Rickshaw Raiders

07/10/2023

https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/kiwi-rickshaw-raiders-an-intrepid-journey

Two gentlemen's intrepid uncharted journey across India in an unlikely mode of transport raising spirits and some funds for worthy causes

07/10/2023

Home straight
You don’t seem to realise the frantic pace and noise of Indian cities until inside a sanctuary of a western hotel. We must be addicted to the chaos as we chose to head out of the hotel for another ‘experience’ getting something to eat. I was reassuringly informed food will be better and cheaper outside the hotel. Next thing we are walking down the side of that busy road into the oncoming traffic, doing exactly what we were ridiculing others for doing 3/4 hour prior. Footpaths (if any) were jam packed with parked cars, motorcycles, scooters , so we were forced to walk along roadside into oncoming traffic.
20mins walking we found a popular local restaurant and ordered some chow. A tasty rice dish arrived (still can’t remember or pronounce the names of this stuff) and some flat bread and curry stuff,,,,,, no utensils ,,,,, and no utensils anywhere,,,,,. Eat with your hands says Phil while tuckin into his curry with fingers. Looking around it appears as though you squeeze it into a ball then fire it into the ol’ pie hole. Can’t be too difficult can it,,,, wrong first handful disintegrated before reaching my gob, at least the next one I managed to get half the load in. Looking down the front of my red t-shirt it now had a significant coating of rice, this was going to be a messy exercise. By the time I finished the table looked like Quinn had eaten there when he was 8. I’m sure Phil selected that place on purpose to have a laugh. By the time I had finished it lol looked like my hands and fingers had been tar and feathered with rice and chicken corma curry. Had an ice cream on the way home without other dramas.
We were only 250-300 ks from the finish line and we had one more night before needing to cross the finish line so we decided to take a scenic route up and through the mountains aiming for Munnar for the final evening it was going to add about 300ks but we should smash that out in about 5 hours. We got away nice and early sun shining, engine buzzing and traffic flowing freely it seemed a little unusually calm. I was in my element driving and Phil was banging some great tunes out of the karaoke box. HONK HONK a big white Toyota SUV with red and black flags flapping at the two front corners zooms past us. Thinking to myself bloody SUV thinks it is a predator. Next thing it pulls over in a hurry and a couple of smartly dressed gents jump out RHS just in front of us waving hands to stop. I manage to engage avoidance procedures to swerve and get around them, “good job” is called out from behind me. I wonder what they wanted , “if we stopped they’d sting us for some sort of fine or reason to fork out some peso’s, just as well we keep going…” . Just about to reengage cruise control and relax to the night pitch ringing of our 140cc screaming it’s lungs out at max revs again when the same big SUV pulls up beside us and winds the passenger windows down. There were 5 very officious looking characters inside and the ones on the left side yelled out to us “Pull over now please!” , they edged a little further forward till they were at my front right quarter then slowed and moved to the left, there was no getting around them this time …. Stopped on the side of the road they poured out exiting all doors. Smartly dressed in white shirts drill trousers, one of them rushed back to us leaned in and said “Take photo?” F**k me, even the officials are in on this game! Perhaps it’s a national sport. We had past through towns a while back that had the red and black flags lining the sides of the road. They were state flags and these guys were state dignitaries or politicians. They didn’t seam to speak a lot of English but enough to get the message across they wanted our picture with them and they were pretty determined. As we got out of Asha we saw a couple of motorcycles from their motorcade had also pulled in behind us , no escape. Oh well we were stopped now so may as well comply. They were all dressed in similar high quality white shirts, most were in tidy pants but one was in a more formal dhoti (mans skirt). We had recently gassed up so there was still a bit of oil/fuel residue on my hands. Hhmmm nice white shirts ….. big oily hands ,,,,, well they stopped us and wanted a photo, they have special large floral hand patterns on the shoulders of their shirt now. Photos completed we were back on the road to Munnar. Now we were starting to hit some scenic mountain territory and more tea plantations. Stopped for a rest next to a couple of older lady’s sorting/tipping tea leaves. I joined one and tried to get some tuition, she just looked at me strainglg and then laughed. The conversation was pretty one sided and my productivity was apparently pretty poss poor so we soon moved on to continue on through the narrowness winding road. We actually made pretty good time and