Gulf Foster A Child Car Drive

-Text and Photos by Biren Shah

    

Sunday, January 22, 2006 will go down as a memorable day in the lives of some of Mumbai’s orphaned children who were part of the ‘ Gulf Foster A Child Car Drive.’

Surely, the 50-odd kids who drove from Mumbai to Khandala along with 39 families, who ‘adopted’ them for just a day, had a whale of a time, perhaps for the first time venturing out to the hill station.

When I first stepped into the ‘Our Lady’s Home’ the children were getting ready by wearing the Gulf sponsored T-shirts. Soon the orphan girls from St. Anthony’s, Nagpada also arrived in bus at the starting venue. Slowly the participant cars arrived at the venue, where some of them started decorating their cars with the help of the orphan children who were allotted to go with them for navigation.

First to arrive at the venue car number 83 an all ladies team, consisting of Pouruchisty, Kamalrukh Gotla and Gulzar Govewalla. One of the cars was decorated with vegetables, plates and cutlery, after which they dressed up like cooks including the orphan girl named Juliet.

The Best Decorated car was car number 68. The team consisting of Bhakti Shah, Sheetal Shah, Beena Shah and Snehalata Shah.

       

Speaking to Bhakti Shah who was so excited that she has spent lots of time in decorating her car. She was happy to take part in the car rally with the orphan child as she felt that she was a family member and they were going on a long fun drive. Even the orphan child Rosy David was so happy to enjoy a drive with this family.

I also happen to speak to participant car number 42 consisting of Bob Rupani, Madhu Rupani and Meher Rupani who adopted an orphan called Nilam Panchal for this drive. During this rally they came so close to each other that Madhu Rupani took note of Nilam’s problems. Nilam slowly opened up during the rally and told her that she enjoyed going out but there were some restriction on them in the orphanage. It was during this drive that Madhu Rupani and her family decided to take Nilam for movie once in a month. One by one family’s were coming forward to help the child feel at home and not feel that they are orphans.

    

Car number 78 - the team of Jasmine Kharkar, Subhash Bakshi, Pankaj Lulla and Archana Lulla arrived dressed up in Gandhi topi and khadi and they also gave the same dress to the orphan child Rohan Fernandes. Rohan was happy to wear such clothes and to go out.

Same way I spoke to car number 72 the team of Veeraj Doshi, Kumar Doshi, Alpa Doshi and Neepa Sanghavi they took on an orphan child called Austin Chettiar. When they reached Khandala and won 4 th Prize the participant of the car said that they won because they had ‘Austin Power’ with them and Austin was also very happy.

    

Over all I could tell that each participant and the child were happy for the drive. The only sad part was that out of 150 boys only 30 boys got a chance, while the remaining was disappointed on being left out. When we spoke to the main sponsor Mr. N. C. Shekharan of Gulf Lubricant, special business unit, about it, he said that it was difficult to take all the children in the rally. Yet the families managed to take at least one child with them, while some took two. This time the navigational rally was not based on timing it was based on ‘General Knowledge’. Solving questions at every check point and whoever gave the correct answer in lesser time would win the rally. Till date the rally was organized based on timing and driving skills. Therefore, Mr. Shrikant Karani decided to do the rally in a different way and he succeeded.

    

In Khandala the children enjoyed the magic show and games which were kept especially for them. When I ask them how they felt at Khandala they voiced their satisfaction. They wanted to go swimming but the organizer did not permit them to swim. They also voiced their interest in participating every year so that they can enjoy the outside world.

          

Result is as Follows:

     

The best among them was Jagjeet Singh and his crew of Dilraj Kaur (navigator), Twinkle and Sunny. The foursome put their heads together to read the course perfectly and answer questions well to come out trumps.

Hiren Shah with Jigna Shah (navigator) and Saloni Shah placed second while Himani Kapadia and his team of Tarun Gupta, Sanjana Kapadia and Mira Gupta took third place.

Veeraj Doshi and his team of Kumar Doshi, Alpa Doshi and Neepa Sanghavi were fourth. Whereas, Bob Rupani and his family of Madhu Rupani and Meher Rupani finished fifth.

The team of Pouruchisty, Kamalrukh Gotla and Gulzar Govewalla emerged the best all-ladies team. Mrunal Tanna and crew of Vinita Tanna and Binita Tanna placed second in the all-ladies category while Deepa Damadoran and team of Anila Likhita and Premila Damodaran placed third.

There was a special prize for ‘The Best Dressed Team’ won by Pouruchisty. With her team dressed as chefs. Bhakti Shah’s car was adjudged as ‘The Best Decorated Car’.

The results aside, it was drive for a cause as some of Mumbai’s privileged people opened out their hearts and shared their warmth with the underprivileged kids. As most of them said, it was not for the prize that they participated but to reach out and touch a heart.

Gulf Oil Corporation Ltd., once again as proved that they do care and gave the children a perfect gift.