01 November,2021 08:40 AM IST | Mumbai | A Correspondent
Gautam Singhania at the ceremonial flag off at Liberty cinema on Saturday. Aranka, Hoosein’s daughter and son-in-law Logan are also seen. Pic/Suresh Karkera
At least 40 teams from Mumbai are participating in the upcoming Nazir Hoosein Memorial Drive. This Drive pays homage to the founder of the fabled Himalayan Rally, the late Nazir Hoosein. The Nazir Hoosein Memorial Drive will aptly re-trace the route of the 1981 Himalayan Rally, kicking off on November 8 from New Delhi and going on till November 12, exactly 40 years after the 1981 event. More than 90 teams will be participating, out of which the 40 teams based in Mumbai were present at a ceremonial flag off on October 30 evening. The choice of location was the iconic Liberty theatre, owned by the late, grand old man, Nazir Hoosein himself.
The venue is a Mumbai landmark. Today, it is one of the few single-screen theatres standing defiantly in a landscape overrun by multiplex cinemas. The Liberty theatre also hosts the Kashish film festival, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) film fest that has become a looked forward to fixture on the city's Queer calendar. The rainbow flag, symbol of diversity synonymous with gay events, flies at Liberty theatre when the fest is on (it has been held virtually in COVID times). Kashish was part of Hoosein's "reinvention" of Liberty, as he himself had said in 2015, to this paper.
Before rainbows though, there were rallies. The Liberty cinema near Bombay Hospital in SoBo, always held a special place in the hearts of all Mumbai motorsport enthusiasts. First, it was owned by Hoosein, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 78. Hoosein served as motorsport administrator and vice-president of the FIA for several years. In 1980, he founded the Himalayan Rally Association and started the Himalayan Rally. Liberty was home to the conceptualisation and operation of all Himalayan Rallies from 1980-1990. It also housed the office of the Indian Automotive Racing Club, which was founded by Hoosein in 1971.
It was a real "coming home" of sorts for all participants on this past nostalgic Saturday, as Raymond's Gautam Singhania, member of the FIA and World Motor Sport Council, was the chief guest of the event. Hormazd Sorabjee, editor Autocar India and Himalayan Rally participant called the Rally itself and what it had achieved for motorsport in India as, "way ahead of its time." With those words, and the legacy of Hoosein throwing its shadow across all at Liberty, the participants were ceremonially flagged off for the memorial drive, with Hoosein's daughter Aranka and son-in-law Logan in attendance too. We have no doubt Hoosein must be looking on and smiling from somewhere above.
