Late 1980’s. I was travelling with my father on two wheeler and just like any other day I was enjoying it. my father would take me on weekends for road travel. no plans nothing , just go out under the blue sky and travel from one end to another. good days , I still remember. one time I was travelling with my father on a scooter and as we stopped on the red light , I saw a vehicle with three wheels. it was strange to me since I never saw this kind of vehicle on the road. I was little then hardly 7 – 8 years old. I saw people stepping on to this vehicle and adjusting themselves on the seats and they were paying the rent. I knew it was like a bus but to me strange since it had only three wheels. I asked my father what it is ? he said its an auto or a three wheeler which accommodate people for short distance. I liked it and I also had desire to travel into this one.
I got my wish fulfilled when my father decided not to take scooter but to take public transport . it was my first time when I ever travelled in public transport , I wanted to experience how it feel to be with strangers in the public transport. it was good for me since for the first time ever I interacted with strangers. though my father was with me and I was fearless and I was enjoying ,my father had warned me not to go alone in public transport or I will be lost.
After few years I realized that it was one of the most popular vehicle on road or a mean of public transport for the middle class. pay the nominal price and you can travel to short distance without any problem , due to its small size ,it had also gone inside the colonies. so it was the first choice for people.
Its not wrong to say that it was champion of the road.
Yesterday when I was out with my friends , I saw a wheeler lying abandoned on the road side. as its my habit to capture anything which strikes my eyes. I decided to take its pic. with close inspection I realized that it was the same model which was famous in 1980’s . but now it was eating dust. this model had gone obsolete after few years as new models came into the market , more agile and less fuel consumption. this force had gone out of the roads in months time and new three wheelers took its place.
It was sad to see its condition. but I knew that it had to happen. the champion was forgotten forever. it served public for many years and was loyal as it never had any problem with its machine. but it was upsetting to see it lying there eating dust.
It was left abandoned and had no use at all , not even in the museum it had found its place. but on the road side people like me recognize its importance, how important it was then when it was ruling the roads and now it was on the sidelines.
Its ok to say its life and its ok to say its life cycle . things work like this . so its easy to say that it had to happen . time moves on and life moves on but champion once champion is always a champion.
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Dheeraj Gautam 