arrived in Munnar at about 14:30. Now Munnar appears to be a place where Indians go for vacation and it was a long weekend so the first couple of hotels were fully booked. However, thankfully after a couple of U-turns and slick negotiation by my travel companion we found some nice digs for the night , they even moved us up to the next floor to avoid a mass of kids staying at the hotel. We ventured out on a Jeep that afternoon to a village about 1.5 hrs away looking for elephants. Nice drive in a Mahendra Jeep lookalike that had 10 times more suspension and padding in the seat than Asha. Unfortunately it started raining and the elephants didn’t come out so the elephant sighting venture was a fizzer, however I picked up a couple of driving tips when it is really foggy going up a steep mountain on a narrow track in the dark - the side of the road is often rougher than the road itself so we drove by braille as to crossed the summit, another Indian driving skill. One has to pay attention which wheels are dropping off the road and then turn in the opposite direction. The next day was day 14, the home straight to cross the finish line. Probably the most scenic as far as mountains and green bush and/or well manicured tea plantations. Stunning scenery and wonderful winding roads made the last 240k’s evaporate. It wouldn’t driving in India if didn’t have a couple more close calls and thrills to finish the trip off. We were being held up slightly through the scenic mountain roads by slow SUV, the road was narrow and winding with a steep drop off to our left but that didn’t stop a tractor towing a trailer with people and then a bus having a crack at passing us on blind corners where there was no way of seeing if there was oncoming traffic. We made room for them to avoid any dramas (that is just how it is in India). When the tractor and bus overtook the SUV we decided to join the procession and tucked in closely behind the bus with everyones horns blazing away, it all seemed to work out even though there was traffic coming up the other way!!
The time window for us to cross the finish line was 5 hours between 11:00 and 16:00, we crossed at about 12:30. There was much fanfare and celebration with a band playing and native drums bangin that went on each time a team crossed the finish line. It was pretty special. We drive up a ramp and onto a stage where confetti was thrown over us and you guessed it more photos. The local rickshaw drivers were circling around like vultures outside the compound that protected the finish line and exhausted teams. That lot didn’t miss a trick swooping in to be either given or purchase at next to nothing any spare fuel, oil or spares. Some of them managed to sneak in to have a crack at our gear but were first told by us and then the organisers to bu**er off. The finish line party was a time to cut loose after 14 days on the road. Everyone was understandably a lot more relaxed and there were plenty of stories. Everyone had a different experience, some easier than others but all were raving about the adventure. We had a couple of dramas, but they were pretty mild compared to some others, who either had piston replacements, gearbox rebuilds or total rewires. We didn’t even get a puncture !! Thinking about it, we may have had some Devine guidance/support along the way keeping an eye on us and enjoying our adventure. Would I do it again? Yes. Would I recommend it? Conditionally Yes. If nothing else this adventure develops one’s tolerance for accepting what is dished up to you and just getting on with it. A lot of our life problems are brought on by our own doing through complexity. Although I got to ‘enjoy’ the exciting reckless Indian driving culture, I do appreciate the comfort of road rule compliance. However, in NZ (and suspect most other western countries) we need to be a lot less precious and more tolerant of other (something this individual will try to work on). We should use our horns more, and not take offence if someone beeps at us to let us know they are there. If we all had an ‘Indian driving experience’, our driving skill would increase dramatically. There is so much I have had to skip over or leave out, but I hope you have enjoyed our trip, and I have inspired some to take on their own adventure. As well as our amazing adventure we have all managed to raise over $3250 to date for NZ Child Cancer and Cool Earth, you are all amazing!!

30/09/2023

Finish line in sight
The Eagleton golf resort was a spot of luxury, massive multiple space rooms, top service and a selection of swimming pools although this late in the trip was a bit exhausted to take advantage of the pool. With all the meetings over in the last commitment being the finish line, we decided to partake in the breakfast that was offered and have a little more legally start to leave at 8 o’clock. Mmmm curry for breakfast , this I’m going to be sweating this stuff by the end of this trip, I’ve already caught myself giving the ol’ affirmative head nod. Now I’ll just be talking lik dis and I’ll fit right in apart from being a little taller and 503 shades lighter ..
