Ubiquitous India: No 5 - The Cart

The Indian cart surely has to be a design classic?  A design that doesn't falter - four large spindly wheels on a sturdy frame with a wooden top.  And there is just no way that you would not see one of these if you were to go outside today.  They are to be found everywhere and they have a multitude of uses.  These unmotorised trollies are the perfect size for one-man-band business - they can be pushed fully loaded by just one person and are big enough to carry enough stock from which that person can make a living.  

This cart on a street corner near my home holds a carefully built pyramid of sweet limes.
The produce changes frequently depending on what's in season.

You mostly see them on street corners carrying the latest in-season fruit or veg.  Just the one choice - be it mangos, strawberries, grapes, jackfruit etc etc.  But they are so versatile that I have seen them being used to carry music equipment in a parade, I've seen goats sitting on them and I've seen them being used to haul Gods across Mumbai during Ganpati.  There is even a cart at one of the offices where I work that has been painted and converted into a kitchen table.  It looks very cool!

As with all my Ubiquitous India posts...I have lots of photos:

Housewives surround this cart in squalid conditions to haggle for potatoes (Khar)

This trolley is being used to carry music equipment during a parade (and has it's own DJ by the looks of it!)

At Worli Fishing Village - a goat rests on this cart!

At Sewri - a vendor sells watermelon juice to truck drivers

Above and below: When grapes were in season 

A street vendor hauls his stock of tomatoes through the Mumbai traffic

I found this chap with the rather nice side parting in Dhobi Ghat. Note his old fashioned weighing scales.

Paltry offerings from these Gujurati street vendors

In Aarey Milk Colony - fried foodstuffs and tea available from this lady (note the decorated frame) 

During Holi - a rainbow of coloured powders being sold

Hundreds of neatly stacked baked biscuits (Jodhpur)

Plenty of room underneath for additional storage!

And today's star attraction? Melons and Mangoes!

Ubiquitous India: No 4 - Truck Hoppers

This blog is dedicated to the P-Js of Powai.

All over India, on every road, from the busiest expressways to the narrowest country lane - there are people hitching rides or being transported on the back of commercial vehicles.  They are lone riders, family groups, gangs of workers - or travelling companions who are complete strangers to each other. I call them 'truck hoppers'.

Chance for a catch-up and perhaps even a debate?

Sometimes these hitchers stand without the ability to sit; others make seating out of their cargo - whether it be rice sacks, rubbish or an actual chair (as below). Often you will these impromptu passengers fast asleep amongst a load of detritus. Never is there a seatbelt or a strap, and never do they feel the need to close the doors (if there are any) - better to feel the wind in your hair.

Seating provided!

I love the way that cargo transport doubles up as a commuter transport.  I also love the way that groups of men laugh and play about in the backs of trucks. The most amusing aspect, are those who are willing to squeeze themselves into any available space, just to get where they want to go (or have to go).

Mmmm...looks really comfortable!

Of course, the humour masks something more sinister.  People travelling by this method are generally taking their lives into their own hands (as is so often typical in India's Health & Safety free zone). I hate to think what would happen if any of these vehicles had to brake suddenly, or if one was involved with a crash. I recently heard a terribly sad story from a friend: One morning, upon hearing a loud crash outside, my friend's husband went to investigate.  He saw a van carrying marble slabs on the road outside their apartment block.  He asked someone what was going on. It transpired that the van had just picked up two workers from the next door building and these men had climbed into the back of the van. As soon as it had accelerated away, the two huge marble slabs (which had not been strapped on) - fell sideways on top of the two men, killing one and injuring the other.  My poor friend's husband saw the bodies poking out from under the marble. What a waste of a life because of such a negligent disregard for safety.  So even though I approach this subject in rather a tongue-in-cheek kind of way - I actually find these sightings quite stressful.

In my two years in India, I have recorded these shotgun passengers in their hundreds.  Here is a small selection for your delectation (some photographs are fuzzy as I have shot them through a car window):

Govindas on Human Pyramid day - traverse the city by truck

Next few photos - Gods are not precluded from travelling by truck!

This truck carries a buffet...and a chef

This little cow went to market....

Look closely....very closely!

Notice the guy asleep with his head on the other guy's lap?

Do not step over the threshold!

Is he holding the door to stop it falling off or to stop himself falling out?

The Milkman

Children welcome

Looks like poor legroom for these guys.....

I dread to think what these guys are actually sitting on.

Heads peeping out - looks like they are playing a game of cards.

Precariously perched on boxes on top of this drinks truck.

An attempt at holding on....

This woman looks like she is preparing tonight's dinner in the back of this truck!

Ubiquitous India : No 3 - The Hercules Bicycle

Where would everyday Indian Man be without his bicycle? Sturdy, reliable and with an eternally long life, the Hercules bicycle is as much a packhorse as it is a convenient mode of transport.

The unchanging simplicity of design makes the Indian Bicycle a 'classic'.

