Confessions of a Rickshaw Puller

“My rear view mirror is my entertainment. When I carry a couple getting comfortable with each other, I look in the mirror…”

I am from East Bengal and when I was young I wanted to be an actor. But when I was nine years old, my uncle got me to Delhi and gave me a rickshaw to drive. Since then, it has been 25 years. Being poor and illiterate, this is all I can do to make a living. However, I’ll make sure that when my children are old enough, I’ll send them to a government school.

I work from 6 am to 10 pm, and earn around Rs 250 a day. I send Rs 3,000 to my relatives in the village every month.That leaves me with just enough to feed myself, my wife and kids. My wife also earns by washing utensils in a few houses.

I live in a little room in the Jamrakpur locality of Delhi. There are a couple of more rickshaw pullers in the area. We men don’t have many aspirations, all we want is to get dal-roti twice a day, and a roof over our heads.

My passengers usually speak in English. Initially I understood nothing. I asked a friend of mine to teach me English. He wasn’t too good at it either, but I can catch a little bit of what they say now.

If a passenger seems unsure of the route, or if there is no other rickshaw around, I ask for more fare than usual. They usually agree, and I get to make some extra money on those days.

My rear view mirror is my entertainment. When I carry passengers dressed in a funny manner, or a couple getting comfortable with each other, I look in the mirror, smile to myself and keep cycling.

I often get shouted at, at times beaten, for bumping into other cars. In the past 25 years, the number of cars on the road has increased and using a rickshaw in such traffic is not easy. It’s not just the traffic, everybody is driving so fast.

Policemen are a nuisance. They shoo us away, saying we cause traffic jams, but they never send away the big cars. How are we going to get passengers if we don’t stop and wait for them?

(This man has been a rickshawalla for 25 years)

As told to Udita Chaturvedi

carrieremigrantrickshaw puller