Rickshaaaw!

Ahmedabad’s auto rickshaws are unremarkable, at least in India. The bodywork of each is a rich green and the roofs are bright yellow. Their drivers perch on square seats, hunched over the steering column in front of them and will often try their best to swindle you, especially if you are taken to be a tourist, which is avoidable to some degree only in the less touristy parts of town. The autos run on liquid petroleum gas, which is less polluting than petrol itself but means a crush of vehicles at a busy junction releases billowing fumes that coat the back of the throat.

What is remarkable about the city’s autos is the panels fitted to the interior roof struts either side of the passenger seats. These metre high boards, although missing in some cases, are commonly vivid displays that can be startling as you clamber ungainly in behind the driver. There are often pastoral scenes with women carrying pots and mustachioed men in homespun khadi in the foreground, and a village hut or house set against dark forest in the background. In these scenes the moon is invariable painted big and bright. Equally popular are lake or sea side idylls, with fishermen, a gaggle of ducks and one or two palm trees in view. Equally alien on Ahmedabad’s bustling streets are the scenic vistas of snow capped Alpine mountains, rocky outcrops adorned with fairytale castles and, lower down the slopes, picturesque chalets burdened with thick powdery snow. These are however more pleasant than the more often seen image of a dream American house, all modern clapboard, large windows and an expensive sports car superimposed onto the drive, or bizarrely, onto the landscaped flowerbeds.

Many of these colourful images are accompanied by snippets of a message, such as ‘Happiness is…’, ‘True love knows…’ or ‘Your heart…’, the full meaning of which is sadly never revealed. One of my favorites, because of the work on school leadership I am involved with, is a close-up of a snarling tiger with the message that ‘A leader walks alone…’ Who knows where these panels come from or why they carry such sentimental smulch. Given the apparent Guju sense of glitzy, garish style, the smiling babies against lurid pink backgrounds and metre high red roses glistening with water droplets make some sense. The promo photos of Bollywood stars are also not surprising, posing thugs like Salman Khan smirking out at you as the auto squeezes between mopeds and Maruti Swifts at a char rasta. Of course, despite not knowing where these panels come from, it is still a pleasure to admire them, especially the snow-laden panoramas on a day when the temperature reaches 40 degrees. Another favorite, which made me smile when I first saw it at the start of an evening out, is a view of Tower Bridge lit up at night with the Thames gleaming darkly beneath it. An odd sight in Ahmedabad.