Auto-rickshaw drivers – Rickshaw Challenge

Tamil Nadu Run 2016 – All Good Things Come to an End

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 14:20:24 +0000

Nothing lasts forever and neither does the Rickshaw Challenge Tamil Nadu Run 2016. After a week full of crazy and wild adventures, our eleven teams from all over the world have returned to the starting point in Chennai for – all safe and sound, with an abundance of stories to tell about their rickshaw adventure. Time for the last report from our man in the field, Princely:

Day 6 – When You Show Too Much Enthusiasm For The Picture Challenge

Yercaurd morning is a beautiful morning with mist on the hill station and the pleasant sound of birds added music to the scene. In this idyll the teams prepared their tuk tuk for the makeover challenge. Except team 4, 6 and Team 11, all participated in it and they showed the eagerness to win the championship. By 8 am all the teams gathered for the briefing.

Team Rainbow Warriors adding even more rainbow to their rickshaw

From the break of the morning, a Lady form Chennai just kept admiring the rickshaws and started asking plenty of questions regarding the challenge. She just could not stop admiring our adventurers doing the makeover. As a neutral person, I asked her to judge the makeover based on practicality and elegance.
All the teams left the hotel at around 8.15 am. I reached the hotel early at around 3 pm. After a quiet day without any breakdowns, at around 5 pm., Team Neruppu Da! gave me a call. They had been detained by the police. After an hour of ordeal, I had to eventually interfere and found that they were caught in wrong situation as they had some heap of stones to deal with the monkeys and additional petrol in a water bottle.

Using fake guns as rickshaw decoration is not always a good idea.

The day’s challenge was to take a picture of the police with the rickshaw. Seems like Team Neruppu Da was a bit too enthusiastic about it! Luckily I could bail them out and the nervous time for the team was over and they laughed and shared the jokes with rest of teams at the dinner time.

Day 7 – A Rickshaw Loving Ambassador

The final day excitement and the thought of the finish line gave all the participants a mixed feeling. As usual we planned for an early start and wanted to regroup at Tambaram (a suburb, 30 km before Chennai) for the finish ceremony. Team Neruppu Da called for assistance about half an hour after we left the hotel. Otherwise, it was a lightning day. Teams arrived at the regrouping place, well in time except Team Indiaree and Team Let’s go Jozi. The late quickly joined us but Team Indiaree missed the finish.

Her Excellency admiring Team Neruppu Da’s Rickshaw

The Mexican ambassador for India, her Excellency Ms. Melba Pria, famous for her rickshaw drive to office, was invited as chief guest of the event by Round Table India. The participants were thoroughly happy about the reception, the school kids gave them and humbled by the presence of the ambassador. They enjoyed few entertainments from the kids of the school.

Team Neruppu Da, the happy winners if the Tamil Nadu Run 2016!

The awards were distributed and Team 3 – Nerupu da was awarded the champion trophy. Team 2BrokeGirls were honored with the Bonkers Award and the charity award went to Team Rainbow Warriors. The final drive to the base hotel was convoyed and except that some teams ran out of fuel for a last time, we arrived at the hotel safely.

Making friends at the finish party.

The finish party and fellowship was a great hit, where a couple of surprising stories of a crash in the bush and burning fire crackers during the travel were revealed to me. Well, well, well, the teams had a great time during the event and their laughter and fun said it all.
Meet you for another adventure!

Are you crazy enough to come along for the ride? Then join us on the next Rickshaw Challenge. Get a team together and let’s see you at the starting line! If you want to join us in spirit, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagramto keep up with our latest antics.

Crazy Roads & Wild Parties – The Mumbai Xpress 2015 Takes Its Course

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 14:18:02 +0000

Two weeks of crazy adventures lie behind our 17 brave teams participating in this year’s Mumbai Xpress, a rickshaw adventure across India for the daring ones. We’ve already reported from the first days of the challenge, now you can find our teams made it till the finish line and what adventures they met on their way!

Day 5: Panchgani to Ratnagiri

Photo by Charlie Varley from team Naan of Your Business

After Panchagani, the teams left the Millennium Hotel and headed towards Ratnagiri. The day went smoothly and all of them arrived in the hotel before the stipulated time.Team 5, Snap Crackle and Popadum, went on various detours and they were happy to explore India on a totally different route. All enjoyed the beauty of the Western Ghats of India, which was a trip that definitely changed everybody’s perception of India.

