The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Visually-challenged have fun on city roads

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Visually-challenged have fun on city roads

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JAN. 30. As the clock struck 9 on Sunday morning, a host of cars — Scorpios, Skodas and Marutis — rolled out of the Madras Gymkhana Club.

It was rally time for 41 visually challenged persons who navigated the four-wheelers with their maps in Braille.

Radhika Sarathkumar, the actress, flagged off the 16th rally for the blind, organised by Madras Motor Sports Club and sponsored by the automotive company UCAL.

The four-member team in each car consisted of the navigator, who guided the volunteer driver through the 70-km-long route. Two people doubled up as passengers and helpers in the four-hour rally.

While industrialist Nina Reddy's Elantra was guided by Huzra Begum, Dr. Vijayalakshmi Seshadri's Zen was steered by G. Ramamurthy. Ms. Radhika said it was a "wonderful opportunity" to flag off the cars.

UCAL's managing director M. Sivaramakrishnan did not want to give up on a tradition started by his grandfather — putting the visually challenged in charge and on the city roads for a day.

And for Andrews Yesadian of the National Association for the Blind, who brought the volunteers and the visually challenged together, it was all about creating awareness that people without vision could have fun and a rally too.

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