It’s December, travelers, and that means the fourth annual Classic Run is just right around the corner. Though registration is still open, the rickshaws are being painted, the stereos are being installed, and the teams are getting ready for the adventure of a lifetime!
But why should you travel to Tamil Nadu after Christmas and spend 11 days driving 1,000 kilometers in an autorickshaw? Check out this article for a good argument, then proceed directly to the registration page to get in on the action!
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.
US tourist hitches rickshaw, weds driver in a week:
A 26-year-old American tourist travelling in India hitched a ride in a rickshaw last week and married the driver a few days later.
Whitney from Chicago met her prince charming in Jaipur in Rajasthan, a state west of the capital famous for its stately palaces, after hailing a motorised rickshaw and hiring the driver for her stay in the city, the Mail Today newspaper said.
“On the third day, he surprised me by popping the question,” Whitney told the paper. “‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you’, he told me. I fell in love.”
After meeting last Saturday they were married on Wednesday in a simple ceremony. Whitney was pictured in the paper, standing with new husband Harish Hotala, wearing a traditional sari that covered her head.
The paper said Hotala was “a cabbie with a difference,” however. “Though a school dropout, he is fluent in English and owns three autorickshaws,” it said.
Motoring through crowded streets in auto rickshaws (aka tuk tuks), is my favorite mode of transportation in India. They are loud. They are subject to the wind and rain. They miraculously come within millimeters of pedestrians, cows, scooters, bikes, and other auto rickshaws. And they are fun as hell.
The three-wheeled vehicles are covered but door-less. With a two-stroke engine and handlebar controls, it’s similar to a ride at Disneyland, albeit without the circular track to nowhere. Unlike a sanitized, elevated ride in an air-conditioned four-wheel drive tourist vehicle, tuk tuks are the best mode of transport for a close-up look at daily life. You’ll whiz past vegetable markets and get a whiff of ripe bananas, hear locals haggle over goods, and get a birds eye view of monkey shenanigans on the roadside.
“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.”
It’s December, travelers, and that means the fourth annual Classic Run is just right around the corner. Though registration is still open, the rickshaws are being painted, the stereos are being installed, and the teams are getting ready for the adventure of a lifetime!
