This foto gives an idea of the bad roads and terrain

Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi’s daring escape from Jhansi fort under cannon fire from General Sir Hugh Rose of the East India Company on 4th April 1858 is an act of bravery un-paralled in the annals of history. With her adopted infant son Damodar Rao strapped to her back, Rani Laxmibai jumped her horse over the fort wall and rode 100 miles from Jhansi to Kalpi.  I wanted to commemorate the 150th anniversary of this event by organizing a “Ladies only” bike rally from Jhansi to Kalpi on 4th April 2008. I am grateful to M/s Kinetic Motor Co. of Pune for agreeing to sponsor this rally.

The planning for this rally began in February. Through newspaper advertisements and street plays, interested ladies were invited to participate. The response was overwhelming. I made a pre-event exploratory trip to Jhansi and Kalpi to check out the logistics, terrain and road conditions. Jhansi is in the Bundelkhand region in central India, which is quite backward. The distance from Jhansi to Kalpi is 156 km and the road is quite bad. Large parts of it are kuccha, other parts are littered with building materials. Pot holes and pits abound, obstacle have to be overcome, and passage through narrow lanes of towns en-route dangerous because truck and dumper traffic is heavy and unregulated.

Flagging off the rally from Pune

I had to evaluate the riding skills of the hundreds of ladies who applied to participate. This took a lot of time. The ladies ranged in age from 17 years old to 52 years old, and weighed between 35 kg to 120 kg. I selected 36 of them for the rally. They were given riding training for one full day on Kinetic’s test track, which has all kinds of terrain and surface quality including rumblers, U-turn on loose gravel, panic braking on loose gravel, giving hand signals, getting used to the Kinetic Flyte un-geared scooter controls, road-holding and braking characteristics and gaining confidence in covering long distance on unfamiliar terrain in the hot Bundelkhand sun.

The ladies arrived at Jhansi by train from Pune on 3rd April 2008. Early morning 06:00 am on 4th April, they were flagged off from Jhansi fort by Mr. Newalkar, direct descendant of Rani Laxmibai, from exactly the same spot where Rani Laxmibai started exactly 150 years ago. It was quite a ride and went off perfectly. All the girls / women / ladies reached the destination at 13:30 pm.

More bad roads on the Jhansi-Kalpi route

All the thirty-six [==36] Kinetic Flyte scooters ridden by 36 different females, of different ages, different weights, different riding styles on bad roads with un-regulated traffic covered the 156 km without a single problem. Thus, in technical terms, this rally amounts to 36 Road Tests of the Kinetic Flyte scooter in all of which it performed without as single problem, proving its reliability beyond doubt. Most of these lady riders already owned different models of un-geared scooters which they were regularly using in Pune, and, the FATTEST rider-ess if them all, weighing 120 kg said, “Kinetic Flyte scooter is definitely better than the scooter I currently  own and I will change to Kinetic Flyte as soon as my finances permit. Coming from a 120 kg female, that”s a massive, 120 kg compliment to FLYTE !

1857 : India’s first war of independence. The most famous freedom fighter in our First war of Independence is Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi. She was the queen of the kingdom of Jhansi. In 1858, her husband Gangadhar Rao had died. Her natural born son had also died as a child. So she adopted a son Damodar Rao, who could succeed her as the ruler of Jhansi. By a decree of the East India Company (EIC), which was the paramount power in the Indian subcontinent at that time, if any ruler of any state in India did not have a natural born son, then the dynasty that ruled that state / kingdom would lapse and the control of that state / kingdom would go to the EIC. This was called the Doctrine of Lapse.

Thus under this doctrine, the kingdom of Jhansi would be absorbed into the territory of the EIC. But Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi would have none of it. She decided to fight against the British and started mobilizing an army for the war against the British. The British came to know about this and, under the command of General Sir Hugh Rose, attacked Jhansi.