Adil Najam
Pictures of overloaded vehicles are nothing special. Not in Pakistan. And our fascinations for rickshaws (here, here, here, here, here, here) is also well known. So, why yet another rickshaw picture?
Unless I have it terribly wrong, what we have here is really an ordinary motorcycle – probably not 7occ, maybe more like 140cc (what do you think, Owais?) – that has been retrofitted to become a people-carrier. All very good till here.
But the question is, how many people are riding on this, well, motorcycle? And did they just break any records without even knowing about it?
By my count, there are at least 9 people on this (3 in the front, four in the back, at least 2 hanging), and maybe as many as 12!
Even by Pakistani standards, that is impressive (and really really dangerous!).
Has anyone here seen worse? Or better? [Depending on what you consider worse, or better!]
QINGQI is of course the Chinese manufacturer of an inexpensive motorised Rickshaw system that has become popular in the rural and poorer urban areas of Pakistan.
It provides a faster, affordable, long-distance transportation for the poor-THE AWAM- who like all of us, also need to move from point A to B but lack the resources to possess their own means of transportation. Dangerous as it obviously is, but their desire to make a living and support their families transcends all the incumbent risks.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT there was a time not too long ago, when there was a functioning urban Omnibus and an efficient Railway system. The Bureaucracy and the Civilian and the Defence establishments had to destroy them sytematically so that they can be provided with official cars for the personal use by the officer and his family with official petrol and driver.The demise of the Railway system allowed them to be able to travel by air.
On a related matter, the excellent system of Guest and Rest Houses scattered all over the country was allowed to degenerate so that the Baboos could stay in fancy Hotels and also collect Fat TAs / DAs.
Provide the AWAM with some alternatives and then let us TALK of the OTHER important issues so dear to us.
Look at the men riding comfortably (relatively) in the front while women are hanging on for dear life.
There are interesting color matches that make this picture attractive: The blue baseball cap of the bearded passenger with the blue color of the body of the rikshaw; the yellow dupatta of one of the two girls matches with the triangular patch on the front of the rikshaw and the red in the dupatta of the second girl matches with the flower work on the windshield and that of the stuff on the roof rack. Coincidence?
This definitely does not look like 70cc engine. More like 125 CC. So much weight must be a drag on this type of motocycle engine. I bet it must be getting its ring-pistons changed every few months.
Long time readers (and those who followed the links in the post) would recall that I am actually quite fascinated by the Qingqi idea; indeed we did a post on the subject quite early on.
Following that post (I should have done a post on that too) I actually got to not only ride, but even try to drive a Qingqi one time; I was not very good at it ;-)
Anyhow, all this to say that I understand the engineering mechanics as well as of social dynamics that motivate the “Qingqi boom” in Pakistan – By the way, you do see them in the larger cities (Lahore etc.) but they really rule small-town Pakistan, especially in the Punjab medium and small towns. I think part of their success in smaller towns and cities is that these places do not have enough traffic to support regular “van/wagon” routes but there is a need for public transportation larger than the individual rickshaw or taxi. In some ways, I think, the Qingqi came to fill in for what used to be the communal Tonga.
Anyhow, this seems to be turning into a post in itself, so let me stop. The point merely was that I did not mention the Qingqi in the post because (a) I was not sure if this was a Qingqi since in color and style it did not look like the ones I was familiar with and (b) the real point, to me, was about how many people are actually riding what is a very small engine motorcycle.
This is a reminder to Pakistan’s “civil society” with its need for “self-actualization” as to how real Pakistanis live. It is an example of the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in action, where safety takes a backseat to the need to travel to satisfy hunger. It also reminds me of an ugly thing called “jugad” in democratic India which carries more people and is probably even more unsafe than this colorful contraption.
Not only bikes and Rikshaws! … even I have seen 7 people in a small Suzuki FX car … can you imagine?
Sorry for so many comments, but I will be even more worried if two people were NOT hanging on the other side too (the one not in the picture). Because then it would be REALLY unstable and would flip over.