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Like any other eight-year-old girl would do, Alisha Abdullah would cling to her father wherever he went; she was greatly inspired by him. But unlike most other Indian girls, she knew she would become a national motorbike racing champion right back then.
Every time she accompanied her father, Abdullah (a bike racer himself) to the tracks, she became increasingly passionate about motorsport. She was quick enough to grasp the intricacies of the mean machines, and she formally started racing when she was eight. Her first win came when she was 10. And when she was just 13 years old, she won the MRF National Go-Karting Championship and the Best Novice Award at the National level Formula Car Racing in the open class. Ever since then, there has been no looking back for Alisha.
“I was never fascinated by Barbie dolls and toys like other girls of my age. Cars and bikes were my fascination,” says the Volkswagen India racer. Some of her achievements include finishing second in the 2006 National Road Racing Championship UCAL, finishing eighth in the 2012 Volkswagen National Polo Cup (India), being honoured with the Rotary Young Achiever Award in 2008 and finishing third in the 2009 JK Tyre National Super-bike Racing Championship, among 15 men.
“There was never any specific reason for me to decide racing is going to be my career and life. It’s just in my genes, seeing him race every time inspired me. In fact he’s been my coach and trainer throughout, but for the international races,” says the prodigy, who is also an ace tennis player.
Being the fastest female bike racer in the country, she feels “it is sad that the women of the country show absolutely zero participation and interest on racing tracks. The problem in India is that parents and families ridicule the idea of their women racing cars simply because of the huge risk factor and danger involved.”
But it is not easy mastering a sport that has long been considered a domain of men. Being a pioneer among women racing bikes and cars, discrimination is inevitable. She recalls, “In the beginning, obviously I did feel a little bad when I was facing discrimination almost every time. But I learnt to take it in a motivational way and now to think of it, I became much stronger thanks to their discrimination.”
Alisha has learned a lot through her string of visits abroad for training under the best coaches and international facilities. Comparing the training experience abroad to that in India, she says, “Everything abroad, right from the treatment given to women racers to the standards of racing and quality of tracks, etc. is totally different from how it is here. People are so much more open-minded and you can spot women racers often there unlike India.”
The 23-year-old busy champ has her calendar full this year, shuttling between movie shoot locations and racing tracks abroad. “I’m currently acting in a movie about bike racing in Tamil and later in April, I’m going to Malaysia, Bangkok, Singapore, etc. for an international car race. Based on my performance there, I might go to the European races and World Championships, later.”
