An edited version of the following article appeared in The Ottawa Citizen on Saturday, June 16, 2001

Road warriors bid India farewell

Mike Nemesvary
'Round the World Challenge

Mike Nemesvary, a former champion freestyle skier, is attempting to become the first quadriplegic to drive around the world - a 40,000 kilometer trek to raise funds for spinal cord injury research and rehabilitation.

Madras, India

We did it. Leg 2, from Dublin, Ireland to Madras, India - over 17,000 kilometers - is officially over.

Heading into Madras, we started to relax a bit, only to have one final close call reminding us of the dangers of the Indian road. As George recalls, it was our most heart-pounding moment to date.

"A large truck with a piece of metal siding protruding from the side swerved to avoid a bicycle as we cruised over a bridge. ‘BANG-Ruck-a-tuck-tuck.' The damage - side mirror bent inside and up, radio antenna ripped off, plastic scraped off the roof rack and minor scratches to the body paint.

The true evidence of our luck came with the puncture in the front of the truck body. One inch to the right and the hood of the truck could have flipped up causing who knows what on a bridge.

And one inch up? Metal pole right through the windscreen, shattering and likely puncturing me right through the left lung. So again, thumbs up to that luck angel.."

Now looking like true road warriors - slightly scarred but intact - we continued on to our Madras hotel. Once again, we were taken aback as we were greeted by 40-50 reporters, camped out on the front steps. We felt like rock stars with all the lights and cameras; they even had a closed circuit TV to capture our arrival.

Inside the conference room, we joined an additional 200 people for a viewing of the piece I did several months ago in Ottawa for Regional Contact.

The highlight of the event was being named the recipient of the "Triumph of Human Spirit Award" by the Rotarians of Madras and presented with a beautiful silver plaque.

I was truly touched and gave one of my best, most spontaneous, speeches of the tour. I was rewarded with a standing ovation, which in the disabled world is the next best thing to a sitting ovation!

The following day we met with doctors and patients at a large government hospital and toured a ward dedicated to spinal cord injuries.

It was interesting to learn that the bulk of their spinal cord injuries are results of falls and not automobile accidents, as it is in Canada - particularly surprising, given the crazy driving in India.

The hospital was cluttered, smelling of urine and we could see traces of blood on the linen. Each room contains 30 patients whereas we would have just four to eight patients per room. This hospital receives 60 new patients a month and has no way to keep up with the demand.

After one last interview, we began the enormous task of repacking the truck for its containerization in readiness for shipping to Australia.

Arriving at the docking facility, we noted the final odometer reading: 219,566 kilometers. We spent most of the morning waiting - in India "15 minutes" can mean anything from ½ hour to 3 hours. The runaround was incredible and by 4:00 pm we had run out of time and patience. We urgently pleaded with them that we had a flight to catch and could not wait any longer.

The pressure worked and finally, they pushed it through anyway and closed the door on the container.

We don't know exactly how long the shipping of the truck will take; apparently there are "slow boats" and "fast boats" - we don't yet know which one we got. We hope it will make it over in 20 days but have been warned that it could take as long as 30 days.

Before flying on to Australia, George and I are taking a much-needed break in Bali. We are both mentally and physically exhausted from the events of the past two and a half months, since our departure from Ottawa. We have met so many wonderful people and so many characters.

I had many preconceived notions of this part of the world; the reality has been something far more surprising and mostly wonderful. But everyone has unlikely notions of what life is like in the rest of the world, as demonstrated by one particularly funny meeting in the middle of nowhere in India. "'You come from....?' ‘Canada.' Out came a weathered newspaper from the wallet containing a photo of hundreds of nude men and women on a march - Nudists Rights or something like that. He looked at us with a wide grin and the classic Indian nod of the head. "Canada?". We nod in response and simply answer, ‘Canada.' Full stop."

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