Necessity is the mother of creating space

The picture below explains the title of this post. I clicked this one while sitting at the back of my scooter, which my wife was driving.

Have a look at the picture below.

Though I could not get the right angle to display the “full strength” of the autorickshaw(AR), but I guess you can get it.

This photo does bring various thoughts to my mind. First, the AR owner here is definitely trying to squeeze every rupee out of every drop of petrol that the AR uses. The meter rate of the AR is quite high in Pune. For more information you can refer here. The AR owner picks up students from home and drops them to the school and vice-versa. And in his free time, drives the AR in the city making even more money. So moneywise, he should be making a decent amount. Given the rising cost of living(another post on it later) in Pune, he has to squeeze that extra rupee out of his meager resources. If you think in another way, the parents of the students who send them to school by such “spacious” AR, are also trying to save money on many areas and this is definitely one of those areas. But I am very thankful and happy that they are at least sending their children to school.

If I am correct, this AR is probably carrying 12 - 15 children. You can see three layers here. The base layer of children are supporting the second layer of children sitting on the laps of the base layer. And another layer who is just standing. And of course, in this sweltering heat, God save them though they are probably used to it out of no other option available.

I am not sure I can guess the damage this heavy loading does to the AR but it does affect. The AR’s lap time to breakdown would surely shorten if it continues to drag such heavy loads, for which it was not designed originally. But I am impressed with one thing. The AR owner does know how to manage his space. That’s something we all must learn here. We should be able to harness the power of less. It does feel good or maybe, satisfied to know that I at least own a car, larger in size than a AR, which would be able to use to drive my children to school. Its all in the books of good fortune. I thank the Force for it. We constantly look for a larger home, bigger car, everything bigger than it already is. But looking at the picture here, you can be thankful for whatever you have got.

But anyways, these things won’t change here in India. At least not in the near future. Makes you wonder yeah?

Ride the thoughts with me in the comments.