Bhandup youth to zoom at Monsoon Scooter Rally with prosthetic leg

Vinod Rawat has experienced a bumpy trip. Right from losing a leg at the age of six, to completely losing control of his life and falling into bad company, to an unbelievable resurrection. It all started with the acquisition a prosthetic leg which evened out the odds and helped him attain unexpected fame and respect — by age 34.

Rawat, a resident of Bhandup, is all set to participate on his Kinetic Zoom 110cc scooter in the Gulf Monsoon Scooter Rally to be held in Navi Mumbai on July 6, which will make him the first-ever participant to do so with a prosthetic leg. Tragedy struck when a truck crashed into him, while he was crossing the road as a six-year-old. "The part below the knee on my left leg had to be amputated and my whole life turned bleak," he says. Getting into bad company followed. "I was part of a gang near my area and used to get into fights very often," says Rawat, who confesses to having spent time in jail.

However, the first turning point of Rawat's life came in 1992, when his father got him admitted with Bombay Teen Challenge, an NGO which helps out errant teenagers in the city. "My life really saw a huge transformation. They provided me with better education, and instilled in me an ambition to lead a decent life," explains Rawat. He sold socks on the street, and even worked at a Chinese food-stall.

And finally, after 16 years of having to depend on crutches for his mobility, Rawat got a prosthetic leg, thanks to the Bhagwan Mahavir Viklang Samiti. "I cannot describe the joy that I experienced when I got my leg back in 1997 and how can I forget Mr K K Devraj, the director of Teen Challenge for giving me my life back," says an emotional Rawat. He adds, "In a day, I went from handicapped to handsome and my social life also improved."

Getting used to the prosthetic leg wasn't too big an issue, says Rawat, and adds that he started walking normally the very day after the operation. He then became an integral part of Teen Challenge and travelled to different parts of the world, including the US and Europe in a bid to help out destitute youngsters across the globe. "At the same time, I also worked at McDonalds, Bandra, for three years, doing duty between 5 pm and 2 am," says Rawat, who also picked up his passion for riding bikes around this time.

Along with it also came a need for speed and action. "I first learns to ride a cycle and then went on to bikes after that," says Rawat, whose initiation into racing came through a friend who was part of the Racing Blue Club. Rawat's first foray into racing was a practice lap on the Tungareshwar track on the outskirts of the city. "Once I completed that track, I had a craving to race and just took it from there," says Rawat, whose thirst for adventure saw him participating in a number of different rallies across the state like the Nasa bike rally at Nashik and a 2006 drag-race event, where he drove a Maruti Esteem.

The defining moment in Rawat's life though came in 2005. "I was riding past the place where the auditions for the MTV Roadies show were being held. I saw a bike on display along with a long queue of people and got down to enquire," says Rawat, who quit the Teen Challenge in 2002. He was the third to last in the line, which had 23,000 hopefuls.

"I showed lots of confidence and impressed all the judges. Even after they found out that I had a prosthetic leg, they selected me as the only person from Mumbai for the show," he reveals. Even though he was voted out in the final round, Rawat won quite a fan following among the audiences. "I was gifted a Karizma bike by Fardeen Khan at the end of the show," he says.