| The city's high-profile promenade and the Pondicherry Department of Tourism played host to a spectacular launch today for the teams taking on the Rickshaw Run Winter 2009. At 11am on New Year’s Day the teams made their way to an awesome coastal venue for their launch ceremony. With incredible support from the lovely tourism folks the location couldn’t have been better – right on Pondicherry’s beach side promenade underneath a giant statue of Mahatma Ghandi. When all the teams were in place, traditional dancers, drummers and other performers did their thing and brought the place alive for the teams and hundreds of spectators. The Pondicherry Tourism Secretary and many other officials and guests helped officially welcome the teams to their start line with traditional blessings and garlands. John from team Madcap Blunderbus describes the launch day in his blog: “At about 11:00 we all started rolling out of the warehouse and cueing at the gas station. After a minute wait and a short little drive up beach road we all parked, lining up 60 rickshaws with various awesome paint jobs and pimping decor in front of a 10' Ghandi statue on the Bay of Bengal beach. “The entire send off turned out to be a coordinated event with the Pondicherry Department of Tourism and we had everything from dancers to a band to large numbers of onlookers who were there taking photos and sending us off. “The experience was completely amazing. Everyone who saw us immediately had a smile on their face. There were many "Happy New Years" shared along with well wishing and before long we were off. My only regret being that the camera wasn't rolling as we pulled out through a tunnel of cheering locals all clapping and trying to give us high fives.” To check out the latest updates from the road click here. | Click images to see launch day gallery Images from top to bottom:
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Pondicherry hosts superb launch of 5th Rickshaw Run
By Dan Wedgwood