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Pedalling into oblivion

PHOTO: T.SINGARAVELOU

LONE SURVIVOR A rickshawman in a jungle of four wheelers

A novel way to look around Puducherry is on a cycle rickshaw,” says one of the numerous blogs on this Union Territory. What was once a ubiquitous sight is now being described as ‘novel’. Cycle rickshaws used to run dime-a-dozen on the neat angular streets of Puducherry until recently. Officials say that today, only about a hundred ply the roads. Cycle rickshaws are fast disappearing from Puducherry’s landscape.

Cycle rickshaws were certainly unique when they first arrived on the scene. A long-time resident of Pondicherry recalls that earlier, the rich travelled on a palanquin carried by men. Later, in the 19th Century, the pousse pousse (meaning ‘push push’ in French) became a popular mode of transport. It was an early form of the rickshaw, a three-wheeler that was pushed from behind, as the passenger steered the vehicle in whichever direction it was required to go, using a steering rod. (The pousse pousse has been exhibited in the Puducherry Museum.) Gradually, the hand pulled rickshaw took over.

The cycle rickshaw first made an appearance in this coastal town after the Second World War, when a gentleman from Singapore arrived with his own cycle rickshaw. Soon, the hand-pulled rickshaw was displaced, and cycle rickshaws, both single and double seaters became more common.

Until the arrival of a mode of transport that was faster and involved nearly no physical effort (the auto-rickshaw in the 1980s), cycle rickshaws reigned supreme as the primary mode of public transport. Rich families had their own rickshaws and drivers that they took around. Sri Aurobindo Ashram Printing Press had its own cycle rickshaw as recently as three years back, until the regular users of the rickshaw died.

“Port towns first had access to cycle rickshaws because of their arrival from Singapore. Madras had many cycle rickshaws too. But one of the reasons why cycle rickshaws suited Pondicherry is perhaps because the town has no slopes. Riding a cycle rickshaw is easy here,” the resident says.

But an auto rickshaw is faster too. “Some cycle rickshaw drivers now drive autos. People prefer the fast life. That is why cycle rickshaws are not popular anymore,” rues a cycle rickshaw driver. Just as the palanquin and the pousse pousse have made it into the portals of museums as exhibits, the cycle rickshaw is fast on its way to becoming a relic of Puducherry’s past.

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