By George Iduseri
Ex-model Rishabh Vishvakarma has had a very interesting past, but the international student from India feels his past is as foretelling as his future. Coming from a military background, his father works at the military engineering services in India providing services for the navy, in which his department deals with external projects such as street lights and electrical issues. Rishabh describes his Dad as a “leader in the force, he basically maintains and checks that everything is working properly.”
Speedlover: Rishabh in racing gear (Photo by Hafsa Hirsa)With his Dad’s success as a military engineer, Rishabh has always felt the need to do something in his life, but his interest in sport was always something that had appealed to him from the very get-go. “When I was a kid I used to watch a lot of sports, back in my home country the main thing is cricket, it is one of the biggest sports, but I knew I didn’t like it. Even my dad likes cricket but I was into other sports.”
Eventually, Rishabh took to motorsport, an unpopular choice in his country but something he felt he needed to do. The sport in itself has a French background and was originally conducted as a Grand Prix in 1906. “I wanted to do something that I liked, not just looking forward to people and sometimes you like things just because other people do it and other people like it. I’ve always had this thought in my mind that I didn’t want to live my life like a sheep, do what other people do just because they do it, I’ve never had that thought in my life.”
Rishabh’s journey with motorsport started in 7th grade at school, when he took up road motorcycling. Before that, his main hobby was cycling because “he liked the feeling of riding fast.” He got into watching the sport at first and eventually took an interest in practically doing it.
“I was watching X games where they were doing stunts and motorsports together, that encouraged me to get into sports and spending longer hours.” When asked what his deepest fear in the game was, he replied: “I got an off-road bike and I started doing off-road motorcycling and the thrill, the speed kept going higher and higher and risks got higher and higher. I liked the feeling. I crashed a lot. For other people when you crash you just want to stop, I just wanted to keep on going.”
Glamorous: Rishabh gets a chance to sit inside a smart racing car. (Photo by Hafsa Hirsa)Rishabh states that he never intended to become a professional as he felt that there was not enough support and opportunity back in his homeland to race professionally. Eventually he decided to stop his pursuit. “There was not much support in my country, I figured that there were no sponsorships and companies, it’s a big automobile market in India but not many people watch motorsports mainly for that specific reason. It just wasn’t a popular game back in my home country, there were no opportunities to race professionally.”
After some years, aged 18, Rishabh decided to move countries, to England, and eventually study Sports Business Management at De Montfort University in Leicester. But he still hasn’t made a final decision on whether or not he would like to continue in motorsport. He adds: “Now I’m trying to get more into the team side of things.”
Rishabh has been able to volunteer around different race tracks including Silverstone and Isle of Man. As he looks to continue his love for motorsport with the feeling he can add profession into his game, he admits: “I want to race again, maybe Isle of Man sometime, those races are meant for passionate guys who like one hundred per cent glory for riding and passion. At the end of the day your life starts and ends with you when you were born and the day you were born, it’s just your life.”
Rishabh’s other hobbies include football, basketball, and the gym. He also spent a little time at army school back India which he described as “no fun”. Rishabh was admitted to military school which was seen as a social norm in his homeland. “Till high school, I was in army school, military training was normal, it was like a daily routine which everybody had to do. It was part of the school culture, everybody comes from different religions, people in military school are also trained to speak top English, that’s how we was taught, and we made it the base of our communication.”
Rishabh admits it was tough to make friends, especially from different backgrounds, but says bonds were created as he met a lot of people. “Sometimes you know a lot of people and you can’t live with them because they have to move places, and you can’t do anything about it, you just have to adapt to the different situations you become involved in.”
Rishabh’s life has taken a huge twist as his love for motorsport continues, will we ever see him race? That question is up to him.
