“The best family time is the roadtravelled together”.

– Wes Fessler

TThe amalgamation of thethrill of car racing and thecontentment of spendingtime with loved onesdescribes exactly what theWoman's Era car rally is allabout. The racing bug isnever going to go away likethe Mafia, it seems. Sunnymorning, chirping of kids and

laughter of families made the 2014Family Car Rally an unsurpassableevent.

A smile on each face is therationale behind organising the familycar rally. Unlike lazing around athome on an off-day people came toTivoli Garden spirited and eager toenjoy life with their friends and family.It was a Sunday with a difference. It

126 Woman’s Era ● October (First) 2014

Flag off to thepride-ride:

Rita Bahuguna,MLA Congress,

Meenakshi LekhiSenior Lawyer

and BJPSpokesperson,

Neeta Sobti,Neera Nath,

Neelam Nanda,director, Magical

Pharma, withRohit Nath andhis son Udhav

Nath at the flag off.

A talk apart from politics: Rita Bahuguna and Meenakshi Lekhi talking to media persons about the rally.

The Delhiites turned roadies andruled the boulevard

after the Get-Set-Go.By Megha Jetley

THE ROLLICKING JAUNT

14th14th

became a memory to be cherishedforever. Started in 2001 the WomanʼsEra Mega Car Rally went on tocomplete the Junction trio of 14glorious years on 14 September2014. Taking out some time for yourloved ones from the hurly-burly ofmodern life is the main objectivebehind this car rally.

The anchors for the show,Vandana Vadehra and RJ PratapBatra, made sure that everybodyaround was having a good time byinteracting with the participants. Thefestive atmosphere was there all rightand the honking of cars, the high-pitched voices of children and womenchit-chatting and receiving last-minute instructions from theirhusbands, provided the music.

Meenakshi Lekhi, the seniorlawyer and the nationalspokesperson of Bharatiya JanataParty and Rita Bahuguna Joshi,Congress MLA from Lucknow Canttconstituency of the state of UttarPradesh, flagged off and declared thecar rally started. The unique idea ofuniting families through a fun-filledweekend was discovered 14 yearsback which soon became a success.While speaking to the pressMeenakshi Lekhi, in her sportyattitude said, “Womanʼs Era is doinggreat in the direction of uniting thefamily by providing them with such afun weekend out from stress.”

All the cars were flagged off. Morethan 110 cars participated in the rally.The idea behind the rally was notonly to instill a competitive spirit in

A graciouspresence:

Paresh Natheditor, publisher

and printer, DelhiPress Magazines

and his wifeSharda Nath with

Neeta Sobtiadding glitter to

the party.

A beautific day:R.K. Nanda, MDNature Essence,

exchangingecstatic

moments withNeeta Sobti,

RJ Pratap Batraand Vandana

Vadehra.

The Big Flag off

Frolicsome:MonikaSolanki, VP, GDFoods

flagged offthe cars withenthusiasm.

Wooing the decoration: Habib Ahmed, CMD,Habib Cosmetics, at the flag off.

Woman’s Era ● October (First) 2014 127

We arewaiting:Shipra

Aggarwal, MDPrayag Group,

and her sonwith MeenakshiLekhi flaggingoff the cars.

the rallyists but also to ensure theirsafety. As people were required toply their vehicles at a slow speed,there was no risk to the lives of theparticipants. For some first-timers,this was a time to meet new peopleand be part of a superb experiencewhile for some veterans it was only tocatch up and try to win that spot theymissed last year.

Dressed in their Sunday best, itwas great to see so many morewomen drivers ready to conquer theroads of Delhi with the winning spiritand some people wore such amazingcostumes to compete in the fancydress competition. The picture ofLord Shiva dressed in a traditionallion skin costume with a rudrakshmala and snake on the neck with hisfamily dressed as Parvati, Kartik andGanesha walking around on a hotSeptember Sunday giving blessingsto the people though did seem to bea bit out of place, but the lovely familywas looking simply amazing.

The student volunteers fromMassCoMedia were dressed in whiteT-shirts to help. People from all walksof life came forward to take part inthe rally. From retired men andelderly women to students andhomemakers to professionals andhigh-end fashionistas, theenthusiasm of the people was themain highlight of the rally.

The cars had to drive a distance ofabout 50 kms. The participantsfollowed the international standard oftime, distance and speed. Therewere checks for time, distance andspeed at five marshal points whichwere set up along the route.Contestants had to get their timeslogged with each of them as per thenavigation map given to them.

