LED by Maharashtra boy Harshit Mundra and India’s only woman para cyclist Tanya Daga, the Infinity Ride 2020 reached Nagpur the other day. Aditya Mehta Foundation’s Infinity Ride is a cycle rally that started from Kashmir and will culminate at Kanyakumari. The rally intends to raise awareness about para sports in local kids. The sixth edition of the Infinity Ride 2020, which was flagged off from Srinagar on November 19 aims to reach out to para sporting talent from the city to raise awareness.

 

The para-cyclists interacted with the students and scouted talents from the city’s Deaf and Dumb Industrial Institute in Shankar Nagar through a virtual interaction. “I have been part of all the six Infinity Rides and it’s been an amazing feeling to inspire people with disability while sharing my own journey. Today we visited the Deaf and Dumb Institute here and interacted with so many students which was amazing. Though they were unable to hear us but some of them already have won medal nationally.

 

With the help of the teachers we interacted with them and communicated the benefits of professional sports and how they shape these students into players,” Harshit, the 23-year-old an engineering student from Pune who lost his leg in 2014 during a road accident, said. While the students were explained about benefits of sports and cycling and how Aditya Mehta Para Infinity Academy and Rehabilitation Centre, Asia’s first and a brain-child of Aditya Mehta Foundation, a non-profit organisation aids people with disabilities to pursue sports while providing self-sustenance — a message they are spreading while on a mission to cover 36 cities in 45 days during their 3842km-long challenging journey from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Highlighting the participation of women in para sports, Madhya Pradesh’s Tanya, who is also India’s only female para cyclist, said: “We don’t see so many women with disability participating in sports in our country.

 

The Aditya Mehta Foundation has played very important role in my life and it has given me a new perspective to look at life. The sports has changed the way my life is — probably better than I used to live before the accident. It’s very important to come out of the comfort zone and chase and live ones dreams. I hope the school children we visited today will get inspired too,” Tanya, who wants to represent India and win medal at the international level, said. Having travelled 2040km journey so far, the infinity Ride 2020 will resume their journey to complete remaining 1802km before reaching its destination Kanyakumari on December 31.