Bangladesh Rickshaw Puller

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is home to over 12 million people.

I stayed in the huge city of Dhaka, with a friend and his family, for two weeks in early December, 2009. Apart from the different food and the crowded streets, what struck me most is the preferred mode of transport - the rickshaw.

During my time in the city, I realized that this three-wheeled, human-powered, and heavily-decorated vehicle is really the only way to travel through most of Dhaka's dusty alleys and narrow roads...if you don't want to walk.

For a more personal perspective, I approached a rickshaw "puller" and asked him about his job.

-- Thanks to my friend Riasat Ullah for filming and providing fantastic translations from English to Bengali for the questions and from Bengali to English for the responses --

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• dhaka
• bangladesh
• rickshaw
• transport
• infrastracture
• interview
• bengali
• bangla
• culture
• trevor
• dougherty
• maddogza

[mahdidi96]

these are some of the toughest motherfuckers on earth

[ronmawla]

Lost your tongue again, huh?!

[ronmawla]

your god is a sexist god to begin with! hahaha! is he a hijra?

[nafism6969]

@ronmawla i can tell you ALL about God that He Himself has revealed to us about Him. but im going to have some fun with this. il make u a deal. u tell me one little thing about why u worship a picture or a statue and how that can b considered a "god" and Il tell u why i worship my God (and ur God btw) and y I do that.

deal?

[ronmawla]

@nafism6969 Hell is what you create, everytime you use that word in your sentence. But it's not outside of you. It's in your head. Other than that there is no hell. "We are all different and it is that which makes us the same." You should explain 'god' instead of telling that a statue cannot be a god, then I will know that your intellect is better than that of a cow!!! Cheers...

[nafism6969]

@ronmawla Bangladesh is not in me? what the hell is that supposed to mean? BD is IN me? ?? what?

pls. whats the difference between cattle and human? do u no? cattle has no intellect. humans do. humans have the intellect to realise that a statue can NOT be a god. something that u created in a factory cant b a god.

[ronmawla]

@nafism6969 'You are not in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is in you'. If you cannot improve their lives, how does your repugnant comment about the rich help them to begin with? So what is wrong with being silly? Isn't y(our) humane family rich with intelligentretards?! Aren't you part of the universe where someone worships a stone while the other worships 'god' (for lack of a better word!). Are you biased like the rest?!

[nafism6969]

@ronmawla Im not in Bangladesh u statue worshipping idiot, how can i better a rikshaw drivers life? even if i gave a rikshaw driver 1000 bux u think that would solve the problem? no.

i think u r th esilly one thinking that a picture can be ur god, or a statue can b ur god. whats more silly than that. if I piss on ur statue that u think is a god, that statue cant do anything to me. an du WORSHIP that !?

do u no how insane that is? did that statue create the universe ? and heven and hell?

[ronmawla]

@nafism6969 Acting stupid again. Why don't you face the fact. You get taken cared by your mom, your dad, your working slaves who do all the chores so that you can waste your time sitting in front of a stupid computer

and hope life will be great! Wake up you silly dreamy child and do something that beats this naiveness.

[ronmawla]

@nafism6969 Don't act stupid. You know what I mean. Answer my question. What have you done to uplift the lives of the rickshaw pullers apart from cursing the rich?!