Gangaram
Been born and brought up in the same city (same neighbourhood more like) my childhood seems pretty uneventful to me. Leaving aside the minor skirmishes of sibling rivalry, my scrappiness in outdoor events and a few illness stricken periods, there were never major instances of the belonging crisis, short lived friendships, or for that matter moving or shifting. For the 2 or 3 times we moved, we just shifted by a block or two. Never ever had to leave the coziness of my sweet and charming west nagpur neighbourhood. Having stated that, Gangaram holds a very special place in my uneventful childhood.
For he was, my rikshawala for a span of 4 years. From 3rd standard to 6th. He was my first friend from the other side of the age line. And I think for that matter all of us, for whom he was a rikshawala. He did not have a very good looking rikshaw, but it was very well maintained and neat. He also had a secret hiding place beneath the rikshaw seat where he kept all the mechanical tools and we were forbidden to even lift the seat a bit without his permission. Those were his rules. He had a flaring temper, rude mannerisms, rash language but there was a mischievous charm about him. He would never talk rudely with our parents or us. But other rikshawalas and their pampered kids always used to be targets of his rustic sarcasm. He would always indulge in silly banter with us kids. Sometimes hiding away our bags or waterbottles if we showed him any attitude or were careless with his rikshaw!
He seemed (and still seems) pretty ageless (might have been in his 50s back then) to me as a kid. I would always ask mom dad how old he must be. Cos I always used to wonder how a single person can ride a rikshaw filled with 10 kids without any help ?? (I also used to wonder how many kids he might have, where he lived, what he ate, but strangely never bothered to ask :-|) Super duper herculean stuff! Literally! And on Saturdays he used to pull a rikshaw full of almost 15 kids (because kids from a stupid nearby school used to join us). And since we were used to the royal treatment and our coveted positions in the rikshaw, we made deals with Gangaram. On Saturdays he would let us sit on the balcony (terrace) seats called the TUP and in turn lessen the chaos and pain in his life :D For this dude had issues with our rivalry and fights for the throne.
And then it reminds me of the infamous incident. On one such Saturday, there was something wrong with his rikshaw and we were given the responsibility of holding an iron spike and also not make any noise. No points for guessing we messed it up, one of us (we had turns to hold that thing) dropped the spike, it got stuck in the rikshaw wheels and all hell broke loose. Galti se! The next thing I remember is a very angry Gangaram shouting, us getting down with our stuff all teary and he helping us cross the road. He then instructed us to head home on our own and went back to his broken rikshaw. Thinking this is the last time we were seeing him, we waited for him to call back our names and say goodbye. Oh sweet innocence. Of course, he did not.
To our surprise and shock, he was back the next morning (with a fit and fine rikshaw), politely listening to our parents lecture about being responsible. That incident was never mentioned by him or us. And guess we were back to being a team!
I still see him pulling the same rikshaw filled with boisterous kids. And he gives the typical mischievous grin and tells me how my bike wheels are rotating in the reverse direction. Well that's his trademark!
I owe you one Gangaram for making my childhood so eventful! :)
~nightflier
P.S. Have they found a cure for incurable nostalgia ?