This is hard to believe, but there is not a single legally authorised stand for the 55,000-odd auto rickshaws registered in the capital, says a suit filed by an NGO that is working to improve the lives of auto rickshaw drivers.
It was just another hot day in Jaipur when Harish, an autorickshaw driver, sees Whitney, a University of Chicago student, in the distance and was awestruck. He asks her out for a cup of tea and she says no. He asks again, and she says no again. But Harish’s persistence pays off, by the fourth time she comes around and they both grab a cup of tea. He shows her around Jaipur and, at the end of the day, he proposes to her. She accepts.
“Meeting at a car park near Juhu Juhu beach, we all drove the last 800 meters to the Marriot, our finishing line, together. A very sad last part of the journey as we’d had so much fun that it was a group consensus that no-one was ready to go home yet but it was fun driving in convoy together, with everyone filming everyone else on their camcorders and digital cameras.
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And so it was outside the Marriot in Mumbai, where our 2000 km’s journey ended and where more red bull drinks and media crews met us. We then very sadly handed over the keys to our rickshaws so that they could journey back to Chennai ready for the next set of insane explorers.”
An autorickshaw driver who gives free rides to the blind, donates money to an old age home and is trying to raise funds for the treatment of a sandwich vendor.
Sandeep Bachhe is an autorickshaw driver in Mumbai. More of him later, but first let me take you through his wonder autorickshaw. It has a television set tuned to good old Doordarshan — which incidentally is celebrating 50 years of transmission in India. Then there is also a board with the day’s price of gold, silver, dollar, pound and the yen.
Behind the driver’s seat hangs another chart with phone numbers of hospitals, theatres, hotels and airlines. You can also pick up the day’s papers and a couple of magazines in the rack behind him. ‘Do not spit,’ another notice admonishes you. There are pictures of Gods from all major religions. “All are welcome,” he says with a smile.
“I have been driving an autorickshaw for ten years. Whatever money I make I first give my family. The little that can spare, I give it to an old age home. During the beginning of the academic year for schools, we try and distribute notebooks to needy students.”
Indian tourism authorities will be holding English classes for auto-rickshaw drivers in New Delhi as the city prepares to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010.
More than 40,000 natural gas-fueled auto-rickshaws, or motorized three-wheeled taxis, run on the Indian capital’s dilapidated roads, according to the city government statistics.
The city is expected to host around 100,000 tourists during the Commonwealth Games scheduled from October 3-14 in 2010. About 9,000 athletes and officials of 52 Commonwealth countries are likely to participate.
Some 8,000 auto-rickshaw drivers will be enrolled in the training program that will involve classes in yoga, life skills, first aid, spoken English and psychometric tests, federal Tourism Secretary Sujit Banerjee announced Tuesday.
Recently back in Mumbai after a gruelling auto rickshaw driving odyssey, Australian travel writer Sharell Cook narrates her experiences in an exclusive to domain-b
My flight to Chennai, where the Mumbai Xpress Rickshaw Challenge would be starting from, was delayed nearly an hour. This gave me plenty of time to think about what the next couple of weeks, participating in the Rickshaw Challenge, might bring.
I felt totally unprepared. Even more troublesome, couldn’t help fearing what I’d suspected for quite a while India had finally sent me insane. What other explanation could there be for me agreeing to take part in an event that’s billed as a rally for the “clinically insane”? An event that would require me and my team mate to drive an auto rickshaw for 13 days, over 1,900 kilometers and through four states, from Chennai to Mumbai.
Despite living in India for over three years, I hadn’t been game enough to drive a car, let alone an auto rickshaw that I didn’t know how to operate. What’s more, as little as 30 minutes spent in one of those noisy three-wheeled contraptions was enough to irritate my ears and turn my hair into a knotted mess. How would I cope with 13 days in one? I had absolutely no idea. All I knew was that the opportunity was too hilarious and extraordinary to turn down.
“I have no idea how I’ll cope. I haven’t been brave enough to drive a car — which I know how to operate — in India yet, let alone an auto rickshaw! What’s more, merely spending 30 minutes in one of these noisy three wheeled contraptions is enough to irritate my ears and turn my hair into a knotted mess. However, without a doubt, it’s going to be one heck of an hilarious adventure.”
Aaah, the autorickshaw. Lovingly called ‘auto’ across the whole of India. You will not meet even a single Indian who does not know what it is. The one solution that is cheaper than a taxi and classier than the bus. The lone vehicle that can shake your very bones – which leave indelible impressions of the vibrant contours that form Indian road surfaces. Just look at it… I mean just look at it. The unique design of Indian autorickshaws: The pinnacle of “auto-save” – if it ever overturns… it has just the right “curves” to get itself back on its wheels. Whoever designed this thing obviously had in mind that if it ever turns around on it’s side, it will roll on to the upright position.
This is hard to believe, but there is not a single legally authorised stand for the 55,000-odd auto rickshaws registered in the capital, says a suit filed by an NGO that is working to improve the lives of auto rickshaw drivers.