Day 6: Rathnagiri to Panaji

Photo by John Mcgivern from team The Indians.

After arriving in Panaji, the city worked its relaxing charm on the participants. Most of them went to the Casino on the river, to see if they were lucky – and indeed, Fortuna was smiling upon them, since nobody lost all the amount of money they had spent on chips.

Day 7: Panaji

Photo by Min Chai from team N2 Extreme Tuk Tuk.

A well deserved day of rest in Panaji gave all teams the possibility to relax and to recover their strength for the second half of their crazy rickshaw adventure. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Team 16, which left the rally from Panaji.

Day 8: Panaji to Murudeshwara

Photo by Liane Wicks from Ice Ice Bhaji.

The next day saw the teams racing from Panaji to Murudeshwara, but not before they had visited a school, where they enjoyed distributing gifts and frolicked with the kids. Another day of easy drive and all the teams had reached the hotel before 6.30 pm. The first team to enter the hotel had clocked in already at 3.30 pm. And even though the teams visited some unknown beaches and experienced the local customs, they always made it in time and still had many stories to share. After a long day of driving, the teams met in the evening for a great night in the Naveen Hotel.

Day 9: Murudeshwara to Mangalore (Mangaluru)

Photo by John Mcgivern from team The Indians.

The lovely night in Murudeshwara’s and a warm morning had put all the teams in high spirit. Knowing that it was a short distance to Mangalore, some of the teams had a walk around the city in morning and Team 5, Snap Crackle Popadum, went for a swim at the beach. Surprisingly, they still arrived in Mangaluru in time with an average speed of 40 km per hour. In the evening, all the teams went out to enjouy the night in a bar, which they had discovered in the internet.

Day 10: Mangalore to Mysore

Photo by John Mcgivern from team The Indians.

After a short day of drive, the teams spared no effort to make sure, that everything was okay with their rickshaws. Strange noises from unidentified parts of the vehicles had made them become anticipative of a major breakdown. In morning, we had a great school visit and all of the 6 attending teams had an amazing time. By 2pm all the teams had passed Madikeri town. Then the Kushalnagar sign board challenge was posted before they could reach Mysore.
In the evening, many teams visited the market and the palace, which both made for a fun night. As the city was preparing for Dasara, the colours of Mysore were a great sight. Team 11, N2 Extreme Tuk Tuk, went off to hunt some incense and bought some sticks and sandalwood syrup.

Day 11: Mysore to Bangalore

Photo by Max Craven from team Tuk Buddies.

Based on their drive from Murudeshwara to Mangalore, many teams begann their day in Mysore with sight seeing. Six teams turned up for the school visit and enjoyed dancing and signing with the children. Even though today’s distance was a very simple drive of just 30 km to Bangalore, all the teams got stuck in the pitfalls of Bangalore’s traffic. Team 15, the Monsoon Riders, called for support at 1pm, when they had just 15 km left to the hotel in the suburbs at the silk board. The support team was alerted and they found them within an hour and did a great job. All the teams arrived at the hotel before 7 pm and the day ended – where else – at the Envy Bar in the La Classic Hotel.

Day 12: Bangalore to Vellore

Photo by Robert Ford from team Aba Daba Chaba.

Time for one last school visit! All 5 participating teams were warmly welcomed and quickly charmed by the children, like so many teams before. The day went smoothly and even the new hotel, which we had to test last minute, surprised with pleasantness and great cooperation.

The Final Day Bash: Vellore to Chennai

Photo by Ashleigh Grant from Team Smurf.

In Vellore, the teams were informed about the day’s program. The morning project visit went as planned and it was great to see 13 teams participating, even though we had a few little hiccups: Team 2 missed the regrouping spot and decided to go back to the hotel, while Team 3 was miserably directed and lost lots of time, but managed to sneak in in time for the presentation.
Chief guest of the meeting was Dhansika an upcoming star in Tamil film industry.

And The Winners Are…

Photo by John Mcgivern

And now finally the part we have all been waiting for! Who is the winner of the Mumbai Xpress 2015?
Team 14, The Indians, scrambled for the victory in our crazy rickshaw adventure! The Charity Award goes to Team 9, Temporarily Misplaced, and the Bonkers Award for “special achievements” goes to Team 4, a.k.a Team Smurf. We congratulate all of you and hope, that you will always remember your epic rickshaw journey with the Travel Scientists across India!!
The occasion was celebrated in a right and proper manner – with a truly epic party!

