The Rickety Rickshaw

A story from my first trip to Indore that I am just now getting to telling…
My coworker Prajna and I spent most of my second day there waiting to meet with the city engineer. Our appointment, which was scheduled for the morning, got pushed back to the late afternoon so we had some time to kill. We decided to check out a restaurant that Prajna had heard of that serves traditional Indorian food. We looked up the restaurant on the internet and it appeared to be a few blocks from our hotel, so we walked there. Upon getting there we saw that it was actually the restaurants office. We asked around and found out where the restaurant was, then hailed a rickshaw. When it pulled up, Prajna noted that the rickshaw was particularly decrepit and asked if I wanted to wait for another. I said I was sure it would be fine and jumped in. Reluctantly Prajna followed my lead.

Almost immediately I realized why Prajna had hesitated to ride in the rickety rickshaw. The vibrations of the aged vehicle going over the deteriorated roads were like someone in a cartoon trying to awaken another character from a deep slumber by violently shaking him. After about 10 minutes we asked how much longer it was to get to the restaurant. The driver said it was pretty far and kept driving. He seemed to be heading away from the city, but I didn't say anything because I knew that we had time to kill.

20 minutes later it was clear that he was indeed leaving town, or at least on the very outskirts. Prajna said to me, maybe he wasn't clear where we asked him to take us. I wondered what he might have had in mind. Just then, the rickety rickshaw started to make sputtering noises and gradually came to a halt. Luckily, the driver was able to fiddle with the engine (well, fiddle then bang) and get it started again.

When we finally got to the restaurant, we had been driving for an hour and had two more breakdowns followed by the driver coaxing the engine back to life. Even crazier was the destination. He had taken us to a resort town/amusement park. We showed up for lunch, but most people there had come for the water park. The food was good though. It was a feast, all of the day’s eating in one sitting. Such a shame that we couldn’t stay for karaoke or a show in the amphitheater. I did get a picture with the larger-than-life ziither though!



Anyways, I was inspired to write a haiku:

Rickety rickshaw
Plying on the bumpy roads
Hope that it won’t die

Rickety rickshaw
Shaking, squeaking, vibrating
Smoke fumes make me high

And here is the star of this tale: