At Phoenix Market City, Viman Nagar, a large group of people gathered early on Sunday morning. A neatly painted lane pointed towards the exit from Gate number 4. From the starting point, 30 cars stood bumper-to-bumper waiting for the signal to be given. At about 7.45 am, the first car was released at the Blind Men's Car Drive. People sporting red caps and t-shirts spelt support. In a lot of ways, this was like any other car rally. The special feature in this one was the navigators, sitting with their seat belts on. Each car had a member from the Pune Blind Men’s Association, guiding the drivers through the 65 km drive. Referring to the driving instructions in Braille, the navigators led the way for the rally.

A fund raiser, the rally was envisioned by Round Table India, Pune in association with the Pune Blind Men’s Association. Funds were collected to support literacy in rural areas.“ Many of us do not think about the wide disparity that we have. Pune district has 72.88 lakh literate people but 30 kms away, one finds a sharp decline. We are trying to work in this direction by building schools. We have already invested more than one crore in areas like Alandi, Wagholi, Sonesanvi, Pabal and Kolwan,” said Himesh Gala, chairman of Round Table, India.

At the rally, more than 96 cars participated. Each navigator had a detailed driving instruction list. Once a car was ready to leave, the navigator was supposed to help out with the directions. Seated in car 25, the Pathaks steered the car from one check post to another with help from 45- year-old Laxman Upsundar. The eight-page long document took one through various areas in the city. “At first it was difficult to understand how exactly it worked, for we were even given kilometer readings. But once I got the pace of driving right, I was able to read out the instructions better,” said Upsundar.

Guards and passers-by helped with further directions en-route. The interaction between the visually challenged navigator and the participating driver gave a very meaningful flavour to the entire event, which was one of the biggest Blind Men's Car Drives.