With her prime mover now well secured and a full tank of gas Metallica, AC/DC and Meatloaf playing at max volume Asha was keen to get moving and buzzing along seamlessly at warp 0.132. Sounds like we have been pretty fortunate with our steed as we can get 55 km/h on the flat straight road, sounds like some other teams are 40 to 45 km/hr flat out and they were struggling to achieve the distances required in reasonable time. We were headed for Coimbatore but taking the ‘scenic route’ as Raman had jacked up a visit to one of his mates steel forging businesses. It was 323 k’s through some back roads with a stopover squeezed in there so we were likely to be getting into our destination after dark. The company we were going to visit was Vinir Engineering in Hosur (1.5 hr normal 2.5hr rickshaw) so we were running an hour late but Pradeep (GM) was still available and made us very welcome. Unfortunately we weren’t able to take any pictures of their processes but we watched a couple of open forging operations where they manually removed 400mm cube block of bright orange hot steel from a furnace and then using a massive pneumatic hammer press turned it into a flattened round disc. We thought it was hot outside, but the heat coming off those blocks of steel was almost unbearable. Gotta give those guys some credit they were working bloody hard in extreme high noise and temperature environment. Looked like the worker safety message was getting through as well as most of the guys had appropriate PPE. Vinir was a low volume custom forging shop manufacturing large valve bodies, flanges and heavy earthmoving components. Impressive workshop with some pretty high tech QA scanning/measuring and metallurgical capabilities . Bit of an eye opener in terms of quality and safety from what I was expecting. An hour and half later we were back heading through the hills, dodging cows and avoiding busses running us off the road. The trip was pretty standard as far as driving in India goes, we were considering ourselves pretty seasoned drivers now so we were in cruise mode. I can’t recall if I have given you a run down on Indian standard driving but this is how it is. There is a hierarchy on the road starting for cows then running down the other of respect to be given we have the apex predator being the bus (even the trucks pay homage to busses) , busses typically have extremely loud multi tone horns and they are not shy about using them. They may be right beside you - but it is as if they are saying “in case you had dent heard me coming from several hundred meters back”, here I am right fu**in beside you - wheels damn near pasting a layyer of rubber along the side of our Shaw, TOOTLE-TA-TOOTLE-TA-bloody-TOOOT!!! Certainly makes you realise your awake as you are focusing on battling to maintain control of direction as the initial surge in air pressure pushes you off to the side, then you have to be onto it and avoid over compensating as suddenly the instability of 3 small wheels at supporting a bobular shaped body invokes a negative draft that sucks is back in towards the predator, re-establishing stable direction they blast you with TOOTLE-TA-TOOTLE-TAaaa-TOOOOOT!!! As they pass there is another vacuum that drags us back in behind the predator. While all this is going on, up ahead is a GROSSLY overloaded multi coloured truck crawling along belching out clouds of black smoke, even at our 50 odd kph we are catching up pretty quick. Now Asha dosnt have lightening pick up so we don’t want to loose too much momentum but I need to button off a little bit to allow time for the bus to pass. Just as the bus passes us I give her a fist full and allow ourselves to be dragged across a little and pulled along by the back draft to start the passing manuver past the truck. Now we were in the left lane and all the action was in front and on our right. The wing mirrors on our Shaw are effectively two 50c sized discs mounted on straws (little better than that, but to increase the viewing perspective they made up for their lack of size by vibrating in all directions sometimes it was difficult to tell if there was 1 bus or 21 bearing down upon us. Planning on getting past the juggernaut in front of us I was keeping an eye on the right side. Coast was clear and I started to drift across initiating the pass then, F**ken hell TOOTLE-TA-TOOTLE-TA-F**ken TOOOOOT!!! Another one of those fu***rs lurches up behind our right hind quarters and he wasn’t backin off!!! That bastard was ‘sneaking’ up in ‘stealth mode’ behind us in the left lane (we can’t see directly behind us) he didn’t give us the courteous warning that he was behind us. It appears Indian drivers make a lot of decisions at the last moment, this