Halloween Party

Nicely told! But it is felt that in the end Raju should have retaliated more aggressively than being on defensive side. But I thik the hit was powerful to drain him unconsious. Atleast he could teach a lesson to that kid!
Anyways Rickhshaws have been a fascinating thing when we go to Punjab or a little down south to Pindi. But cycle rickhshaw is an exception as we have just heard or read about them of health hazards they cause to people who literally pull the load.

Re#12 Delhiwala

My dear Delhiwala

I certainly do not mean to minimize your rickshaw exploits – however, I’m sure you realize that riding the rickshaw as a recreational activity is not in the same league as having to drive it as part of a daily grind – day or night – to make a living.

Let me explain. Imagine, for a moment your joy of enjoying sex!

It lifts your spirits – or, without knowing your particular situation, at least one can reasonably assume that it does – when you do it, and ONLY when you do it, for YOUR enjoyment at an occasion of YOUR choosing with a person of YOUR choosing.

Yet, when you are FORCED to do it – no matter what your condition – good, bad, or ugly – the enjoyment is no more.

It becomes sheer bore! You become a prostitute – make no mistake about it – the physical act is the only similarity that remains.

In the same way, rickshaw the vehicle remains no more a tool – YOU become the tool – and the vehicle is the one that is riding you – riding you into the ground – it rides you like you have never been ridden before – it thrusts pain into every little piece of you – it fills you with pain till you have pain exuding from all parts of you – and no matter how much you try – and no matter how much you cry – the rain of pain keeps falling – till there is no more of you around!

Delhiwala – an occasional joy-ride will not make you feel the pain – it is not the real thing!

My dear Delhiwala, do you know any real things in life?

If you do, then you also know that real things in life are not fun!

When the real thing encounters us – you – if you are like the most most of us – would just run!

You would run like a billie!

No matter whether you are from Balia, or Dilli!

Sincerely,
Beej.

#9 Hamidm2

Thanks. I value your encouragement.


#11 Hamidm2

I mean to give no advice but I strongly encourage you to stay off the bottle. That stuff is almost in the same league as the ganja mentioned in this story – in the power of its lethal hold!

It’s the maya that makes us dance to its tune – the dance that sometimes turns deadly!

That dance of death!

And bear no ill-will toward the Sethji or the inspector. Most of us individuals have a bit of each – in each of us – no matter how strenuously we would deny it, decry it, or despise it.

These guys lurk around and grab us – when we are least aware or trying to stay least aware! They grab us with vise grip – and establish in no uncertain terms who the boss is.

Every time we skip a little! Every time we skimp a little!

That helping hand that was never extended – no matter what caused the hesitation!

That halting step that was withdrawn – after further consideration!

That act – of looking away – because what stared at us was not pretty – just real!

Promises forgot – people left to their lot!

There is no escaping the rot.

It inhabits every little “dot”!

#10 Subroto

Thanks.

[What you are Beej - is a story teller.]

Subroto, there is just one Storyteller – we are all little stories that have happened and are still waiting to happen – even as we happen – and all stories are boring – and all stories are interesting – and they make us cry so they can make us smile – until we die!

Go figure!

It’s a very “happening” place we live in!

Excerpt from the book
Chasing Rickshaws
by Tony wheeler
Born in Japan as the “man-powered vehicle” or jinrikisha, the rickshaw later metamorphosed into the cycle-rickshaw and in parts of Asia is still the true developing-world taxicab. Despite government opposition and competition for road space from faster motorized traffic, the cycle-rickshaw is still an enormously popular form of transport. Cycle-rickshaws are non-polluting, create employment at a relatively low cost and ideally fit the scale and traffic patterns of many Asian cities.

Also known as trishaws, sidecars, pedicabs, cyclos, becaks and a host of other local names, the cycle-rickshaw is much more than just a means of transportation. …In Beijing they disappeared during the Cultural Revolution, only to reappear in the 1980s. In Penang the riders are old and fading, while in Manila they’re often teenagers dreaming of moving on to jeepney driving. In Dhaka the cycle-rickshaws are both everyday transport and moving art galleries. In Singapore they’re disappearing as day-to-day transport but simultaneously being reborn as tourist attractions. In Hong Kong they’re both city icon and endangered species.

Not only does the rickshaw’s position in the transport mix vary from city to city, the riders and other rickshaw people are an equally mixed bunch. But they all have stories to tell. In our Asian travels we met with riders, owners, administrators, repairers, manufacturers and, of course, passengers. In Beijing we were lectured on how good rickshaw riding was for the health, in Calcutta we visited rickshaw pullers’ dormitories and in Dhaka we talked to the artists who paint and decorate the region’s most dramatically colorful rickshaws. In Hanoi we tracked down a scrap yard where confiscated rickshaws awaited their fate and in Penang we met with the city official who put riders through their riding test. Our favorite passengers were, without doubt, the schoolchildren who, in city after city, pile into rickshaws to ride to and from school each day. In two cities, Beijing and Manila, we encountered women riders (that is, pedalers). Encouragingly, neither of them had experienced any difficulty breaking into an overwhelmingly male occupation.

