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Written by: Mir Roohullah

Category: INTERVIEWS/PROFILES

Published: 24 March 2018

MUMBAI: Racing is considered a man’s sport in our part of the world and when it comes to the tough rallies, most of us disagree to even think of a woman daring to try it, however there are some inspiring women who believe in thinking out of the box and refuse to go with the typical mindset.  Amongst those league of women, is Sarah Kashyap, whom I call a “Chotta packet, dhamaka.” and rightly so. A short height Sara, took martial arts as a passion since her primary schooling days and took part in many competitions fighting many bouts of the toughest fights, survived and won many medals. 

After her schooling, Sarah went to the United Kingdom for her higher studies, but kept the passion alive and played martial arts in the UK also.  Adventurous nature made her try her hand at riding a bike and one fine day, she took the challenge of taking professional biking sport as her passion. Sarah, tried, fell, got up stronger and never lost the fire in her and after a long struggle with the wheels made the whole nation proud when she became the first woman to have completed the toughest “Raid de Himalya”.  

Sarah proved to be the ignition, to be the inspiration, to be the woman to give hope to the rest of the women to see the ray to have the freedom of think of the unthinkable. This season, at the conclusion of the India’s biggest rally competition “Desert Storm”, Sarah not only completed all the stages of the rally but finished at Number 8 over all. Desert Storm Stage 4 of India's biggest rally competition advanced between the dunes of the Thar desert. The route extended almost alongside the India-Pakistan border. 

The race started at Marriott Hotel, Jaisalmer. The fourth stage started off with the Moto category. The stage was split into 4A and 4B, with the latter being a night stage. The first section of stage 4 paced through the flatlands of Turkon Ki Basti. Tight turns and long straights made this section particularly interesting. Being a flatland, one could see the cars and motorcycles speeding from a distance towards the horizon. Adding to the drama was the dust cloud behind them. 

The next section stretched beside the dunes of Thar desert. The route of Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2018 has levelled up. The sun was really hot. The air was dusty. But the wind was cold. Visibility was hindered by mirages everywhere. In between all that aroused the sound of motorcycles and four-wheelers. That was the only signal saying that the contestants were coming. 

The sun was really hot. The air was dusty. But the wind was cold. Visibility was hindered by mirages everywhere. In between all that aroused the sound of motorcycles and four-wheelers. That was the only signal saying that the contestants were coming. Sarah, witnessed all of it and emerged as a winner and made us all prouder. I wish to see more and more feathers adding to her cap and wish the best possible to her in the days and years to come. And today let me officially change her alias from bada to bahut bada dhamaka. Well done “Chotta packet, bahut bada dhamaka”. This is what came from her on Instagram at the end of the rally: