Riksha

One of the most frequent mean of transport is riksha. There are estimation that there are over million riksha men in Dhaka. It seems a lot. On the other hand there are rikshas anywhere you look. I have tried riksha yesterday for a short distance and I was happy it was the first day when the weather was nice and mildly cold.

The men bike everyday. You seem sometimes up to 4 people on a riksha and when they have a little carrige instead then they carry even 12 people. There are two extreme types of weather. Hot or rain. When it is hot, you see sweat running down the face of the men, their jaws are clenched, their muscles are outlined agains the clothes as they make a move at a time. During rain, many of them cover their heads with plastic bag, their clothes are soaked, the roads are slippery.

One wrong move, a slight touch of a car, and the wheels of riksha get twisted and the riksha falls down. Just yesterday I witnessed an accident. One riksha man turned on to a round and a car behind him did not manage to stop. The riksha straight away collapsed and a small girl with her grandma rolled out of it. The girl was obviously in shock but it seemed that excpet several scratches she was not seriously injured.