Temples, goats and potholes – Ride along from Pondicherry to Thanjavur

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 04:57:24 +0000

Leaving the cyclone behind, day 2 on the Rickshaw Challenge took us away from the coast into deep Tamil Nadu, into the mysical world of ancient temples, goats that eat everything, friendly locals, terrible roads and of course, more breakdowns.
Day 2, Pondicherry to Thanjavur
After a night of partying, most of our teams slumped in the hotel lobby nursing a hangover during the briefing. While the ride to Pondicherry might have had its challenges, our teams had no idea just what the country roads of inland Tamil Nadu had to offer for the day.
The teams sped through Pondicherry’s labyrinthine streets over to the seafront for the flag off from the Gandhi statue, although, the event wasn’t without chaos. Amidst the members of the Indian press and our participants, street salesmen flocked over with mini chess sets and statues of Ganesh, shaking things up a bit. In the pandemonium, South African team Hakuna Matatu lost the keys to their rickshaw. They must have found them though, since next we heard from them they were making friends with locals who helped them during a breakdown.

“It’s the mayoral send-off at the beach front and team Hakuna Matata has lost its keys…” photo by Mandy Ramsden from team Hakuna Matatu

On the road to Thanjavur, we stopped off in two towns famous for their temples. I ran into some of the teams having lunch in Chidambaram in what looked like a converted garage covered with a corrugated roof and simple tables and chairs. The food came served up on a banana leaf, a delicious mix of rice, vegetarian curries and hot pickles, and made us forget the dodgy look of the place. It was packed with locals, which as a rule of thumb means the food is good and less likely to incur the infamous “Delhi Belly”.

Chidambaram – The Temple of the Dancing God

The Nataraja Temple, dedicated to Shiva as the Dancing God, was unfortunately closed until 4pm, however, we managed to catch a glimpse of the towering gopurams, gateway towers leading into the temple. We had to make do with snapping photos through the bars barricading the brightly coloured Dravidian structure. Then at the small market area outside the temple, a goat dragged a string of flower garlands off one of the tables, only to have the owner chase after the goat to get them back. This, however, was not the only flower-hungry goat encountered on the Rickshaw Challenge Classic Run 2015, but the Bavarian Barbarians also snapped a photo of a goat eating more flower garlands off the Wacky Racer’s rickshaw!

“Of course you can eat the decoration…” photo by Martin Schmidmaier from the Bavarian Barbarians

Our next port of call was the mystical town of Kumbakonam famed for its temples and fortune tellers. It might look like any other local junction town, but it was once a seat of medieval power, and has a number of spectacular temples. At the entrance of one of the temples, some of the women stopped us, pointing to our shoes, indicating we had to take them off and leave them at the steps.

The Kumbeshwara Temple in Kumbakonam.

I braved leaving my shoes and peeked inside the temple. Wandering around, it’s hard to gauge just how vast the complex is, where pilgrims sleep under the colonnade and a group of women in sparkling red saris disappear down the candle lit corridors. It was only after leaving, when I heard from one of my team members that the corridors lead to a huge lake, where the women went to bathe in their garments.
After a swig of coconut water, I hopped into the Ambassador car to trail the teams back to Thanjavur. We broke down somewhere in the country side about 15km outside the city, pushed the car for about half a kilometer before getting towed into town by a truck with a motorbike, a TV and a guy sitting in the back.

“Back street surgery…” photo by Mandy Ramsden from team Hakuna Matatu.

We only broke down once, but most of our rickshaw drivers reported a breakdown count of more then 20! Eat My Shawdust got lost on the way to Thanjavur, and Princely had to go and rescue them. Game of Horns made it back late, since they turned into a taxi service for the locals en route, and so did the Christmas themed Aussies Mighty Mouse and the Triangle, who tipped their rickshaw not far from the hotel. Fortunately a big crowd gathered around and tipped them back upright – an event worthy of a feature in the local newspaper.