s**t bag was no exception. Even though he would have seen the truck looming up in front of us, he stayed out of sight, then at the last moment when we started our manure he decided that he could get in front of that brightly coloured bumble bee AND the truck at the same time. So here we are barrelling along at 50-55 kph about to overtake the truck at its back right quadrant initially felling safe in the shadow of an apex predator and then Mad Max appears on ON OUR RIGHT! We are three abreast on a two lane road. I’m extruding the horn button through the handle bars in a vein effort above the din of truck suspension and wheels and horns while Megadeth’s ‘Countdown to Extinction’ can be faintly heard pumping out at max volume of our karaoke speaker swingling in the back on zip-ties. “HANG ON PHIL” , luckily there was still some space behind the truck so I hit the picks and swerved back in behind the truck allowing the bus to F**K OFF out of our life. Unfortunately we lost our pace and we are now down to 30 odd but alive and with the adrenaline pumping through us we certainly felt alive. Never tought I would have so much excitement at 50k’s an hour. It doesn’t typically stop there though as we still need to get past this lumbering mammoth in front of us. We don’t have bundles of horsepower and there is a big jump between 3rd and forth. All the maniac retards have disappeared so I ‘chopped’ it down to third and gave it a handful unfortunately we were already at the top end of 3rd gear range so instead of accelerating back into our overtaking manoeuvre we stayed the same speed with more noise, damn it, back into 4th we started past the truck a courtesy couple of beeps to let the driver know we were there and prevent hi pushing us all the way into the median as we all passed another slower rickshaw on the far left side,, beep beep ,,, HONK HONK and we are past and back into the clear although looking ahead is the next indianisim motorway experience, yes it is a tractor towing a trailer with a few people on it. Why they would be travelling down the wrong way on the highway is anybody’s guess but it is not an uncommon occurrence. It appears the road rules here in India are merely a general guideline and not necessarily an absolute rule for compliance. Therefore it is important to stay alert and ready for anything when driving. Phil and I would swap over driving duties two or three times a day, the non-driver was responsible for navigation and music. The non-driver also got to call home to update family on events and heath status. The system worked pretty well and heading into Coimbatore we were back into our battle stations as this was another large densely populated city where everyone decided to get out on the roads as we were heading into town. Phil had found a Radisson Hotel that was unfortunately pretty central but it was a known quantity and we were now seasoned vets’ with a tried and tested system. Phil was the long range radar (long range being 100m - 500m ). Calling out the upcoming turns, keeping an eye on hind quarters and an extra pair of eyes spotting and calling out potholes or judder bars. As the pilot this evening I was short range ex*****on of the plan, getting the Shaw into any potential/available space, keeping up with (and ahead of) general traffic and avoiding obstacles presented that prevent progress. Overtaking , undertaking, lane splitting horn honking adrenaline pumping action. In reality I think was was getting addicted to travelling through this traffic. Weaving through the traffic was one thing but getting into the Raddison was the final twist. The hotel was on a 4 lane main road two lanes jam packed with vehicles in each direction. There was also a concrete road overhead that was supported by large concrete pilons down the median. The concrete structure above contained and reflected the noise so it had a chaotic feeling but in spite of the traffic density we were still getting along and maintaining 50-60 (guessing from gear and revs as Speedo had failed a few days back and was now wound all way round to other side of zero stopper - indicating 90-100) . The Radisson wa on the other side of the road so we had to perform a U turn in the traffic!!! Thankfully there were facilities to do this where breaks in the median had been created and turning lanes created by large concrete blocks forcing traffic to the left to prevent right u turning traffic getting rammed up the date. These obstacles were a curse earlier but a welcome sanctuary at this time. The issue was the Raddison entry was immediately after the I turn so we had to immediately make our way across a full lane of traffic to enter the small portal. U turn performed I was about to