| That, in a span of 20 years, is a huge achievement in India given that organising motorsport events here is as easy as asking the Taliban to host a fashion show. Motorsport buffs would have guessed it by now, but for those of you who haven't, the organisation is called Sportscraft, founded by Shrikant Karani. |
| Karani, known to many as the North Emperor, was famous for surveying the foothills of the Himalayas for the Himalayan Rally as it was called in those days. He later decided that motorsport had to be taken to the masses and that was how Sportscraft was born. |
| Right from the autocross event that involved autorickshaws to the foster-a-child and the blind men's rally, Sportscraft made it possible for not just the enthusiast but the layman to take his machine to a competition. Even Business Standard Motoring has participated in Sportscraft events "" several Mahindra Great Escapes, the Gulf Monsoon Scooter Rally, and even the massive Airtel One India Rally last year. |
| Back to the press conference. It was in fact quite different from the usual lunch-and-speech dos. It was more of an exhibition of photographs that summed up all the events that have culminated in this landmark. |
| Karani being his enterprising self took the time out to take everybody through the photographs and almost instantly came up with an anecdote from that event to entertain one and all. |
| The black-and-white images and one specific picture of a dirt bike riding through a moat in Rajasthan made me slip into wonderland. |
| Where was I when all this was happening? Why didn't I take part? Until a loud voice through the speaker announced, "Let's applaud Mr Karani on entering the Limca Book of Records for his feat of organising 250 motorsport events." You see, I was still in my diapers when Karani was at his peak. |
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