Unbreakable Santosh back to rallying with an eye on Dakar

Astride a rally spec of Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, CS Santosh was riding through the dirt on the banks of the Egidillo river in Spain when memories of him flying through the dunes at the Dakar Rally flashed across his mind.

- Sandip Sikdar

NEW DELHI: Astride a rally spec of Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, CS Santosh was riding through the dirt on the banks of the Egidillo river in Spain when memories of him flying through the dunes at the Dakar Rally flashed across his mind. "It felt the same like when I did the Dakar for the very first time. I loved it then and I love it now," says the 41-year-old.

Three years and nine months since suffering a near-fatal crash at the 2021 Dakar, India's pioneering rallyist, the first Indian to compete and complete the Dakar, made a comeback to the sport at the two-day Rallye TT Cuenca in October.

Santosh is no stranger to terrifying crashes. He is all scars. But none of them derailed his life the way the high-speed accident in 2021 did, leaving him with brain trauma, partial memory loss, double vision, loss of gross motor skills and depression.

Then began a long road to recovery for Santosh to bridge the gaps in his memory and to relearn basics, such as how to coordinate his hands, legs and get them to work together to achieve small tasks. But the off-roader from Bengaluru learnt quickly and was back on a two-wheeler in seven months.

However, he was far from competing. It was his indomitable spirit of returning to the Dakar Rally that made him go through rehabilitation, spend multiple sessions with doctors and several months every year at sports medicine centres across Europe that Santosh made the impossible happen.