After a winding three-hour journeythrough the roads of Delhi, the rallyculminated at Tivoli Garden. Thewinners were announced and prizeswere distributed. Some interestingaward categories – such as the bestdecorated car, fancy dress, youngestwoman driver and the oldest womandriver – clicked with all. Interestingly,the worst driver was also given anaward and not punished. This annual

128 Woman’s Era ● October (First) 2014

Caught andcaptured:

Samar Jahanfrom Oxyia

cheering theparticipants at

the startingpoint.

The cheers:Preeti and

Siddharth fromCocoona Wave

the flag.

Smileseverywhere:Nidhi Dhaka,CEO, Barofit,boosting the

spirit ofparticipants

Tete-a-tete:Gokul and

Shelly Narangfrom Peachesenjoying thechat sessionand giving a

joyous start tothe rally.

Woman’s Era ● October (First) 2014 129

event, organised by the Woman's Eramagazine for the last 14 years,seems to be attracting more people,especially as it helps a family cometogether and have a good time. Theday ended with laughter andmerriment.

Jazzy combo:Sara and Dr Liue

from Nutas Clinic flag off withNeeta Sobti.

Ebullient:Rajesh

Sharma,director,

Dutta andDutta

Advertising,ready to

commencethe rally.

Enrichingendeavour:Chief guests

having a chit-chat withNeeta Sobti.

The posingmood:

AradhikaSingh fromGreen DotFoods withNeeta Sobtiand Ashita

Kumarhaving a

great time.

Letʼs wave it: Bharat Bhushan from Hans Herbal with his wife at their effusive best.

The vivacious mood: Vikram Bhalla, GM,Tivoli Garden, gave a get-set-go to the rally.

We are a family: Neeta Sobti, Rohit Nathand Neera Nath with master Udhav Nathsharing the joy together.

130 Woman’s Era ● October (First) 2014

COUP D’OEIL...PARTICIPANTS OF FAMILY CAR RALLY

Car Rally No. Participants Vehicle No. Car Rally No. Participants Vehicle No.

Saurabh Nanda1 Asha Virmani CH 01AH32492 K.Viswanathan DL9CW09823 Anita Pandit DL9CQ56504 Shifali Chabbria DL3CBF10175 Pushpinder Singh DL4CNC78466 Vishu Agarwal UP16AM76757 Anil Jain DL4CAE59948 Sanjay Aggarwal UP16AK52969 Sushma Luthra

10 Rani Dandekar Bhatia11 Manoj HR26CH212112 Shivaranjini Kaushal DL288513 Ameen Kataria HR26CC848414 Himanshu Verma DL4CAN309215 Echchhita Jainvi 17616 Avish Sharma DL3CBC181817 Kuldeep HR26BY600118 Vikramjeet Singh19 Amit Batra 744120 Rashmi/Pradeep HR26CD234621 Divya Vaishnava DL12CA167022 Anant Agarwal DL6CM107623 Anirudh Agarwal DL9CR018624 Nishi Jain HR26BW897525 Tanya Popli 405526 Guneet Singh DL3CBS505027 Shivani Gupta 481228 Madhu Kumar DL9CAB477129 Dr Shilpa Taneja Mittal DL4CNC380830 Gaurav Aggarwal UP14BS886831 Aamrapali Singh HR26CC665832 Satish Sharma DL9CAA230033 Naresh Khanna DL4CNC190434 Rajiv Verma DL5CJ701635 Satish Kumar Verma DL8CU640336 Hari Om HR55U979437 Mona Walia CH04A514138 Aruna Kalra HR26682239 Pushpanjali Dutta HR51AY111140 Darshpreet K. Gill DL12CG019841 Tejaswani Keshwani DL3CBW254742 Namita Taneja HR06N409543 Sonia Nagpal 900944 Sapna Goyal MP04HC072045 Nikhil PB13X414146 Shafali Kashyap47 Ramanuj Katiyar DL7CL481648 Pushpanjli Dutta HR51500049 Ishleen Kaur Bindra DL3CBR623350 Varun Madaan DL9CD546551 Mukesh Mehta

