The Barpali Days: Bangladesh

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Aug 13, 2011

HADU HARIPAL - The Gentleman Ricksha-wala of Barpali

A country might be made of its geographical limits, where as a nation constitute of its people. The society we live in is neither made of cine-stars or sport-stars, who are otherwise often being hyper projected by the media. Every individual plays an equal role on building of a society, be it a teacher, a doctor, a trader, an engineer or let it be any other common man say a milkman, a porter or just a rickshaw puller.

If you happens to be on the streets of Barpali, a small town in the state of Orissa, India, you are most likely to witness a person neatly dressed in white-attire. You would be amazed to find him wearing a tie, black goggles, a pair of boots and an English cap on his head. By the way he is neither a salesman of any soaps or the detergents, but just a rickshaw-puller.

The person we are talking all about is Hadu Haripal, a man in his fifty’s who pulls a passenger led rickshaw at Barpali. Till two years back he used to do the noble job of taking children to the school and bringing them back to home safely. He glorified the job of rickshaw pulling among his peers, even while this vocation is considered to be of lower order in the society. In the second innings of his life now he takes the general public on a ride in the same rickshaw.

Though in the past he used to make children reach school, but he himself is an illiterate. As born and brought-up to poor parents, he was not imparted with elementary education. He can’t even recognise the alphabets of his mother tongue Oriya. He was inspired to wear the white uniform from the school-going children whom he used to carry. Initially his peers used to make a laugh at him for his outfit, but gradually he is being accepted by one and all of the society. When you ride in his wagon it will give you a sense of pride for the gentleman charioteer. And all this at no extra cost. He charges the nominal rent which his peers charge for the services. In a day he earns a handsome Rs.120 to Rs.150 (roughly 2 to 3 US dollars ) from his hard day labour. It’s a handsome figure in the sense, unlike other rickshaw pullers he don’t drink alcohol. When the day ends he straight away goes to home instead of dropping at the local distillery called mad bhati. Every rupee he earns reaches his home unhurt.

In the metropolitan cities wearing a tie would be a common thing, but when Hadu wears it at Barpali it becomes an un-common thing among the tribal and the villagers. He recounts how one bhadra-byakti of Barpali gifted him a second-hand tie with admiration to encourage his passion for the western outfit. Mostly he wears a stainless white shirt along with the white trouser. If you are a office goer at most you can manage to wear a white shirt just for Monday. By the time you return home at night, it would be dirty. So could you imagine how difficult it would be on the part of a rickshaw puller to wear a white dress.

In this corner of the planet people have got a strange obsession for the naming of their children. You would be amaze to discover the names like Okil Meher (Lawer Meher), Daktar Patel (Doctor Patel), Tehsil Sahu, BDO Barik, Gurubari Meher (being born on a Thursday), Kasta Mirdha (born at the time of difficulties), Elaichi (a spice), Pan Patar (a betel leaf) and so on. Likewise our gentleman rickshaw-wala was named by his parents as Hadu Haripal. Hadu means bone or the skeleton. As the name he is a replica of skeleton. Due to malnutrition he is reduced to bones. A person’s life is built solely on the strength of his or her name. Hence you are always advised to choose a name of highest order for your child or the grand-child.

kiranbima@gmail.com

E. KIRAN MOHAN

Tahsil Chowk

At\PO - BARPALI - 768 029

Dist. Bargarh

Orissa, India

Cell # 91 - 99 371 20565

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