ev rally for the spinally injured

there were over two dozen electric vehicles. each one sponsored by a caring donor for Rs. 30,000 to go for the care of the spinally injured patient at the rehabilitation centre in sanga, kavre.

we all gathered at maitighar shanti mandal for the flagoff ceremony early saturday morning. a little boy holds a sign that reads "let's make the environment clean for the children"











dada posed along with the little boy.. exemplying the inter generational concern for the environment
the wfp cheerleaders were there in full force


the evan team

daji is interviewed
wellwishers of ev and the spinally injured at the maitighar

still the evan team, who were participating with safa tempos and a converted mitsubushi van

rules being laid out for the rally by sandaji... not a race.. let's speed up together for environment was the message!

dr. anil with the dixit brothers and dada

dr. anil tells everyone that the rally managed to raise Rs. 6 lakhs, which will go a long way in the treatment of the needy at the SIRC

bijayaman dai appeals to the donors to help lobby with the government to make ev-friendly policies and also to push for converting older vehicles to electric ones instead of replacing them with more gas guzzling vehicles

sandaji once again

madan krishnaji who flagged off the rally puts in a few words about what he called "goodan khatola" (evs) and how they were the solution for a landlocked and banda strapped country like ours!

a final word from daji

reva evs lined up around the maitighar mandal

gillian in front of the unicef-sponsored reva that belonged to gtz

then my turn to pose in front of the vehicle

strapped into the little ev. is the car little, or am i huge? as if you didn't know!! : )

then it is one 'pradakshina' of the shanti mandal before we head eastwards...

min bajracharya's stunt photography.. leaning out from the organic safa tempo

evs rev up the great natural amphitheatre past bhaktapur

we drive past an electric cyclist

a traditional welcome at the kavre gateway.. don't who it was for.. but i conveniently assumed it was for the ev-laskar

the cramped-up passenger of the unicef-sponsored vehicle.. arun parajuli... finally gets to spread his legs at the SIRC

madan krishnaji takes great pleasure at flagging tea drinking too!

time for certificate distribution

then we had a tour of SIRC. the list of patients currently admitted at SIRC shows that of the 29 patients, there are more males.. and some of the patients are quadraplegic. most of the patients also either fell of trees or cliffs. some were involved in traffic accidents. the spinally injured, thus are basically from disadvantaged and poor communities. children's bodies, it seems are relatively very flexible, and thus they rarely suffer from spinal injury during falls or accidents.

tools to assist occupational therapy

a final round of Q & A session with dr. anil

then it is queuing up time for lunch at the SIRC canteen. the grandfather of evs in nepal, our very own baba, also queues up!

lunching...

then it's time to get back..

some final words from the media by sandaji...

...and baba too...

a blurry farewell lineup


the clouds that sandaji had ordered for the day finally arrived.. gathering force... signalling it was time for us to pack off back to dusty kathmandu

baba and myself hitched a ride in an electric three wheeler.. and was entertained all the way by min

so that is how we spent a good part of the day today... a thoroughly satisfying day... promoting evs and getting to understand the great work being done by SIRC and the need to do so much more