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Road to nowhere...
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Once tonga was a preferred mode of communication for the rich and the richer. Now, this age-old romantic vehicle is fading out. Seen but rarely on the Delhi roads, it may soon become a relic of the past, says FIROZ BAKHT AHMED....
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The non-polluting tonga is hard to maintain, harder to find on Delhi roads.
IN THE age of automobiles who is bothered about the solitary tongawallah? Gone are the days of tongas. There were more than 3,500 tongas in 1971 and there are now only 100 tongas all over Delhi.
Maintaining a tonga according to Nasiruddin of Delhi's Jama Masjid tonga stand, is a tough job. A good horse costs anywhere from Rs. 70,000 to one lakh. Moreover, there is a very trying test for using the tongas as a mode of communication as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi charges an annual fee of about Rs. 2,000 from every tonga owner.
Besides, the minimum cost of a mediocre horse's daily food is more than Rs. 150 even though the tongas aren't carrying as much people as they used to about three decades ago.
Ram Dulare, who makes his living by maintaining a horse-driven tonga -- a mode of transport which is clearly the last vestige of a legacy unique to the country -- believes that in this day and age, when an ingenious set of four-wheels is the ultimate yardstick of rapid modernisation, the tonga is probably a misfit on the roads, unable to find its bearings among the fast and flashy cars. He earns only Rs. 100 a day. Whoever climbs onto the tonga nowadays, does it to experience the sheer novelty of it or for a joyride!
Whether it's Ram Dulare or Nasiruddin, they don't name their horses, as it is only the fancied horses that have names. "There are grand horses who have many a trick up their legs," Nasiruddin smiles. His fondness for Dhanno, her mistress Basanti of "Sholay" fame, is evergreen.
Nasiruddin says that tongas plying between Kauria Pul, Gandhi Nagar, Shahdara and Seelampur are dwindling today. Gulzar, another tongawala, laments that there are no good repair shops for the tongas in Delhi. Moreover, except for racing horses, Delhi doesn't have good veterinary doctors. They have to medicate the horses themselves using old time formulae and leaving the matter of healing to God.
Owing to the roads being blocked all over the city, the tongas, classified as the "slow moving vehicles", are banned and even if they were not banned, it would have been difficult for them to move in the congested roads.
For bringing the horse on the road, it needs quite a bit of pampering. Catering to all the mundane routine of changing the horseshoes, foraging fodder and tending to frequent limb injuries, is a tedious affair. Quips Nasiruddin, "It can get very hectic, but what can we do? The horse is our means of livelihood. It's like a member of the family."
Today, the tongas transport cartloads of shopkeeper's stuff. Truth is that a tonga demands lesser attention than the flashy cars and the ubiquitous auto rickshaws. Besides, a tonga has capacity to carry more luggage than the auto rickshaws.
Who knows that these tongas will one day come in the category of antique pieces, only to be found in the museums and the old Hindi films? But Ladli Prasad of Gandhi Nagar tonga stand is of the view that these tongas are destined to come back as Delhi is heading for utmost pollution levels.
Mohammed Mustaquim from Ajmeri Gate's tonga stand tells that the horses fall frequently sick as they are not in the habit of trotting at snail's pace. There are no places where to get the fodder for the animal. All his tongas in Ajmeri Gate are used to carry hardware, sanitary and electrical goods within the Old Walled City.
Harun Yusuf, MLA, Ballimaran recalls his childhood when he used to ride in the tongas with his father from Khari Baoli to Sadar. The main cause of tongas going off from Delhi's roads, according to him, are the congested roads. Almost all the wholesale trades are located in Old Delhi, where the majority of the markets like Sadar Bazar and Chandni Chawk are all in close proximity to one another and near the Old Delhi railway station.
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