Taken for a ride

A coupla years ago, when I went home to my maternal grand-dad's house, one of my three rowdy cousins insisted, "Apa, let me take you around on my kinetic (Kinetic Honda)." He even insisted that I wear the jeans and the top he picked.

"Hmmm... what's the catch, beta?" I demanded.

"Haha, nothing nothing... I just want people to look ... and wonder who the girl with me is... value badhti hai." He grinned.

I could not help but laugh. Teenagers and their "value"! If only he remembered...

When I was ten, and he was just a little boy, I'd taken him for an unforgettable ride.

On a rickshaw.

When I was young, I'd spend every summer at my grand-dad's place. Grand-dad travelled a lot, and most of the time he took the car and the driver with him. The kids were really young, so he arranged for a public rickshaw to take them to school. The rickshaw would often be late, and sometime wouldn't even turn up. Their house was not in the route of the school bus either.

So my Grand-dad, with his cute eccentric ways, decided that he should buy a rickshaw, which came complete with a rickshaw-wala called Basanta (no, he's not the one in the pic, this is a random pic) to exclusively cater to the requirements of our family. In the morning, he would take the three kids to school, and in the afternoon, he would park the rickshaw in our garage, and he was free to moonlight the whole day, as long as he did not use our rickshaw and was available whenever we needed him. He got a monthly salary, plus tips from my grandma, aunt and Mom who often summoned him to take them for shopping trips. He lived behind our house, and summoning him was a special procedure. Bana or one of the kids had to crane their necks outta the window, and yell, "Basanta! Basanta! Basanta!" till he (or his wife, if he wasn't home) responded. He was then given the time when he was to be ready with the rickshaw.

So one boring Sunday afternoon, all the grown-ups were taking a nap (Back then, I often used to wonder why grown-ups took so many naps! Even now, I wonder!) and my cousin and I were just hanging out, with nothing to do. So we decided to go out in the blazing afternoon sun. We played cricket for a while, but in my excitement to hit a six, we quickly lost the last tennis ball we had. My cricket rules were simple - if you can find the ball, it's a six. If you can't, you're out.

"Hmm... now what?" He asked. "I'm so bored!"

I looked around. Suddenly, my eyes lit up.

"Listen, you wanna go for a ride?"

"In what??" He looked flabbergasted. I was obviously not talking about the car or the scooter.

I smiled a devilish smile.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"The rickshaw??"

"Yeah, what do you think?"

"But do you know how to ride it? It looks difficult. Basanta sweats a lot when he rides it, you know!"

"Arre, unlike a bicycle, it's got three wheels, so it's already balanced. And you're so light. No problem!" I assured him.

So I deposited him on the seat and got on the rider's seat. When I imagine it now, I laugh my guts out. But there was no one to see us. Except for a stray dog and a bull, there was no one crazy enough to be out in the blazing sun.

And so started our adventure. I'd been right. It was really easy to ride it. And luckily, I was wise enough not to venture into what we called 'the main road', which was out of bounds to us kids whenever we went out to play. So I rode the rickshaw for a while, with the little fella totally enjoying himself. Finally we had reached the end of the lane and it was time to turn the rickshaw around.

Uh oh.

I had to get off. He had to get off. We tried to turn it around by pushing it, but could not. We were kinda freaking out, when Basanta appeared out of nowhere like an angel. He gaped at us. He just could not believe what he was looking at.

"What are you two doing??? Get off the rickshaw! You want me to lose my job or what??"

"Basanta, can you take the rickshaw back?"

"Yes, get on the seat, you two!" He chided us.

We scuffled on to the seat and soon we were deposited home by a still very shaken Basanta.

"Now don't tell ANYONE, okay?" I instructed my cousin. "Otherwise we will really get into big trouble! Okay?"

"Okay!" He nodded.

The same evening, Mom wanted to go shopping, but Basanta was not at home.

"Hmmm... okay, I'll take a public rickshaw then." She said.

The moronic litte fella could not keep his mouth shut! "Oh, Apa can take you in the rickshaw!" He said earnestly.

I went red.

Everyone around burst into laughter. To my utter relief, they thought he was making a joke.

Phew.

I joined them sheepishly, "Hehehe..." at the same time, giving him a killer 'I'm so gonna kick your ass' look.

It's been years now. But I remember it. What a ride. What glorious days...