Group selfie on the road! Photo by The Trashbags

We all made it to Thanjavur safely, some later than others, but we’re hoping the road to Madurai will be a smoother journey.
Check out who is in the lead to be the winner of the Rickshaw Challenge Classic Run 2015!

mGaadi: Book Auto Rickshaws

admin — Thu, 22 May 2014 08:15:40 +0000

mGaadi is a commuting service from India Drivers Network, a Bangalore-based social enterprise with an initial focus on auto rickshaw drivers and commuters.
We are building a location-based network of commercial drivers (starting with auto rickshaw drivers) and powered by customer ratings. Our mission is to dramatically improve the quality of commuting in Indian cities while delivering a suite of livelihood and social security services to drivers.
mGaadi is a service to hail and book auto rickshaws in Bangalore. mGaadi network drivers always agree to go on meter. A pickup fee of Rs. 10 payable to the driver. The mGaadi app also incorporates GPS metering, allowing the commuter to validate the auto rickshaw’s meter fare.

mGaadi, Go Places!

Rickshaw Drivers Prank

admin — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 10:54:30 +0000

Rickshaw drivers Mumbai prank by Funk You
‘This prank was played in Mumbai with Rickshaw drivers who always have a tendency to travel as per their will, and not as per the customer’s desire to go to a location. Hence, customers have to wait till a rickshaw agrees to go to the desired location.’

Prank with Rickshaw drivers in Mumbai

Dial A Rickshaw

admin — Thu, 19 May 2011 05:44:40 +0000

IndiaCommutes – a communication channel connecting commuters and auto-rickshaw drivers.

‘IndiaCommutes (InCom) is focussed on solving commute related issues in urban India by using community & location intelligence. Currently doing a pilot in Pune, InCom is offerering Dial-a-Rickshaw service over the phone. In the future same service will be extended over Web and SMS.’

The program has the following benefits to its customers/drivers: convenience, cost-effectiveness, safe commute and fuel saving (since auto drivers don’t need to roam around looking for customers.), helping passengers and drivers plan trips in an optimized way.

Via: IndiaCommutes, YourStory.in

The Delivery: Short Film

admin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:32:30 +0000

Ramu and Goldy are two babies separated at a tattoo parlor in India under tragic circumstances. 30 years later, Ramu, now an auto rickshaw driver and Goldy, an ambulance driver meet at a traffic light.

The idea for this film by Arjun Gupte came form his encounters with auto rickshaw drivers in Bangalore and Chennai.

‘They are some of the most colorful characters around and stories about their exploits are legendary as they break almost every rule and cause mayhem on the roads. I come from India and it was important for me to get a unique look and feel that represented what my country was all about, a mish-mash of colors, shapes, people and animals all living together.’

Via: Arjun Gupte

Now, Delhi auto drivers have reasons to be reasonable

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:13:42 +0000

They have a reputation of being rude and overcharging passengers but many auto-rickshaw drivers in the capital believe this image will soon fade away as now they have reasons to do away with this habit.
The auto drivers, who generally give a host of excuses for demanding exorbitant fares, now have a sort of financial security as they were enrolled into a new pension scheme — thanks to a city-based NGO NyayaBhumi.
Full article here

Auto rickshaw drivers will wear badges from December 1

admin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:20:08 +0000

Now, the auto rickshaw drivers in the city will wear badges starting December 1 and uniform from January. The decision came after a meeting held between the traffic police department, rickshaw unions and regional transport authority (RTA).
However, nothing has been decided on making uniform and badges mandatory for cab drivers in the city.
After some untoward incidents involving travelers, Manoj Patil, DCP, traffic department had called a meeting of RTA officials and rickshaw unions on October 29 where it was decided that all rickshaw drivers in the city would wear uniforms and badges from December 1.
Full article here

Rickshaw Charm

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:07:45 +0000

US tourist hitches rickshaw, weds driver in a week:
A 26-year-old American tourist travelling in India hitched a ride in a rickshaw last week and married the driver a few days later.
Whitney from Chicago met her prince charming in Jaipur in Rajasthan, a state west of the capital famous for its stately palaces, after hailing a motorised rickshaw and hiring the driver for her stay in the city, the Mail Today newspaper said.
“On the third day, he surprised me by popping the question,” Whitney told the paper. “‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you’, he told me. I fell in love.”
After meeting last Saturday they were married on Wednesday in a simple ceremony. Whitney was pictured in the paper, standing with new husband Harish Hotala, wearing a traditional sari that covered her head.
The paper said Hotala was “a cabbie with a difference,” however. “Though a school dropout, he is fluent in English and owns three autorickshaws,” it said.
Full article here