Lavasa Women's Drive 2012

Lavasa Women's Drive 2012 

The Lavasa Women's Drive is an annual, all-women car rally that drives to Lavasa, a planned hill city near Pune for a cause. This year the main cause was Cervical Cancer. I was invited too, not as a rally participant! [ no car, can't drive! :( ] but to see the rally & Lavasa itself. I rode with the Windchimes team & another blogger (who were awesome company, btw!)

So Sunday started super early, on the way to Bandra reclamation grounds (where the flag-off was happening) I was super excited to see many decorated cars (about Cervical Cancer Awareness) drive past.

Due to some unexpected delays on my part, I missed the flag off for the first ten or so cars. There were a total of 350 cars leaving from Mumbai & another 150 from Pune, all of the rally participants (drivers & passengers) had to be women.

It was wonderful to see all that positive energy on the grounds that morning. People were so lively & happy. :)

A lot of celebrities came to show their support- Diana Hayden, Emraan Hashmi, Parvathy Omanakuttan, Simran Mundi, Dilip Vengsarkar, Chunky Pandey, Sophie Choudry, Bhagyashree etc. Some just came to flag off & cheer participants, some even participated in the rally. I didn't click too many photos of the rally cars & I'm not even sure why? There were such wonderfully decorated cars, one was in support of the merchant navy (my dad is in the merchant navy!) & another one for breast cancer awareness had bras taped on the sides. Perhaps I was feeling sluggish but I really regret not taking photos of the cars. I do have some analog photos that I will share after I get the roll processed. The color theme was blue, there was a lot of blue visible everywhere! I loved all the blue balloons with cervical cancer awareness messages. After watching the flag off for a while we started our journey, I had heard that the road near Lavasa has too many ghats (i.e. very curvy) so I took my motion sickness pill well in advance, but it appeared that I was the only squeamish one in the car. We stopped on the Mumbai-Pune expressway for snacks, I was happy to be able to pick up Maganlal Chikki (the oldest & most renowned chikki brand!) for my mom. All of us chit chatted a little along the way, but I was mostly admiring the view, it was so scenic.singer-actor Meiyang Chang sheepishly admitted to not have ever been seen so many women in one place. Just in time to coincide with Women’s day, winners of the 4^th edition of the Lavasa Women’s drive rally were felicitated at a star studded Lavasa Women’s Drive Awards ceremony held over the weekend at a suburban Mumbai hotel. Laughter, tears, emotions and more prominently women power engulfed the atmosphere at the venue which saw around 600 women joining in to celebrate and talk about early detection, treatments, importance and awareness of cancer. The winners spoke candidly about their feelings towards the cause, experiences and their journey to carving their destiny and making a contribution to society at large. “Lavasa Women’s Drive” the annual women’s car rally that celebrates the spirit of women saw over 2000 women compete to emerge winners and also help spread the messages supporting various causes like cancer prevention, saving a girl child, conserving tiger and many more.
The awards night which began with actor Kunal Khemu presenting the winners with trophies and gifts, also saw an enthralling performance by Sophie Choudhary who had the audience swaying to her rendition of late Whitney Houston’s track.
Welcomed to the stage with loud cheers, Ali Zafar presented the top 3 awards.
The first ‘Lavasa Women’s Drive – Women in the Driving Seat Awards’ saw a galaxy of women from diverse fields such as cinema, Corporate, Healthcare, Education being recognized and honored for their immense contribution in their respective fields of work while also benefiting society.
Vidya Balan receiving award for her exemplary contribution to the field of cinema from Anil Kapoor, complimented Lavasa for organizing the rally. “Lavasa Women’s Drive celebrates the spirit of fun, adventure among women while promoting cancer awareness among women. I dedicate the women in the driving seat award to all women, who are driving vehicles of their own lives. I am really honoured to be part of the platform created by Lavasa for spreading awareness on a highly relevant social cause” she said.
Having been part of many women-centric films, Lajja being the most prominent, Anil Kapoor spoke about Mother Teresa being an inspiration for women all over the world for her selfless deeds. He further commended the great job done by the Lavasa team for helping women empowerment and educating on the life-threatening ailments.
LWD is a joint annual initiative of Bombay Times and Lavasa Corporation Ltd. MSD is the Associate Sponsor. MAK Lubricants, JMD Auto and Grabthebrand.com are the co-sponsors. Dove is hair care partner. Viira Cabs and Bank of India are other sponsors. This drive is supported by Women’s Cancer Initiative, Tata Memorial Hospital, and conducted by WIAA. This is an initiative of the Times Red Cell.