Cycle Rickshaw

Before continuing to read the rest of the blog, I suggest you google a cycle rickshaw. That, along with auto rickshaws, is the main forms of public transportation in Varanasi. You can be sure to find one or multiple rickshaws on any corner or shady spot throughout the city. The male drivers might be laying in the rickshaw, napping, chewing on pan (a sort of chewing tobacco popular in India), or waiting to ask “Rickshaw ma’am? Where are you going?” Most of the time, I don’t use their services because I would rather walk, but they come in handy if you’re in a hurry.
That’s not the point of the blog, however. For some time now, I had toyed with the idea of learning to drive one of these things. It looked easy enough. I figured that if the driver got enough momentum to pull the entire cart, then the rest would be just like riding a bicycle. On Sunday, I tried my luck with one group of drivers. Once I got them to understand that I would pay them to let me drive them around, they laughed, but agreed to let me try. Their laughing only increased when I couldn’t go further than a few feet. I gave up after some time, but tried again later with a different driver, only to get a few more laughs out of the men.
These contraptions look easy enough to drive but that is WRONG. The seats are so high I can’t reach the pedals and driving in Varanasi traffic is a fear I should first overcome. Anyway, my goal before I leave is to drive an auto rickshaw down a street.