Beetle drive from Kathmandu to Peshawar for better spinal care

From Rezaul H Laskar Islamabad, Nov 15 (PTI) When Nepal's journalist Kanak Mani Dixit and his wife Shanta needed funds to expand their spinal injury centre, they decided to hop into their Volkswagen Beetle and drive from Kathmandu to Peshawar, raising a hundred dollars for every mile of the 1,100-mile journey. The couple is also hoping its "Spinal Beetle Drive" will help soften borders and spur more exchanges between countries in South Asia – something they say is needed to drive greater economic interaction and trade and cooperation in key areas like healthcare. Dixit, the editor and publisher of Himal magazine, spoke of the contrast he experienced in crossing India’' borders with Nepal and Pakistan. "When you cross the India-Nepal border, what hits you is the cacophony and confusion of hundreds of people crossing over. At the India-Pakistan border in Wagah, everything is so quiet and rigid," he said. "The open India-Nepal border is the ideal border for South Asia, not the rigidity one sees at the Wagah-Attari (India-Pakistan) frontier," said Dixit, who was in Islamabad yesterday for the final leg of the marathon drive to the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. "Connectivity is important because the coagulation of religious, fundamental and militarist thoughts can only be broken by trade," he told PTI. Frequent cross-border interactions will help create networks for tackling issues like spinal injuries that can benefit the poor in all countries of the region, Dixit and his wife said. The drive, which began on November 4 and is scheduled to end tomorrow in Peshawar, has taken the couple to Delhi, Amritsar, Lahore and Rawalpindi. "It is, of course, for fund-raising but also to show that it is doable and should be done – a South Asian ride, much of it along the (old) Grand Trunk Road of Sher Shah Suri (of 16th century)," Dixit said. Dixit and his wife founded the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre in Kathmandu in 2002 after he suffered a broken back during a trekking accident. The couple drove from Nepal to Bangladesh in 2002 and 2005 to raise funds to expand the centre. Once they realised they needed more funds to increase the number of beds at the centre from 39 to 51 to cope with a sudden rise in patients over the past year, Dixit and his wife decided to expand their latest drive to Pakistan. During a meeting organised by civil society activists in Islamabad, the couple recounted their heart-warming experiences in the cities and towns they had traversed during the drive. Maj H P S Ahluwalia, founder of the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, recalled his childhood in Lahore and suggested Dixit should work to bring together a South Asian association for spinal injury rehabilitation. On reaching Amritsar (near the Indo-Pak border), Dixit realised he had left all passports and travel documents at a roadside restaurant in Jalandhar where the team had stopped for a meal. Using Facebook, Dixit’s son Eelum contacted the proprietors of the restaurant, who said they had the travel documents. When the team returned to the restaurant, a member of the family that owns the eatery, 96-year-old Pahalwan Barkat Singh, told Dixit that he was originally from Fatehgarh Sahib village near Sialkot in Pakistan. He then requested Dixit to bring him a fistful of earth from his village in Pakistan. "We made a detour to Fatehgarh and my wife collected an entire jar of earth, so that Barkat Singh can plant a sapling in it if he wants," Dixit said. And when Dixit's 1973 model Volkswagen Beetle broke down after driving into the Pakistani capital, it was set right by enthusiastic members of the Beetle Club of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The members of the club also turned out in their classic cars to escort Dixit’s Beetle through the streets of Islamabad. "These are the sort of connections we need to spark the imagination – connections to tackle problems faced by people with spinal injuries, connections between antique vehicle owners," said Dixit. PTI RHL Caption for pic: Journalist Kanak Mani Dixit's Volkswagen Beetle at the Indo-Pak Attari-Wagah border during his "Spinal Beetle Drive" from Kathmandu to Peshawar. PTI Photo