The rickshaw designs are as widely variable as their riders. Hong Kong still has a handful of the old hand-pulled rickshaws and Calcutta is the only city on earth where they are still used as everyday transport. In the other cities, the rickshaw, a creation of the 1880s, gave birth to the cycle-rickshaw during the 1930s and 1940s, but no standard pattern developed for this new-fangled device. In Manila, Rangoon and Singapore, the cycle-rickshaws are standard bicycles with attached sidecars. The Manila versions with their mini-bikes and youthful riders look like a toytown model, while in Rangoon the passengers ride back-to-back. In Agra, Beijing, Dhaka and Macau, the rider is out front and the passengers sit behind, as if the front part of a bicycle was mated with an old hand-pulled rickshaw. In Hanoi, Penang and Yogyakarta, the meeting of bike and rickshaw produced precisely the opposite result, as if the back part of a bicycle had been joined to the old rickshaw seating; as a result, the passengers sit, sometimes frighteningly, out front, watching oncoming traffic hurtling towards them.

At some time during our visits to each cycle-rickshaw city, I jumped on board and went for a test ride. Surprisingly, it was not as hard work as it looks, for despite their hefty weight, cycle-rickshaws are generally pretty low geared; as long as the streets are flat, it doesn’t take a great effort to roll them along. In Rob Gallagher’s exhaustive study of the rickshaw business, “The Rickshaws of Bangladesh,” he concludes that although rickshaw riding is hard work, it’s not any more arduous than other manual activities, like farming. What I found much more difficult than merely going forward was steering and stopping.

Cycle-rickshaws do not have a bicycle’s natural stability. Taking a corner on a bicycle is a simple matter of leaning slightly into the curve; when you straighten up, the bicycle does as well. That certainly isn’t the case with a cycle-rickshaw, which has to be wrestled into the corner and hauled back out of it. My first rickshaw experience, on a Yogyakarta becak, included a brush with a wall because I did not use enough brute force to straighten the beast out as we exited a corner. Riding a rickshaw in Agra, I had quite the opposite experience. The subcontinent’s rickshaws use a normal bicycle front fork and wheel, and as a result the front half of the rickshaw wants to act like a bicycle and veer off to one side when a sideways force is applied. I was cruising along a quiet road in the Agra cantonment district when a minor bump in the road suddenly sent my rickshaw diving off the road, skittering across the grass and plunging into the bushes!

Even without steering problems, the lack of rigidity which many cycle-rickshaws suffer from makes riding a less than straightforward activity. Most cycle-rickshaws are a mix of bicycle and rickshaw parts, joined together with a distinct deficiency of engineering precision. The front and back halves often feel as if they are squirming around and intent on disappearing in totally different directions. The Agra and Rangoon versions were particularly lacking in rigidity and disconcerting to ride.

Having got your rickshaw moving and round the odd corner, the final problem is bringing it to a halt. Cycle-rickshaws have lousy brakes. In most cases the problem of designing brakes for both ends seems to have been too much for the rickshaw’s designer, who’s opted to make do with braking at one end only. As a result, a weighty rickshaw with three people aboard has less braking power than a bicycle. The passengers-to-the-rear cycle-rickshaws of Agra and Dhaka have a regular bicycle front brake, although it is operated by both front brake levers in tandem so at least you can squeeze it twice as hard. The passengers-to-the-front cycle-rickshaws of Hanoi, Penang and Yogyakarta have different forms of brakes on the rear wheel only. The Penang and Hanoi versions are operated by a foot pedal which allows the rider to stand his weight on the brakes but requires an awkward motion when taking his feet off the pedals. All three are remarkably crude in their operation, and the Hanoi rickshaw not only provides minimal braking but makes horrible noises into the bargain. None of them stops very well.

Rickshaws have appeared in books and films -- the becaks of Jakarta featured centrally in “The Year of Living Dangerously,” while Calcutta’s hard-working rickshaw-wallahs were the stars of “The City of Joy” -- and the machines, their riders and their customers have been studied by engineers, evaluated by transport economists and analyzed by sociologists.

BeejWa,
I dont want you to freak out but the truth is that I have not only ridden those but driven those, just to see the pain of a Rickshaw Puller in Naampalli(Hyderabad).
It was for fun, me and my friends were partially tallee, we had just eaten a hearty Chinese Food at Blue Diamond. We saw one poor Muslim Rickshaw Puller and decided to give him a ride for about 2 KMS.

