Who says girls can't make cars?

We will prove them (the boys) wrong one day... In fact, we are actually proving them wrong."

Saachi Khandekar of Pune and Rashi Bagadia of Delhi, with their respective all-girls teams of mechanical and automobile engineers, participated in the ninth edition of Mahindra BAJA (pronounced BAHA) SAEINDIA, 2016.

BAJA SAEINDIA is a national competition that encourages college students to design and build a rugged four-wheel, off-roading, vehicle, thereby giving them real life experiences while in college and make them industry-ready.

IMAGE: Saachi Khandekar (in the red suit) with her team-mates as they work on their vehicle. The vehicle had broken down, but their spirits were intact. Photographs: Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com

There is dust and metal all around. There is the grunt of the engines, there is the clanging sound of braking wheels, there is exhilaration, cries of jubilation and moans of frustration.

There are boys and there are boys driving prototypes of rugged, single-seat, ramshackle off-road four-wheelers atop a mountain slope for an endurance test and across the five kilometre-long track at the Government of India owned and promoted NATRAX (The National Automotive Test Tracks) Facility at NATRiP (The National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project), Peethampur, Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

On this dust and grime-filled race track and dozens of temporary tents acting as pit stops and repair garages, you suddenly come across two all-girls teams, working laboriously inside their pits, repairing their rugged vehicles, brainstorming and getting ready for the next round.

Saachi Khandekar, a student of mechanical engineering at the Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune, dressed in a red driver's suit, is coordinating with five of her team-mates.

Their vehicle has broken down during the tough endurance test and since the event is drawing to a close, the girls are discussing how best they can improve their designs the next year.

"We finished the technical test," Saachi says, explaining these were part of the static test where BAJA SAEINDIA representatives check their technical knowledge about the vehicles they have created.

The other part of the event is a dynamic test where each vehicle goes through a five km lap, the most difficult of which is the endurance test where the vehicle has to climb a steep mountain slope.

IMAGE: It's all about team work and bonding. And it was visible at all the pits where vehicles were overhauled or repaired.

"I did climb the hill slope," says Saachi, who drove the vehicle.

"There was a downhill climb, then there was an uphill climb. It is at the second uphill climb that the vehicle broke down," she says, as her team-mates bend over their vehicle; a couple get busy mending the tyre.

"My rear wheel got locked. There was some issue with the drive shaft," Saachi explains the technical side of her vehicle's breakdown.