THE RICKSHAW

We all know that there are two types of rickshaw. Pull rickshaw and the cycle rickshaw. Pull rickshaws ply on the streets of Kolkata and cycle rickshaws ply in the suburbs of the city, in villages and smaller towns. But, whatever the appearances, the difference between the two types of rickshaws is not to be ignored. If the front cycle is romoved, there is not much of a difference between the two types. The actual difference is not of the rickshaws, but of the drivers, especially the temper and behaviour of the drivers.
The rickshaw puller in the city is aged, sedate, moving with the world in his own easy manner. Generally he's impervious to all relevant and irrelevant matters around him, except the rickshaw fare. He doesn't talk much about the fare. And that is the formula of his success. He speaks only once when the rider gets off his rickshaw. If the rider has not fixed the fare before sitting on the rickshaw, the rickshaw puller is likely to charge double the actual rate, leaving the passenger non-plussed. On most occassions the passenger has most probably come to meet his/her relative or dropped off at a road crossing. The rickshaw puller then comes to form and begins his tirade of insulting words in his Bhagalpuri language and collects a small crowd of curious on-lookers. The passenger, to get away from this embarrassing position, shells out what has been demanded. On a few occassions, the passanger hands over to the rickshaw puller the actual fare and walks away, ignoring his tirade of insulting language. But the rickshaw puller uses such foul language that will make a person mad and will make him want to return and give a fitting reply; the rickshaw puller wants just that. Because, in the meantime, he has collected a small curious crowd to whom he was expressing his grievance and tale of cruel injustice.
The nature of the cycle rickshaw puller is different. Most of them are young. While paddling the rickshaw, they hum the tune of popular Hindi songs. A few even sing their favourite songs quite loudly. The passengers generally don't raise any objection. Even if any passenger does object, the rickshawallah is least bothered. Most of the cycle rickshaws nowadays have a transistor fixed to the handle bar with one of the FM channels blaring out popular Hindi or Bengali songs. Many of the rickshaw pullers come from lower middle class good families, with some education. I know a rickshaw puller, a graduate and a very good reciter of poems. In fact, he has bagged several prizes in recitation. His rickshaw is specially designed and very comfortable to sit in. The standard rickshaws are uncomfortable and you're likely to slide forward if you're not careful. But you won't find such rickshaw pullers in Kolkata. They are all illiterate and hail from a neighbouring state. They don't have any connection with the city.
But the rickshawallahs in the suburbs are all influential citizens. They have connection with the main nerve centre of the town's life. They are involved with its rise and fall, joy an sorrow. They know all the respected intellectuals and professionals; theives and rascals; generally even their houses. But the rickshaw pullers of Kolkata have no knowledge beyond the big road crossing and market.
There's another big difference between the pull rickshaw and the cycle rickshaw. The pull rickshaw sometimes overturns, but the cycle rickshaw rarely does, although once in a while it does fall down a khud or into a drain. The overturning of a pull rickshaw apparently appears funny, at the same time sad. Three couples known to me fell from pull rickshaws. In all three cases, the couples were bulky. The rickshaw puller was pulling the rickshaw when, all of a sudden, the joint weight of the bulky couple disbalanced the rickshaw and it went out of control of the rickshaw puller. The rickshaw went backward in a ninety degree angle and the passengers were thrown on the road, while the rickshaw puller went up and hung from the handle of the rickshaw and ultimately fell along with it. Generally, in such cases, there's not much injury to the passengers or the puller, except for a few bruises may be. But the couples involved are a bit shaken and don't dare to venture on a pull rickshaw for quite some time.
The cycle rickshaw does not overturn in such manner. But its speed sometimes throws it off its orbit and it is very dangerous. If not carefully driven, cycle rickshaw accidents are much more critical. I was thrown out of a rickshaw once while taking a sharp turn in full speed.