push my way through the outside lane when a motorcycle saw the gap I was creating by traffic allowing me to cross and decided he would take it “MOTORBIKE!!!” loudly exploded from Phil’s vocal chords while gripping anything he could get hold of, evasive manoeuvre executed we saw the narrow portal of our safe haven safe past as we were dragged along in the flow of traffic. Ok another u turn opportunity came up in 200m so crowbarring our way back into the centre lane we performed another about face pirouette and we headed back towards the Radisson entry challenge. I felt like Luke Skywalker zeroing in on the Death Star , helpful alerts and warnings chirping from the back seat we were a finely tuned Maxine on a mission from god , blocking out all other distractions. Approaching the final U turn I slowed to enable our timing of ex*****on to take advantage of a small break in the oncoming traffic. Around the U turn we sailed and immediately I target the portal on the other side, a car tried to zip up the inside but Phil could see I had a determined demon had possessed his pilot. My thumb was white as all the blood had been forced out of it due to the pressure of depressing the horn button, Phil leaned out the side of Asha with hand outstretched signalling to the driver get the f**k out of our way, we are passing through here!!!! Suddenly it was quiet with only the buzzing of our single cylinder rubber band singing as we sailed through the Raddison portal.,,,,,, SUCCESS!!! What a releasing achievement, safe haven.

26/09/2023

21/09

Today was going to be another day of travelling on the National Highways and meetings. Our morning routine was pretty well established, breakfast (if the kitchen was open) plan route , pack , try and squeeze one out before hitting the road and uncharted ablutions. The first meeting was in the city so that traffic experience got the adrenaline flowing however I think we are mastering the manipulation through motorised mayhem pretty well. We navigated our way directly though the chaos, arriving early, I stopped just prior to the office building where there were a few other Rickshaws parked. Immediately upon stopping we were surrounded by the other Shaw drivers, they were sticking their heads right into our space and asking the usual questions but with a little more assertion. It dawned on us pretty quickly I had stopped at a pick up location for rickshaw taxis and I had probably jumped the que. So this oddly painted ‘outsider’ was encroaching on their turf and they weren’t overly keen or forgiving. Realising the situation I fired Asha up and moved 100m down the road parking up on the footpath out front of the building we were meeting in. This time it was the building security that came to investigate, we told them our plans and they made a couple of phone calls. Next thing a gate opens into the building basement and we are waved through. Not wanting miss this blessing we manuvered our way across the congested footpath through pedestrian traffic into open space and down a ramp into the building basement. Leaving the intense noise and traffic it was suddenly open and peaceful with many vacant parks to choose from. I changed into tidy pants then we made our way up to 3rd floor office of Flatearth solutions. Entering the office we were faced with a large tv screen with a big clue indicating we were in the right place. “Welcome Darrin Hawkes from Mainstream Engineering Ltd”. My contact Devaraj made us feel very welcome and gave us a great introduction into the capabilities of his organisation. There were hundreds of computer workstations mostly vacant at the time of our visit due to the timezone of company’s they were supporting. These guys are a global provider of remote staffing from sales, management, IT and engineering services (the latter being what I was mostly curious about). It is a pretty polished and well resourced organisation and it was well worth the time to meet them in person to explore potential opportunities. Needless to say our mode of transport and mission provided admiration and conversation.
Meeting over, and many selfies and promotional pics later we were released back into the seething hot chaos of Bangalore city traffic. We were getting well accustomed to the ‘flow’ and horns. Although extremely intense, the traffic does actually flow most of the time. The key is if you see a gap 50-75% of your requirements you go for it, if you pause or hesitate you are giving permission for somebody else to take that spot. Snooze you lose, the gaps just seem to open up to suit. In spite of the appearance aggressive driving style everyone actually drives quite defensively and zero agro, just a whole lot of beeping and weaving.
