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TRRRRR>>>>GHATTTTT>>>>TRRRR>>>THUD !

That's how a rickshaw ride "sounds" ! Most of us have been on a rick. We have experinced everything : galloping metres, a perpetual shortage of change ("chutta") and perfectly snobbish rick drivers.we've come across all kinds of drivers (they form a distinct tribe; would someone care to do a PhD on "The marignalisation of rickshawallahs in Mumbai"?)
Regular readers of this blog are aware how wonderfully adventurous life the writer lives ! Adding on to my list of adventures was my experience of "DRIVING A RICK IN THE RAINS" oh yes, that's not a typo error .... it is not "Riding" but "Driving" . For those who might be curious about how did I arrive doing something so wild, I would simply write it out:
Shamini : Bhaiya , Kanjur chaloge?
RICKY (sounds better than rickshaw driver): haan.
TRRR GHTTT TRING(That's the metre going down ) ...TRRR GHTT T KHATTAK THUD !!!! The rick came to a staggering halt ! it simply refused to resurrect itself..Ricky was pretty frustrated with his attempts to bring it back to life! NOW, Ricky tried to push the rick and play with the accelerator simultaneously. As he was doing this, I was looking at my watch, crusing college for giving me an 8:10 lecture, as well as making a mental note of the gushing stream of profanity from RICKY...
Eventually, I asked him "Kya hua, bhaiya? " (I am sure this must have irritated him further )
He snapped back " Arre bhaai, gaadi band pada hai, paani jam gaya hai" to which I simply grunted . Then came the trick question from him. The answer to which changed my morning, my day, my life. "Madam ji, aap ko driving aata hai ?" "YES", I answered with all the enthusiasm of an 18 yr old !
He proposed the plan. All I had to do was simply take the driver's seat, literally, and accelerate the rick as Ricky pushed that annoying Tri-wheeler into action. Guess what, I actually did this ! I rode the rick for a few metres. Of course, it again came to an adamant halt. This entire ordeal took quite a lot of time. I abandoned RICKY and his rick. The most surprising element was my trip did not cost me a paisa (er... cent is UN-INDIAN, hence the change) no matter how I tried to persuade the driver, he refused to take money from me.
I almost galloped to the station and somehow packed my self into a train, finally made it to college.



I hope you all enjoyed this account. (I know it ends a bit abruptly, but then, that's being ME

-shamini

Comments

  1. SarojaAugust 1, 2010 at 7:55 AM

    :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 26, 2012 at 2:30 AM

    :D . This is such a wonderful commuter tale.. Makes for hilarious reading. You know what, it's incidents like these which make you realize that Bombay is such not such a bad place despite the grime and an unforgiving weather.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownFebruary 13, 2014 at 7:29 AM

    hilarious !

    ReplyDelete

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