52 Sarika Sood HR29S223053 Nitin Sama HR51662454 Jatin55 Anil Ahuja HR51AU814556 Priyanka Sood HR26BC573157 Kuldeep Chauhan58 Meera Khanna HR51AD098059 Tuhin Roy DL8CJ706860 Raj Kumar DL1CN526061 Ritika Duggal DL6CP206162 Manish Goyal HR29AE306963 Peeyush Nayyar UP16E704764 Ankur Gupta UP16AS005065 Monika Jindal DL9CAB044366 Tarun Wadhwa67 Rajnish Bangia68 Naresh Soni69 Arnav Mutneja HR2BC123470 Chandan Malik DL2CAD671371 Rajendra Singh HR26BU266472 Parul Jain DL10CD673273 Vinay Kumar DL2CAE038774 Bernice Andrew DL6CL647675 Dr Deepak Tak RJ14UD005176 Nivedita Sharma DL9CAG685777 Simmi Anand78 Anand Kumar Tiwari DL773079 Padma Kashyap DL944380 Mukesh DL2CAC111881 A. Muthuraman HR18410782 Meera Batra TN04H736083 Shreyas Singh DL10CE229784 Robin Tyagi UP12Z001785 Chetan DL2CR920486 Sharmistha Singh HR 26AK486087 Surinder Utreja HR51AM339388 Deepak Sodhi HR51B471189 Dinesh Chadha HR51AT939490 Archana Singhal HR51AU830391 Ashok Arora DL142792 Sunil Arora DL1CM113893 Gaurav Arora DL5CG296194 Jyoti Sharma DL2CA600595 Tarun Bhatija DL6CJ717096 Vinod Bhatija DL6C5725897 Dr Pramod DL48CU976498 Dr Rl Singhi DL1CE130199 Gurpreet Singh DL3CBD 2935

100 Habib 6425101 Navin Soni102 Manik DL4CAE 4577103 Dr A.K. Diwan DL8C 52546

Car Rally No. Participants Vehicle No. Car Rally No. Participants Vehicle No.

110 Dr Pramod 111 Bimal Kumar112 Amit Singh 113 Pradeep Singh 114 JS Kohli

104 Amit Sethi DL2CAN 0225105 Nidhi Dhaka106 Rani Kumar DL10CE0920107 Samar Jahan 108 Rakesh Kumar DL5CC 9927109 Sanjay Yadav DL3CAL8412

FAMILY PARTICIPANTS OF THE 14th CAR RALLY

The Hullabaloo: Dr Mandeep Singh having a pleasant timewith his family.

The after party: Harminder Singh with Neeta Sobti.

The trio: Amit Singh from Tipsy and his wife having Neeta Sobtiʼs company.

Close bonding: Dr Deepak Tak with his family.

Smiles all the way: Dr Neeta Ratti with Dr JB Ratti from Vital Clinic with a lovely

celebrating smile.

Just rave out: Dinesh, proprietor, Vision Care with Abhay in a mood to chill.

Fun begins here: Suniti Soni from Coloressence with R K Nanda, Anand Baruah, Aroon Roongta and Neeta Sobti

having a fun talk.

Party time...

The woopee-crack: Peddy, investment director, MEC having a gala time.

The cocktail fete: Vidhu Sagar, executive VP, Carat MediaServices Pvt. Ltd., showing the party spirit.

The special capture: Asim Miglani, Proprietor Lahori Restaurant with his wife Babita Miglani and daughter

Vriddhi Miglani sharing a moment with Neeta Sobti.

The Jamboree: Shelly and Ravi Narang from Peaches having a great laugh.

The party spree: Shweta Patel and Navin Patel from Pateland Company celebrating the occasion with Neeta Sobti.

Joy of celebration: Naem Shah (managing partner)and Samar Jahan (director) from Oxyia UnisexSaloon and Spa enjoying a cheerful moment.

Party all night: Neelam Nanda, director, Magical Pharmaenjoying the bash.

Fun and frolic: R. K. Nanda with wife Neelam Nandasharing the laughter with Neeta Sobti.

AND THE WINNER IS...Winning a prize remains the ultimate goal for every participant...

1stprize

Womenʼs Categorygoes to

Namita Taneja

2ndprize

goes to Ameen Kataria

3rdprize

goes to Kuldeep Singh

1stprize

goes toPiyush Nayyar

Youngest Woman Driver

goes toTejaswani Keshwani

Fancy Dress goes to Parul Jain

Worst scoreRajender Singh

Oldest Women Driver

goes toAsha Virmani

Best Decorated

Car goes to K. Viswanathan

2nd prize

Best Decorated

Car goes toMeera Batra

1st prize