For rider Aishwarya Pissay, it’s forward not full-stop after every fall

Passion for the bike has never dimmed for the woman rider from Bengaluru despite a series of injuries, the latest one in March that left her with broken wrists

It was on March 19. Aishwarya Pissay was speeding through the dunes and gravel of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan. She had covered over 40 km of the stage when she realised there was a navigational error. It proved costly as she suffered a horrible crash, forcing her to retire in the second round of the FIM Bajas World Cup rally racing event.

For rider Aishwarya Pissay, it’s forward not full-stop after every fall (TVS RACING)

The high speed crash was reported to the organisers when the next rider reached the spot.

Airlifted to the hospital for scans, the 26-year-old realised she had broken her wrists in the accident. “They put nails in one wrist and it healed naturally. The other one, they had to put a plate for it to heal. I also had three surgeries after the accident,” the rider said over a video call from Manali.

Though Pissay was asked to rest for three months by the doctors, the Bengaluru rider didn’t. Though she could not use her wrists, the endurance racer started working on her rehabilitation and fitness. “Three days after the surgery, I started my training (at a fitness centre in Bengaluru). The wrists were the only things we could not work on but the legs, muscles and other body parts we could. I kept cycling on stationery things to work on cardio in addition to a lot of workout to support the body to recover faster,” she said.

WATCH | Broken wrists mended, Aishwarya Pissay returns to rallying

Motorsport is full of risks. You push the boundaries, drive your vehicle beyond its designed capabilities to beat your opponent and succeed. Doing that also puts the driver or rider at risk. As the 1978 Formula 1 world champion Mario Andretti once said, “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”

For Pissay too, her journey in off-road racing hasn’t been smooth. In trying to push her limits, her path has been strewn with accidents, surgeries and recoveries. They have become a way of life, especially in a niche sport where female participation is rare. The accident in Jordan is one of the many the TVS rider has suffered in her career. In 2017 she broke her collarbone, the next year she ruptured her pancreas with Pissay needing surgery on both occasions.

These mishaps though have never been a deterrent.

“Accidents have never scared me. It’s not a full stop, it’s not life-changing. That’s what this sport has taught me. It doesn’t deter me to start all over again because every time I race there is a start and there is an end, there’s room for something new every single time. If it is an accident, I’m not going back as opposed to moving forward,” said Pissay, who loves hiking, running, cycling and spending time with her two dogs in her free time.

“Being an athlete has given me a way of life, helped me deal with obstacles such as accidents in a different way, not looking at it as a challenge but just another obstacle. Over the years the training that has gone into fitness, riding and everything, every time there is an accident I am already at a certain fitness level and restart at a certain baseline, start getting stronger from there.”

The moment she hit the three-month rest mark, Pissay got back on her motorcycle and started training at the TVS factory in Hosur before heading to Manali a month back. Having made a full recovery, the multiple-time national champion will participate in the inaugural Rally of Himalayas, a successor to the erstwhile Raid de Himalaya, in Manali from October 8-10.

“I have been completely fit for the last two months. I have been riding and training in the Himalayas for the last one month and looking forward to the rally,” said Pissay. She is doing her final year of BA in psychology, journalism and literature from Surana College, Bengaluru.

Pissay’s immediate career path is also sorted. “As soon as the rally is over, I have the Indian National Rally Championship starting on October 17 in Hampi. We have about six back-to-back rounds until December before I head to Spain to train next year,” said Pissay, whose dream is to participate in the Dakar Rally, the world’s toughest rally raid event.