You won't find a working class man riding racers, BMXs or mountain bikes in India. For them, the bike is ridden out of necessity and very rarely as a pastime. In fact, I think I have only ever seen one person wearing Tour de France lycra sports clothing, pedalling a bike for fun. But then you would probably be taking your life into your own hands, if you chose to cycle as a hobby in this city!

"Cycle is a poor man’s transport, hobby of rich man 

and medical activity for the old"

The Hercules Bicycle is so sturdy and reliable - that it is the workhorse of Mumbai's Dobi and Dabba Wallahs and all manner of delivery men.  I love the way that it is also used - through a clever modification to the pedals - as a mobile knife sharpening station. In the city, it is the Lamborghini of the working classes - enabling their riders to zoom past the static traffic of Mumbai's choked up streets. In rural India, the trusty bicycle enables village dwellers to go from village to farm and from the fields to home.

The packhorse (tiffin deliveries)

I've been all over the country, and it seems that the standard bicycle model is roughly the same. It has an old fashioned (nay, 'classic') shape with an economy of design that has not changed in decades (much like India's favourite taxis - the Hindustan Ambassador or Premier Padmini). From my pictures, you will notice that these bicycles can carry huge weights - probably because of their reinforced stays and double crossbars.  Due to the ubiquity of such cycles, roadside bicycle repairing is a 'profession' in itself and punchars can be easily seen to. Most of the bikes you see on the roads must have been repaired countless times, kept in families for decades or resold down the line on many occasions. You can probably pick one up for a few hundred rupees. 

So what is the story behind the Hercules brand? (Hang on a minute whilst I get serious).

The Hercules Cycle & Motor Company

The Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Limited was a British bicycle manufacturer founded in 1910 by Edmund and Harry Crane in Birmingham. The name Hercules was chosen to signify 'durability and robustness'. At first, Harry assembled the bikes whilst Ted cycled around Birmingham for parts. They went from making 25 to 70 bicycles a week within six months and from there on in, expanded exponentially. By 1914, they were producing 10,000 bikes a week, occupying a 13 acre site in Aston. 

The brothers exported a large proportion of their production and by the time Sir Malcolm Campbell was invited to see the three millionth bicycle roll off the line in 1933, over half was being sent overseas - earning them £6m and the congratulations of the King.  By the end of the 1930s, Hercules had already produced more than six million bicycles and could claim to be the biggest manufacturer of cycles in the world.

Sir Edmund Crane ("The Bicycle King") in the 1930s outside his home with a classic
Hercules bicycle - you can see that the design has not changed in all these years!

Tube Investments

In 1946, the Cranes sold Hercules to Tube Investments for a mere £3.25m who then combined it with its other brands (including Phillips Cycles, Sun, Armstrong and Norman) to form the British Cycle Corporation subsidiary. Tube Investments (itself registered in 1919) had previously been the main supplier to Hercules - providing the tubing from which the bicycle frames were made.  But apparently by then, Hercules had lost its understanding of the racing bicycle market - manufacturing its handlebars in steel when lighter alloys had become the fashion.  Plus their bikes only had five gears when ten was the norm.  

In 1960, Tube Investments also acquired Raleigh and merged the British Cycle Corporation with Raleigh to form TI-Raleigh which had 75% of the UK market. Raleigh itself had already acquired the BSA cycle division from BSA (The Birmingham Small Arms Company) in 1957. Sadly, the last bicycles displaying the Hercules name were produced by the Raleigh Factory until the name was eventually allowed to die in around 1963.

Tube Investments Comes to India

But before the brand died out in the UK, TI Cycles of India was established by the Murugappa Group in 1949 in partnership with Tube Investments of the UK.  It had been the vision of AMM Murugappa Chettiar to start a business that would manufacture a product 'for the common man' which they could sell in large numbers. Cycles seemed to fit the bill. The first Hercules bicycles rolled out in 1951 (then the Phillips brand in 1959 and BSA in 1964). Today, TI Cycles has the capacity to manufacture 5.4m bikes a year at three plants across India (Chennai, Nasik and Noida). During the 70s and 80s TI-UK divested from the Indian company - so that today TI Cycles is a 100% Indian owned company (but one with 'a global outlook').  The names BSA and Hercules live on today in India as trusted and reliable brands and that is what you see on the roads on a daily basis. They have even branched out their range of products to include mountain terrain and electric bicycles (see the BSAHercules website here). 

So there you have it - the history of Indian's best loved bicycle in a (not so) nutshell!

An old advertising poster (but not ridden by Indians!)

This newer model has been jazzed up by its Dabbawallah owner

Above & Below: It's amazing what you can get on the back of a Hercules!

A cracking balancing act!

Worli Fishing Village

'Classic' (Carter Road, Bandra)

In Kollam, Kerala

Between Trivandrum and Kollam, Kerala.

Farm workers park up their Hercules bikes in Aarey Milk Colony

In Bandra

Perfectly balanced

In Bangalore. I think this might be a bicycle manufactured by Hero - a brand originating in India (see here)

Demonstrating the environmentally friendly bicycle at the 2013 Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

Note: The bicycle is so ubiquitous that I did not go out of my way to take these photos - they are all from my archives.