RRR (Rainy Rickshaw Ride)☔🌂🌧️

 

With the rainy season finally  commencing in full swing it brings along with it a lot of memories for everyone spanning from childhood to teenage to adulthood.... so on and so forth.

 

But what I remember profoundly is the rainy ride back home from school, especially the one in the rickshaw. So it used to be almost 8-9 of us traveling in the rickshaw back home. Four on one side, four on the other and one with rickshaw wale Kaka (uncle) at the front, a little too much for the little rickshaw but for Kaka to buy a Van he had to have 8-9 of us.

 

Before the rickshaw started there were some ground rules, firstly we had to find our rickshaw and then find our rickshawmates and guide them to the rickshaw so that everyone's time is saved, secondly places used to be fixed for some seasons and rotating mostly during rains as the one sitting beside the doors (or maybe we can call them plastic flaps) used to get wet, then thirdly keep all the bags at the backside so that there is enough space for all of us to sit or actually somehow fit in and lastly the raincoats should be removed before entering the rickshaw and umbrellas be closed and kept at the foot of the respective possessor. Also all of this never happened peacefully because none of us was good at the art of removing raincoats, closing the umbrella, saving ourselves from rain, not getting others wet and then finding our place in the rickshaw.

 

(PS: Little did I know that what seemed the most difficult task back then which involved so many sub- tasks and then finding a place in the rickshaw was actually analogous to doing so many things in life and then finding your place in the world! I think both were and still are equally challenging)

 

Well then the ride finally used to start. Honestly sitting beside the door was very adventurous because otherwise it was all dark and damp. But the door side seat offered a lot, which included little bit of drizzle that felt very refreshing after a long day at school, soothing cool breeze, some good- bad smells, the rainy views of the town seen from the slits of the door, water splashing from the pits and all of us shouting in unison, discussing our day at school, also the task of informing whose home is coming so that the bag can be removed from the back and the kid is ready to get down. One more fun thing was that every time someone used to get down, the one sitting in the window seat had to first get down with his/her umbrella and then drop that person and then quickly get back in the rickshaw to avoid getting drenched. But even after so many cautions it was impossible to reach home completely dry because even when we used to sit in the middle, the wet umbrellas and raincoats kept at our feet made sure drip by drip that our socks and shoes were moistened or damp.

 

So during such rainy rides we used to ask our rickshaw wale Kaka why he was not buying a Van so that we could be saved from all the chaos. So when we were kids he used to say that because ours is a rickshaw you all can easily spot it among the other vans and we used to be like Kaka, please buy a van we will find that also but as we grew up he told us the real reason  was the finances. But finally after a very long wait he also bought a van and we all were so happy. But the rains in Van were very boring as we had to close all the windows and there was no drizzle hitting our faces, no pit water splashing, no views between the slits and a lot more no's that only our dear rickshaw could offer. As they say you realize the importance of some things only when you leave them, they leave you or they are over, the same saying goes with the rickshaw, I miss you and all that you had to offer!

 

Stay tuned,

Until next time,

Keep reading.

 

-Siddhi Bhosale.

Illustration by: Kashish Singh.