Saturday, March 05, 2011

Life as a 'human horse' in India's city of joy...


The gentle tinkling of its traditional bell sounds delightful amidst the cacophony of Calcutta traffic - with its ever increasing numbers of cars, taxis, lorries and motorbikes, all seeming to compete to blare their horns loudest and longest.

But turn around and the sight that greets you is far from delightful. A skinny, often elderly, usually barefoot man dragging a hand-pulled rickshaw - a shafted cart with a high seat atop two giant wooden wheels.

It is the same India portrayed in the film City of Joy, made in the slums of Calcutta in 1991, but it is not an image the new India wants the world to see.

The central character of the film was a rickshaw-puller, one of the city's fleet of tens of thousands of "human horses", as they are called. More...

Don't miss:
  1. American tourist marries rickshaw driver in India... 
  2. Interesting TED talk on the Mumbai dabbawalas ...
  3. A strange tourist attraction: Delhi's street kids...
  4. Money sent to help the poor ends up in the pockets of corrupt officials... 
  5. Housewife in India burnt alive by husband and in-laws for not providing additional dowry. 

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