Our next meeting was on the south side of the city and we were making good time until we tried to enter an express way. How we were supposed to distinguish it from any other toll road that we had sailed on through was a mystery to us. We made our usual confident approach like we knew what we were doing and we’re supposed to be there. However they saw us coming from a mile off and started casually waving at us. We were thinking these guys just want a selfy and if we stopped for every person that wanted a picture with us we wouldn’t get anywhere, so I adjusted our trajectory slightly to avoid the arm waving individual and didn’t button off to signal our intent to continued through. Our advisory noted the adjustments and made his own to intercept us. His arm waving got a little more frantic and he started yelling “stup I be telling yew” . This was a new experience as this guy appears serious. Disengaging the afterburners, lowering the flaps chucking the anchors on we stopped short of Mr Jingly Jangly , “yew are nut perdmitted thrdew hered” . “Isn’t this an exempt vehicle sir?” We questioned. “I said, yew arde nut perdmitted, yew have to durn back”. A by stander could see our difficulties and came over to assist. He spoke to the guard and then turned to us and explained this was an ‘express way’ and rickshaws were not allowed into that road. Oh s**t ,,,,, I had visions of heading in the wrong direction back up the motorway, we had done it once before so it was nothing new but still a concerning prospect. Thankfully there was an opportunity to chop through to the correct side but we had to weave across the Apex predators (trucks and busses) coming towards us to enter the expressway. The noise coming from the underside was becoming a bit more consistent now so surgery in the near future was definitely on the radar. We managed to back track a couple of k’s where we could take an off ramp to find an alternative route through the city that avoided the expressway. If the traffic wasn’t enough we had to wrestle with Google maps to find another path that wasn’t going to put us back in the expressway. Ever noticed when you need to find the setting to avoid tolls and motorways it is nowhere to be found. We were going to be late for our next appointment Mr Raman Bojans so I sent him a message informing him of our situation. This triggered some concern with Raman so I was now not only dealing with the city traffic and Siri telling me to do a u turn every 500m but Raman was calling to ask our location. I’d managed to find a pull-off area where we could stop and try to establish a plan. We were still on a main road that looked similar to the expressway, so there was no option to ask a local, it was blistering hot, traffic zooming past with horns blaring and phones starting to overheat. Id just start to get my map sorted and Raman would ring asking our position, it took quite a lot of self control to remain calm and try to get the point across to our soon to be host with a strong Indian accent jibber jabbering about what we should be doing. He had the best of intentions, but as we had no idea of the name of our exact position his calls were not supporting the development of a solution, dar from it. Phil managed to get his phone sorted to avoid tolls and a route out of this mess was revealing itself. Talk about a stress test, but we all managed to stay calm and work the problem. We ended up being an hour late to meet up with Raman and Asha was really starting to complain. Kicking myself for letting the guys loose with a water blaster I was just hoping she would hold together until we got to Ramans. I had advised Raman of our mechanical issue and asked if he knew of any mechanics that could take a look. He said he would get onto it and we confirmed our new arrival time in 45 mins. Raman had found and booked our accomodation for the night so at least we didn’t have to worry about a place to stay, although the potential cost was playing on our minds. Raman had booked us into a swanky golf resort saying it was only a couple of hundred meters up the road from where he lived. We were travelling along another busy road when a car pulled up next to us with the window down and the driver called out to us “Mr Darrin!, is that you?” . It was Raman, he could not contain his concern so went looking for us. I had sent a screenshot of our proposed new route, so he had a fair idea what road we would be coming down, so he waited up on an overpass keeping an eye out for our Rickshaw, and sure enough down the road bumbles are bright white three wheeled contraption with an eagle emblazoned on the front. He called out, “follow me” and then escorted us to his house When we arrived we found Raman and his wife lived in an exclusive gated golf community. We had made it!! Ramans wife also came out to greet and welcome us into their house. Before entering the house we removed our shoes and Ramans wife performed a small prayer ceremony with a tray of flowers and lighted candle. Our foreheads were then dotted and jasmine flower wreaths placed over our heads around our necks. I had never met Raman previously and were only introduced through a mutual friend in NZ. We understood Raman had metal forging business and it was this we were hoping to visit. This special treatment was all an added bonus and something very special. Raman was now retired and turns out his forging business was on the other side of town so it was unlikely we were going to visit there today. He understood the challenge we were undertaking so had set up his afternoon to host us. Fresh passion fruit juice from his farm were brought out and we all sat and hot to know each other, very present and settling after such a manic morning. Raman had made a call to a friend of his who had another larger metal forging business that was on our intended path so the plan was to visit that the next day.
