No formula for fun

Words: Sahas Chopra

It was one crazy afternoon when my friend and I read an advertisement in the newspaper that WYC was organizing a Formula Fun Race in Chandigarh. We felt really enthralled about this race. Within no time I called up my friends and they too got psyched about this whole idea about racing. So we called up the race co-ordinator to find out more about the entries for the race. It turned out that there were 50 teams competing in a total of 10 rounds per race. The event was for both 4-wheelers and 2-wheelers of any make or model. It was a time-bound event, where each round involved completing two tasks, the Navigational Rally and the Competitive Activity. Teams would get points on completion of each round and activity. Now, we knew that the inclusion of a female participant was a big worry because we were sure no girl we knew in Amritsar would be able or allowed to travel to Chandigarh with us to participate in a race.

Each team would comprise of four participants for the Car Rally, while each Bike Rally team would involve two participants. An interesting aspect was that at least one female participant was necessary for both the car and bike rallies. To make matter even more interesting, there were loads of prizes to be won in both categories.

Now the inclusion of a female participant was a big worry for us because no girl would come along with us from Amritsar to Chandigarh to participate in the race. But we kept it aside for a while as we thought to manage it later ones all other preparations are done. So we signed up for it without any delay, as it was one week from the time we read about it. The rules were simple and it required no special race kits and gears as it was to happen in the streets of Chandigarh. After all it was fun formula race.

The next day we all had a meeting where all the important decisions about the race were to take place. After a long discussion we concluded that I would take my own car for the race, which is Toyota corolla 1.8e. But as the race day was approaching, I made sure to service my car prior to the race. I made myself to feel that something big and exciting is going to happen. The very day I sent my car to the workshop to replace the front discs, tires and rear shocker that were wearied and needed a replacement. I also made sure that the interior was all vacuumed and immaculate before we leave for Chandigarh. My friends and i met everyday in our university in order to consult the way we are going to move for this exciting race.

As the d-day was approaching the fear about having no girl in our team started to evoke from the grave. We tried to talk to our other friends that if they could come along. But as a matter of fact every girl was ready to accompany us in the race only if it were in Amritsar. It was nothing about that my posse and i had a bad reputation within the girls but it was just a fear within them that their parents won't allow them to go 250 miles with a bunch of boys. (Girls! Please don't judge, I am a good guy...:) Anyways, it was only two days prior to the race when we all started to panic for not having a girl in our team and thought we may be disqualified from the race without even participating in it. At once I even thought of dressing up my friend in an attire of a girl and would try to ruse the coordinators. But this thought got washed away when cosco balls popped up into the picture. Later in the evening, we all sat in my car thinking any possible way to participate but nothing snapped us. So as nothing in our hands we finally thought of calling the coordinator to tell him about our problem and ask him any alternative if he can suggest any.

Anxiously, I called that guy and told him about the same. I was flabbergasted when he said that we could race without a girl, as it was no big deal. After it was known to all of us we scorned and shouted at each other in the best vituperative way possible for not calling the coordinator the very day when we signed in for the race. At least we would not have undergone this misery of finding a girl.

It was decided that I would be driving, my friend Bunny from Chandigarh would be navigating and the other two, Kanav and Angad, in the rear seats would be performing the other necessary tasks. We left for Chandigarh without a clue to what awaited us there.

As we reached Chandigarh we freshened ourselves at our friend's place and left for the venue where we were supposed to register ourselves for the race. We were enthralled and excited about the race as we really struggled hard to reach there. We were supposed to reach the venue at 10am but we reached at about 11:15. Now fearing that we were too late to reach there and perhaps the registrations might be closed by then. We entered the corridor to that place and couldn't find any canopies and throng down the hall. It was all deserted. That moment we again blamed each other for reaching out late to the venue and now the registration were over and we were screwed. After searching for the coordinator or anyone around we found a guy screaming and shouting in the garden on the phone. There sat the two others with their faces down and may be thinking. We thought of going to them and talk about the registrations. As we reached to ask him about the race, he nervously leaned forward with his twitching eyes and said that the "FORMULA FUN RACE HAS BEEN CANCELLED". A sudden unreasoning fear of discovery laid hold on us. It felt our jaws fell down on the ground. Although the reaction was quite blatant enough as we knew that we struggled like hell to reach there. It was at that time I realized that I spent 20 grand on my car just for this conceited race. And considering the signing amount to be extra. Now we felt was the right time to take all our desperation out on that guy and we did that successfully though. After having a sort of a tussle with him, refunding us the signing amount and our expense for the gas was the least he could do. We definitely felt disappointed and exasperated about the whole thing. And sat on the table to talk the matter and find out what is next. We talked that we'd definitely feel chagrined when the people would hear that the race is cancelled. We really did gasconade about the race a lot in our university and out and now felt a little contrite for doing that. We sat there for few hours moping and found indolent to do anything else. That was when Kanav rouse and said "no matter the race is cancelled but we can still have fun." his words filled us all with enthusiasm again and we decided that any how the money which was refunded had to be utilized so why don't we shop something for all of us. We all rouse up to lunge for sector -17 for a shopping spree. Our wallets much lighter than before, we then set off to the outskirts of the city to an arena where we played a rejuvenating session of paint ball. Hard to believe, but I found that I had an awesome time.

Formula Fun Race may be cancelled but we realized by that experience that there is No Formula For Fun and we can have it anytime we want.