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Pre-Intermediate Student's Book: Last Days of The Rickshaw

Rickshaws provide an important form of transportation in Kolkata, India. Despite traffic jams and pollution from other vehicles, rickshaw drivers navigate the crowded streets and offer services like waiting for customers at the market. While some want to ban rickshaws for humanitarian reasons, this would eliminate the only job available to many drivers from rural areas. As a result, rickshaws continue to be widely used, especially during the city's heavy monsoon rains when other vehicles cannot operate.

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Daisy Jedh
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722 views2 pages

Pre-Intermediate Student's Book: Last Days of The Rickshaw

Rickshaws provide an important form of transportation in Kolkata, India. Despite traffic jams and pollution from other vehicles, rickshaw drivers navigate the crowded streets and offer services like waiting for customers at the market. While some want to ban rickshaws for humanitarian reasons, this would eliminate the only job available to many drivers from rural areas. As a result, rickshaws continue to be widely used, especially during the city's heavy monsoon rains when other vehicles cannot operate.

Uploaded by

Daisy Jedh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book

Life
3c Page 39 READING TEXT

Last days of the rickshaw


Rickshaws of Kolkata

rickshaw: a two-wheeled wooden cart, pulled by a person on foot, usually used in


the narrow streets of busy town centres

Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta) is the famous capital of West Bengal in


India and the home of nearly 15 million people. The traffic jams and engine fumes
begin early in the morning with long lines of private cars, public buses, taxis, three-
wheeled scooters and pedicabs. There aren’t many alternatives. You can catch a
train through the city or take the underground but sooner or later you have to go on
foot and walking in Kolkata is a dangerous activity. As the drivers race towards
pedestrians, they blow their horns. The sound never stops from morning to night.

So when I crossed a small road on my first day in the city, I was surprised because I
heard a bell – not a horn. It was a tiny man pulling a rickshaw. He stopped and
picked up two children from the front door of their house and then, with great
strength, pulled them to school. For many people, the rickshaw is a symbol of
Kolkata and they have many advantages. When the traffic is bad, rickshaws find a
way through the traffic. If you miss your bus and there aren’t any taxis, you can
always find a rickshaw in Kolkata. Rickshaws are also very popular with local
shoppers. The driver takes you from your house to the market and waits for you.
Then he loads all your purchases, drops you off outside your home and helps you
unload. No other type of public transport offers this kind of service.

You also see lots more people getting on and off rickshaws during the monsoon
season. That’s the period from June to September when Kolkata gets heavy rainfall.
Sometimes it rains for 48 hours without a break. In the older parts of the city, the
roads flood. The water can rise as high as people’s waists in the worst part. When
it’s this bad, anything with an engine is useless. But the rickshaw drivers never stop
working, even with water all around them.
Life But not everyone thinks rickshaws are a good thing. Some local
officials and politicians want to ban rickshaws on ‘humanitarian
grounds’. They believe it is wrong for one man to pull another
person when there is modern transport in the city. However, there
is a problem with this plan. Many of the rickshaw drivers come from the
countryside with no job and no qualifications. The only job they can find in Kolkata
is pulling a rickshaw. If the city bans rickshaws, these men won’t have a job or
income. So for the moment, the people of Kolkata still go by rickshaw.

fumes (n) /fjuːmz/ smoke and gases from an engine


scooter (n) /ˈskuːtə(r)/ a small motorbike
pedicab (n) /ˈpedekæb/ a type of taxi with no engine. The driver
cycles.
monsoon (n) /ˌmɒnˈsuːn/ period from June to September with lots of
rain
flood (v) /flʌd/ when water covers an area (e.g. a floor, road, city)
ban (v) /bæn/ to stop or make illegal

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