These are Probably the Coolest Rickshaws You’ll Find in India

We’ve experienced them zipping through nooks and crannies of crowded lanes when we’re late for an appointment, swallowed their exhaust fumes when we’ve earnestly asked “Bhaiyya, jaoge kya? (Brother, will you go?)” only to be met with zero acknowledgement from their end, and frantically hailed them when Uber surge pricing has been more expensive than the dinner that came before. Auto rickshaws are perhaps the most intrinsically Indian form of transport, and an irreplaceable part of our streets, even if autowalas reject us more than fuckboys do. But while most of us miss out on the novelty of this convenient contraption because it’s so normalised in our everyday lives, two guys tapped into the uniqueness of the rickshaw to make their very own rally: the Rickshaw Challenge.

Back in 2006, Princely Jeyachendren and Aravind Bremanandam met when they ended up in the same class at the Madras Christian College in Chennai. The two bonded over their shared experiences of having travelled through some of the wildest parts of Europe, signing up for desert rallies, and hitchhiking for competitions that needed the use of wit over wallet. “Aravind was taking part in a rally in the Sahara desert, one of the most dangerous ones he had done yet,” Jeyachendren, the founder of the Rickshaw Challenge and a company that is now known as the Travel Scientists told VICE over the phone. “He was facing a sandstorm while lying in an old car, thinking about life and that’s when the idea of starting some kind of rally in India just suddenly came to him.” In that instance, Aravind knew he wanted to expose the country to this concept of cultural tourism by using a form of transport that was authentically Indian and encompassed the country’s diverse and vibrant pulse. “We first thought about using an Ambassador or a Maruti, since both these vehicles are always associated with India, but none of them were indigenous, so they didn’t feel right. But the Bajaj-manufactured rickshaw is not only an Indian thing but also an idea that’s very unique to the country.”

Kicked off as the Indian Autorickshaw Challenge, the very first rally was held from Chennai to Kanyakumari in 2006, at a time when tourism options in India either meant a tour of the Taj Mahal or a hike through the Himalayan mountains. But despite their earnest efforts, the founders realised that there was one small issue: even though the event had attracted many international visitors, very few Indians were actually participating in these rickshaw rallies, looking at the mode of transport through a classist lens. “Indians were still at a toddler stage of rallies, and many of us even look down upon rickshaws as being something cheap,” says Jeyachendren. “This status is so internalised in us Indians. Abroad, everyone openly participates in such rallies, but class is such a deep issue in India that people don’t accept our open attitude and take it the wrong way. And trying to make them change their opinion or elevate the status of the rickshaw is like poking at our own eyes.”

However, inquiries from around the world poured in, catapulting the duo’s vision into a tourism venture where travellers could have a rustic Indian experience while crisscrossing it in a three-wheeler. To take this one step beyond, the pair even started offering people the option to customise their rickshaws according to their liking.

Thus, they launched PimpMyShaw, a website solely dedicated to designing your very own rickshaw for rally participants, which is offered as an optional package the travellers can pay for. “We came up with the name PimpMyShaw because Shaw stands for a king, and the name stands for what we wanted to signify: that we were making something for a king,” explains Jeyachendran. This service provides a range of customisable options that interested participants can avail of to craft the design of their dreams.

“We have turned our rickshaws into everything from horses to rabbits to F1 cars. Some have more personal preferences, such as a woman who designed her rickshaw like a submarine because she was related to Lord Mountbatten (the last Viceroy of British India), who loved the sea.”

According to Jeyachendren, the most popular design is based on the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine, which he feels is because participants think of rickshaws as these quirky, fun but mysterious contraptions.

“The craziest one we’ve done so far is a rabbit, made entirely out of [fake] fur. This was done because a participant was enchanted with the Indian folk tale from Panchatantra of the hare and the tortoise, and wanted to rewrite the ending by taking their rickshaw, a slow-moving vehicle, and turning it into the hare”.

Another challenge that Jeyachendren says they face is the vast amounts of curiosity by passersby, with people often asking them who gave them the authority to play around with classic Indian rickshaws.

“The Indian Penal Code actually says that you have to show your vehicle as it is coloured by the company, who it is registered to and where it is registered, so technically these customised rickshaws are legally wrong. But, because we have taken them as a tourism venture and project it as a way for foreigners to discover Indian culture, we have been given permission by the RTO as long as we document everything.” During each of the four rallies, which happen every year with an average participation of 10 teams, these rickshaws are repainted and reused for every rally.

But despite the bumps along the road, the Rickshaw Challenge has managed to keep its enterprise running for more than a decade and has given many international tourists a window into the weird and wild wonders of India.

Now, this rickshaw rally has four variations that carry on in different parts of India throughout the year. But what makes this off-beat challenge even more off-the-charts is the sheer freedom and encouragement it gives to experimentation, and the ready-set-go attitude it has to new ideas.

The next Rickshaw Challenge rally is the ‘Classic Run’, a ten-day trip from Chennai to Trivandrum that kicks off on December 28, 2019.

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