyone else in the car to guess the location. Sourajit Palchoudhuri was a crucial member for the event’s success and we spoke to him to find out his thoughts on the Rallye Historic of the Senses: “This was one of the best events that CDC has conducted till date. Its a bit personal to me because of my association with Blind Boys’ Academy Narendrapur. We had wanted to do this event for quite sometime but it is difficult to find sponsors but I am glad that this finally happened.’ Sourojit took part in the event and drove his 1968 Mercedes Benz 220 (W115) while being navigated by a blind child, speaking about his experience he said: ‘It was wonderful because the child did such a good job. All the clues were riddles and there were three of us in the car so once the child read out the clue it was up to us to figure out what could be the meaning. It was a truly fun experience for us and it was refreshing to see the excitement of these children who navigated us.”
Rallye Historic of the Senses was the first step for CDC in getting more inclusive and they did not disappoint, each child not only had a once in a lifetime experience of sitting in a vintage car but also enjoyed a hearty lunch before receiving a hamper of gifts. CDC went a step further when they announced a contribution of Rs 50,000 to Ek Kadam Aur to support the organisation that is doing massive work in uplifting those with disabilities.
Members of CDC made a contribution to the Ek Kadam Aur foundation to help the organization’s efforts going forward
Subhankar Satt from Motul spoke to us about the tie-up with CDC: “Motul believes that we share a brotherly relation with our riding and driving community. Motul is a big associate of FIVA. In 175 years, Motul has always believed in providing quality products to our customers and our tie-up with CDC is part of our belief where we will always support the community. Our association with such events is not just for PR because we work with them closely on the grounds and well. These events allow us to share our knowledge on the ground with such events. We always try to associate ourselves with those who love their vehicles and love taking to the road. Across the country wherever these kinds of events happen we will always stand with the community.”
Speaking about the participation of visually impaired children at the event he said: “I’ve been with Motul for a long time and we have tied up with various car and bike events but this is a one of a kind event that I haven’t seen before. It is a well thought plan to have the children here to bring them into the mainstream and we hope to tie up with such initiatives in the near future so that the visually impaired children can become more familiar with the mainstream.”
