Where there is a wheel, there is a way

AHMEDABAD: Samir Kakkad, 39, a city-based automobile engineer, started off for the tri-nation car rally on Saturday. Kakkad, who has 80 per cent disability from the chest below, will be the only disabled driver in the rally where 100 drivers will participate with their SUVs to scale Himalayan highways in India, Nepal and Bhutan from New Delhi on September 10.
"It will be the first international rally for me. I will be rubbing shoulders with experienced drivers from across the country," said Kakkad who was flagged off from Apang Manav Mandal near IIM, Ahmedabad on Saturday evening by his friends and Mandal officials.
Kakkad, who has been included in the Limca Book of Records for his feats as a driver, said it has not been an easy journey. "I was born in a village in north Gujarat to doctor parents. As I suffered from polio at birth, I could not move my limbs. However, when God takes away something, he endows you with something else. in my case it was the ability to play with mechanics. I even tried to drive my father's car with wooden sticks and was scolded when he found out," he said.
However, when they got to know about his zeal to drive, they encouraged him. Kakkad said that was the turning point for him as he started devising devices that would help him control the car with just his hands. With a number of experiments, he finally succeeded in driving cars and later established an agency to provide such kits to more than 2,000 disabled drivers from across the country.
"My struggle continues even today. What is the dream of any disabled person? To be independent. My device has helped many fulfill that dream. At such instances, I go and talk to them and also show them my certificate that if I can drive and set a national record, why can't others? The slogan on my car for the rally is - where there is a wheel, there is a way," he added.