nee's life here past and future: Peddycab's Driver

Thursday, 8 November 2012

Peddycab's Driver

Since i was a kid i do love to go with this transportation. Its so refreshing due to the cold breeze that i can feel dancing on my face, and also somehow this traditional transportation can bring a lot of things in my life. By sitting in it i can experience many phases in life that i normally do not feel in a modern time. I can enjoy the rythm in my beloved city Surabaya from a slow point though my surroundings are so crazy and hectic with activities. I can fuse with the calmness of the becak's driver. With the additional special music from the rolling wheels and the friction from the tyres with the asphalt and all the rickety noises....heaven.

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In my city this type of becak is for goods and especially for the green grocer's sellers. See the seat position of the driver, its higher to help him in seeing the road in case the goods are piling high.
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And today as usual i choose to go with becak though i can go with the cab. I always feel that sharing my transportation's fees with as various transportation as i can find is good for my conscience hahaha. And i choose this old man, too bad i am too ashamed in asking his name. And if you believe that i am a shy person, then you will also believe that a pig does fly lol. enough with my straying....let me continue. This nice and respectful guy is from Lamongan one of the cities in East Java, around 43 km from Surabaya. he was born in Lamongan and finds his fortune in Surabaya as a becak's driver. Somehow i got a little bit flabbergasted when he said that he is 67 years old. I mean he looks much older than that -i compare with my papah, he is 76 years old. I got speechless. He is already lost some agilities but he is willing to work with his fragile bones to pedal the becak to wherever we want to go. Subhanallah.....Allah Ya Rabb....may we the young generation can learn something from his humble self.

Even while he pedaled, he answered all my silly questions.

Now i believe you start to ask my cruelness in choosing him as my driver. Well lets see, in my opinion, he is on the street because he has too much dignity to be a parasite for his kids and waiting for nothing except for dying. So why we dont help him by choosing him to go as long as its not in rush, not too far, and dont forget the tips. And the last is make it sure your weight is not too heavy lol. Seeing this i asked some questions toward him and the more i talked to him, the more i respect him. With his age, he still respects younger people like me. He tilted down the becak so i can put my heavy self nicely *such a gentleman huh* he spoke very polite in a very good intonation and educated vocabularies though i can still trace his original accent. Subhanallah.....so very different with some cabbie's drivers that i met, though not all mind you. Alas.....most people do lost their human instincts because of modernity. Hope to see these kind of becak's driver again and again. if you want to find him while you are in Surabaya, do go to Gubeng Street in front of Shiloam hospital. He is always waiting passenger there.