Experts on three wheels

Experts on three wheels... that's just one way I would call the rickshaw drivers. A group of people I always find so amusing and interesting, because of a lot of reasons.

I do travel a lot by the rickshaw and really enjoy the trips too...at least the long ones. You get into one in the morning, announce your destination and there starts the fun. You have to be fortunate and possess really good convincing skills at times, to get some of them run for you. I am talking about the guys who run exclusive trips to the Moon. They won't take you to a place within 10 Km radius... they only eat big fish.! But sure are there guys who take you anywhere, through the shortest and least cluttered routes, giving you a description of the roads and places as you cruise along. If you are new to a place this can help a lot; just take such a guy from one end of the city to the other.

Then there are those who update you with the day's news in the morning. You will get to know the important news with a bonus analysis on most of them. And rest assured that you will get a totally different opinion on things. Some of them make you think, some bring a smile on your face and some forces you to respond. The other day one of them commented on my hairstyle ,as he noticed this one white hair. He suggested that I should not pull out the white one; according to him two will grow in its place if I pull out one. He also told me that applying oil on head has nothing to do with hair growth, which I surprisingly verified later as a fact, contrary to popular belief.

And there are the guys who have fitted their rickshaw with terrific audio systems. Don't confuse this 'terrific' with the 'terrific' terrific; I am just referring to the volume. Some of them are happy with few heads turning as the rickshaw zooms past the crowd. But there are real music aficionados too... the ones who love to discuss music. I like them and its great fun listening to Kishore Kumar or Mohd. Rafi as the driver educates you on the music of the 50s, 60s and the 70s. There will be occasional comments on today's music directors and how they destroy the beauty of music. According to one, Himesh Reshmaiah composes all his songs sitting in the bathroom, whining as he struggles with his morning rituals.

Either way its always a fun-ride... expect when the guy is busy chewing his pan and responds with all "mmm"s and "haaa"s.