Come June, rains, and with it the swanky Metro Rail. Not so long ago buses, air-conditioned and capacious, bright orange and glassy, brought in exciting freshness to the staid transport system. Alongside, taxis morphed into clean and noiseless vehicles to keep pace with smarter options for point-to-point travel. But cut back the years, to the 50s and 60s. A slow mode of travel, cycle rickshaws, plied the lanes of West Kochi. Today, a newly fabricated souvenir piece celebrates the defunct contraption, ridden by the city’s last cycle rickshaw wallah.
B Hameed is unsure of the year of his birth. One who is still pedalling a lost way of life, he tries hard to pin a figure to his weary years. He could be anything between 70 to 80, he says walking weakly to sit on the steps of a warehouse in touristy Jew Town. The memories he holds of Cochin place him to a much older vintage, reasons Rocky C Neroth, a senior antique dealer from the area. Rocky took kindly to Hameed, “because of the man’s character” and helps him earn a livelihood. He arranged to fabricate a customised rickshaw and Hameed now poses with it for souvenir snapshots of this remnant mode of transport. He charges a symbolic ₹1 from curious tourists who end up giving him more. “The money is just a token,” he says, a smile crinkling his weather-beaten face.
As a young boy Hameed lived in New Road, Mattancherry, and remembers a “shoot out”. “Gunshots,” he recalls and that’s when he came away to live in the warrens of the Jew Town neighbourhood. His first earning was from riding the rickshaw when he turned 12. Since then and till date the three-wheeled vehicle has been his life. It has brought him many adventures and introduced him to different kinds of people. “It has all been very nice,” he says, trying to flesh out distinct people and incidents from muddled memories. Of his family he has none; there was a sister who passed away. Hameed lives off the goodwill of people who know him and of his hard work down the years.
Rocky says, “I chose to help him because he is a good human being. He is a known face here. Along with him there used to be an old Christian lady who would sell rosaries. I learnt that she had passed away, and Hameed, despite belonging to a different faith, arranged for her burial and mass in a church. I take to him for his humane qualities.”
There were about 50 rickshaws that plied in the area, says Hameed, but dates it to the 70s. Rocky places it earlier to the 50s. “By the 70s there were just three or four rickshaws left. One belonged to M R Prabhu, a well known merchant. The Gujarati seths had their personal rickshaws and pullermen. The personal rickshaws used to be fancy with pretty canopies and upholstered seats, ” says Rocky.
When he decided to fabricate a new one, he contacted ‘Bicycle’ Venu, famous for innovative metallurgy. The two decided to use the best materials — teak and steel. The finest fabric was used for the seat and the canopy.
Travelling in rickshaws ceased completely 25 years ago. Autorickshaws, fancy cycles, cars and modern boats took over the transport scene. Hameed hung on to pedalling a fading way of life. He chose not to be part of the cycle rickshaw union, perhaps a reason that he remained an outlier to go on till today. His old rickshaw stands beside the newly minted one, covered with sack and plastic, a reminder of what was, a has been which in its prime stood him in good stead.
Pedalling a green way of life
Another cycle rickshaw, possibly the only other in the city, belongs to Fr. Prasant Palackappillil, Principal, Sacred Heart College. He uses it to champion a green cause — to propagate this mode of travel as environment friendly. He bought it six years ago from Uttar Pradesh along with his close friend Thomas Peechat, in-charge of nature related activities in the college, and uses it only inside the campus.
“Riding a rickshaw is about using a less polluting mode of transport,” says Fr. Prasant. Though he uses it sparingly, he had as a student set on a cycle ride from Mumbai to Kochi but gave it up after reaching Pune the next day. The rest of the journey was by train. He, though has successfully cycled from Bangalore to Mysore.
The manual cycle rickshaw has faded, replaced by the mechanised version, the black and yellow auto, an inexpensive popular way to get around in the city.
