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.