If my recollections serve me right, biggest pain was in the Balls and it really hurts. That is why many of them tie their Lungi/Dhoti in ``Gasta`` Style of Maharashtrian woman to support the testicles.

Waise, In Punjab area majority of the Riskshaw Pullers are from Bihar or UP. Even them have lot of rivalry.

Oh! Forgot to mention they usually get Hernia after 10-20 years of Rickshaw Pulling. I was told so by a Doctor.

En Sussra Rickshawala Logan ko Neew Yaark mai bullay lijjye, Sala tAxi

beej,

......... the last paragraph really depressed me - i normally don`t drink during the week but i poured myself one ............ what the heck - it is halloween and the little goblins have been ringing the door bell for the last two hours and i am almost out of candy ......... and the more i think about it, the madder i get - i want to smack the sethji and the inspector and his clan ......... the next kid who rings the bell better watch out !

What you are Beej - is a story teller. And you are at your best when telling a story. You may have a tendency to get carried away in your posts on chowk but when you tell a tale simply, without embellishments I`d read it anytime. I`d still say there is a book inside waiting to be published.

beej,

.... good job !.......you do have a way with words - i like them a lot more than your photography !.............. now can you please go and do a literary critique on the ``piece of .- `` written by that pompous poseur, ozer khalid - i just don`t have the energy and saminasha is on vacation ............

Another nail in the coffin of the myth that any one particular state has a monopoly on the rickshaw pulling enterprise.

In Varanasi (Benares) – cycle-rickshaws dominate the streets in the city center


(Photo: courtesy of www.tropicalisland.de)

Re#6 Delhiwala

My dear Delhiwala,

I appreciate your well-meaning and helpful suggestion. I believe I understand what you are saying – but the use of the “dot” at the end of “Beej” is by design.

I sometimes imagine being a lot like a little dot in the scheme of things.

Dots are small, yet they are whole.

Dots can be considered insignificant – yet there would be no larger picture without them!

Let me repeat what I just wrote on an adjacent board –

“ ...In reality, we are insignificant dots on the nature’s canvas – most of the beauty is elsewhere – and it does not fade.”

There is no way for me to overemphasize the significance of that little “dot”!

Therefore Delhiwala – the dot stays – whether or not one chooses to follow the dotted line!

Sincerely,
Beej.

PS: Have you ever ridden in one of those rickshaws?

Re: # 4
Beej Bhaiya,
Thaaaank Jou! spitting my choona wala palang torr paan. pich.pich.....

Did you take any creative writing lessons in Angrezi from Amrikan college?

You do have good English skills, however one tiny-tot....

do not put ``.`` after your name.

{Beej.}

And just to make sure we do not overdo the regional aspects, as most of the chowk members can figure out from that graffiti on the wall – the cycle rickshaw is not limited to the state of Bihar alone. Notice the great shape the vehicle is in, the beauty of its surroundings, and the multiple locks at various strategic locations - including one under the seat!



(Photo: courtesy of the web site http://static.flickr.com)

#2 Raw_Dust

Thanks, and personally I think there is nothing ``raw`` about you!


#3 Delhiwala

Dear Delhiwalla,

I just returned to the board and read your #2 and am ready to roll all over the floor in laughter.

You are hilarious! And your vocabulary from that part of the world is astonishing – you are absolutely positively more resourceful than I could ever be in the wildest of my dreams.

Do you realize that you have some real potential here – impersonating a certain politician from my state of Bihar. You should seriously consider it as a part-time side activity – the audiences will be thrilled.

I just thought another use for this particular skill of yours – when you get mad at some of the interactors, just switch into this mode and you can win ANY argument – the adversaries will be too busy trying to figure out the meaning of those words to put up any worthwhile resistance!

However, don’t be so “hard” on the Sethji, most people take the easy way out when push comes to shove – that’s just a reality in life – and the weakest link in the chain gets the first shot at being snapped!

I see that sambhar is good for the soul – I must consider it.

Sincerely,
Beej.

BeejWa,
Tumhar Ko Kah Ho Gawa Bhaiya?

Oho sussra Sethijee Ka Chootar mai Jootey Sarson Ke-Teyl mai bhigoo kar lagaye kahe ko nahee? Zarda Charah Ke soosra, lakdee Garam karat hai. AkkkkThoooo!

Eh RajuWa tumhar Kauno cousinwa lagat hai Ka?

Hamar ko Tumhar KhabarWa bhee milat hai, Baliya Jilley Mai, tumka ek baar Thumka Lagawat dekhe the, Rabri Bhaujee Ke saath.

good finish!

cheers.