Rickshaw Experiment

In the morning I take a rickshaw to school. In the afternoon my driver, Matin, picks me up in a car. Every so often he has to go out of town or gets sick. On those days I take a rickshaw home. There are always several rickshaw wallahs waiting outside the school gate. Over the course of the past 2 ½ years, I’ve gotten to know a couple of rickshaw wallahs that now know where I live. Sometimes they aren’t around and I get to ride in an unknown rickshaw. Rickshaw wallahs seem to be very willing to let foreigners get into the rickshaw and take off without any inkling about the final destination. I know embarrassingly little Bangla, so that works for me. Generally when I get in I just point in a vague direction and say “that-a-way.” I just interject “bannay” (left) and “dannay” (right) as needed.

I’ve discovered though that most of the rickshaw wallahs around the school know where all the teachers live, more or less. So with them I don’t even say “that-a-way.” I just sit back and see how close they can come to my house without any directions. Most of them get right close…maybe just needing me to tell them to turn “dannay” onto my street and to “shesh” in front of my house. (“Shesh” doesn’t mean ‘stop.’ I can never remember the correct phrase. “Shesh” actually means ‘close’ or ‘finish’ but it gets the idea across). This little experiment may seem silly, but it tickles me especially after a day of giving many, many directions to wee second graders.