We went down to the resort where we were booked and checked in then Raman brought us some late lunch snacks. As Asha was really starting to sulk we discussed mechanics. Unfortunately the mechanic Raman was hoping to use was not available BUT he had leads in another however he was unfamiliar with them. We didn’t have much of a choice, so after eating Raman was going to jump into the Shaw with us and meet the mechanic, which we appreciated immensely as it meant we would have a translator. Raman is 72 and pretty well to do so he was not accustomed to riding in a Rickshaw although he had done a little in his younger years. I was in the back with Raman and Phil was driving. Phil was not driving any different to what we had become accustomed to, in fact he was taking it a little easier BUT this was still too zoomy for Raman. He was definitely not at ease being in a small vehicle zipping around and up close to big trucks busses and cars. He was gripping on for dear life so I tapped Phil on the shoulder and suggested we take it super easy and Phil not wanting to cause any discomfort obliged. When Raman had got his composure back he made a couple of polite well meaning comments about preserving life and how others are depending on us and we should be more careful on these dangerous roads. We arrived at the mechanics workshop , essentially a small corrugated iron shed just down off the side of the road, no signs or obvious indicators it was a ‘workshop’ apart from a couple of rickshaws out front in various states of repair. There were four or five guys milling around and Raman spoke to one guy who looked like he knew what he was doing. We told him the symptoms and then gave him the keys to have a quick drive. He drove about 10m heard the noise, then hopped out, went round and opened the back up and gave the engine a shove. the engine lurched over sideways then fell back into place, “broken engine mount” . He knew exactly what the problem was and went straight to it. He “banga langed “ to one of his off siders who jumped on a motorbike and roared off down the road before I could figure out what the various head nods meant. Raman informed us the fellow was heading off down the road to get a new mount. We waited for about 20 minutes making small talk and showing photos of NZ and our families. Over the previous days I had seen a lot of monkey face graphics on truck windscreens, and there was a truck parked nearby that was having some work done on it tray, which had the same graphic on the windscreen. I pointed out the graphic and asked one of the mechanics about the meaning of the graphic. The mechanic informed me the graphic was of the monkey god Hanuman representing Wisdom, Strength, Courage, Devotion and Self-Discipline. According to the mechanics Hanuman is much more powerful and stronger than supermen, Batman and Spider-Man , he is essentially an Indian superhero which is why his image has been adopted by the drivers of the large trucks rumbling up and down the country roads. The new engine mount arrived and it was promptly installed by two mechanics while three others were standing around watching. Even the welder that was working on the truck deck came over to watch progress. So there were 6 guys (excluding us) ‘monitoring’ the installation of the engine mount. I quietly mentioned to Phil I wonder how may of these guys we are going to be paying for, however as long as the problem was solved we were happy. An hour after we arrived the job was done. Raman enquired of the cost and I could see some concern on his face but then he smiled and shook the guys hand. The reason for the appearance of concern was the mechanics did not want to be paid for the work they had done on our Shaw. All they requested was the cost is the engine mount 100 rupees ($2) . Their reason is they believe visitors to the country like us should be treated with much respect and could not charge us for their time. I don’t think Raman associated with these people much if at all, but you could see he was visibly proud of his countrymen and he told them so. It was a very humbling experience, these people had very little but they were still prepared to stand by their traditions and beliefs. They flatly refused any payment. This country has so many contrasts some people will give the only short they have to keep you warm yet there are others who will take any opportunity fleece you. Clearly on this occasion we were in the presence of good people. Heading home Raman reminded us to drive carefully and Asha was back to her zippy self and no rumbles coming from within. That was a really close call, if one of the last couple of mounts had let go as we were feeding the power in an intense traffic situation it could have been disastrous. PHEW!!! Raman hosted us for a couple of cups of tea before we retired to our swanky golf resort rooms for the evening after another eventful day.