You are sitting by the road side under a tarpouline shade having a cup of hot tea in an earthen pot. Some old people are engrossed in an adda  right next to you. The road in front of you is looking hazzy. The puddle on the street is trembling under the downpour of big droplets. Monsoons are here. The rythm created by the pitter-patter of the rains is suddenly broken by the clanging bells. You turn around to find a tana-rickshaw, the hand-pulled, one just cross by you, bravely fighting with the spears of water falling with full swing.

Thats not a serenade scene from the movie Raincoat.  Welcame, you are in Calcutta. The city of joy. Now looking forward to part with a legacy (for the lack of better word for it) of tana-rickshaws . These rickshaws were brought to India in early 20th century, if I am not mistaken, from China. But they soon became the epitome of poverty. When Domique Lapierre wrote his much famous book City of Joy. Calcutta emerged as a city of leprosy, poverty, beggers,squalour...the joy part was hardly evident in the contentc of teh book and the movie too. But yes the trams and hand pulled rickshaws did made their presence. The govt. has now decided to remove these rickshaws form the roads because, as they feel, Calcutta is moving ahead with fast pace and even on the verge beating Banglore and Hyderabad in near futrure. The city is certainly not the symbol of poverty and beggers anymore.

I certainly agree. We are not . But we would definitely lose one legacy, the legacy which is one out of many housed by this city only. Yetserday there was an article in TOI about American showing keen interest in hand-pulled rickshaws. They are all set to import these rickshaws from China, the originating country. Dont expect in near future you waved your hand standing on footpath in front of philadelphia museum, and got a guy in front of you carrying the rickshaw to take to a near place. They want that as a legacy, to be used in few tourist places. Not to be a part of regular traffic. We can have that too. I hope the Buddhadeb govt. in Calcutta will understand this and along with thinking about the alternative jobs for the existing rickshaw pullers they will also find some way to preserve this legacy. May be we can avail them to get a ride on the Red road or at Swabhumi or may be across Maidan area or just for few meters strectch in Esplanade.

We should preserve this in some form. Just like an heritage, like we still have Horse Mounted soldiers in Rastrapati Bhavan and around Victoria Memorial, like the Buggy Rides from Victoria Memorial and CityCenter in Calcutta.

I hope for better employment of the tana-rickshaw pullers and also for the Hertitage of the city to be preserved. Let us heard it from the 'City of Joy' as she prepares to bid goodbye to her epitome of poverty but not lose a part of her legacy in the process