Girls ride scooters during rehearsal of Republic Day parade at PMG Square on Thursday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 23: Fourteen young girls, mostly teenagers will be showcasing daredevil stunts on Vespa scooters during the state Republic Day parade here.

The girls, who were seen perfecting their acts today evening at Lower PMG, for the first time will display their bravery and talent of balancing much like their male counterparts.

Belonging to the city-based Maharishi College of Natural Law, the 14-member team will present the famous Sukhoi formation with six girls on a scooter leading from the front while two more scooters with four girls following it. They will spread the message of ‘absolute road safety and respect to life’.“We also want to communicate about the importance of punctuality, sincerity and discipline. We must also have a sense of service towards the nation,” said flying officer Mihir Ranjan Saran, who has trained the girls. “The training began a month ago. The girls who showed even the slightest inclination towards the task were chosen from the group of students and trained. It was a tedious chore to do,” said Saran, who is also the physics professor in the college.

Under the guidance of Saran, another team of boys will execute the famous lotus formation. In this, the cynosure would be the nine-member team’s formation creating a lotus bud with the national flag in the centre. Alongside two Honda motorcycles will move with airplane formation, where a boy will lay in horizontal position with two more boys.

In total, 51 boys will move in seven bikes exuding their teamwork. The men’s team has been taking part in the parade for past two years.

The men and women team are first among the non-military student based organisations that will exhibit the daredevil show in India, said Saran. The teams also have won many awards and laurels on various occasions as well.

“Our team exhibit exceptional calibre, endurance and team work in all aspects of life and not only while executing formations but while extending help during natural disasters,” said Chinmayee Bhuyan, a first-year student who is the commander of the girls team. The spectators who lined up to see the rehearsals were awestruck.

“We have been seeing the boys doing these stunts for few years now but the fact that even these young girls have also joined them is commendable feat. It is also a sign of gender parity,” said 25-year-old Sandip Sahoo, an onlooker.