Delhiwale: The head that wears the helmet

Glimpsing into a rickshaw puller’s life.

Vishwanath takes all the precautions he can to avoid being hurt. But accidents still happen, and some injuries are unavoidable.

This afternoon, Vishwanath is sitting on the passenger’s seat in a north Delhi lane, waiting for customers, but also basking in the warmth of the winter sun. (Mayank Austen Soofi)

The rickshaw puller’s leg is bandaged, though he insists it’s not a serious wound, pointing to the small band-aid strapped onto it.

It happened a few nights ago.

Delhiwale: A tale of two times

“I had dropped off a customer, and was riding to the main road, when suddenly a dog appeared in front of the rickshaw.” Vishwanath instinctively steered the handle, causing the rickshaw to lose balance. “The rickshaw fell, I fell too, and I got a small chot (injury).”

This afternoon, Vishwanath is sitting on the passenger’s seat in a north Delhi lane, waiting for customers, but also basking in the warmth of the winter sun.

His face is covered in a mask and his head is topped with the kind of helmet labourers wear at construction sites.

“I have been wearing it for some months.” He had picked it from a footpath. “This is to protect myself in case I suffer a serious accident... like a speeding car hitting my rickshaw.”

So far, he hasn’t encountered any horrid mishap.

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A native of Kolkata, Vishwanath says he has no home in Delhi, not even a familiar street where he could retire every night to rest like many other rickshaw pullers in the city. “I sleep on the footpath... any footpath, wherever I happen to be.”

Living alone (and being single) doesn’t make him feel lonely, he asserts. “I don’t have time to feel the absence of relatives in Delhi... I work during the day and that makes me so tired that I fall asleep almost the moment I lie down on the chaadar (the bed sheet he spreads on the pavement).”

Vishwanath says he has been living in Delhi long enough to have faith in its people. He talks of personally witnessing strangers coming to the aid of road accident victims, for instance. “I myself carried an injured man to the hospital for free, once.” Nevertheless, he feels “it’s better not to rely on others for your own well being.”

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And then he has the blessings of his taveez, he says, reverently touching the amulet around his neck.

Vishwanath starts his working day at 9am and is asleep by 11pm, latest. At night, he takes off his helmet and keeps it by the side of his pillow.