CNG all day, everyday!

One deals with CNGs whether one is going short distances or long. The one I had to deal with coming to office detoured four times, going the wrong way, claiming I had turned him loco and so he headed for the Red brick house of the "Pir", and went off to  the dead end of Dhanmondi! 

However, the wrong way is not the worse case scenario. Often the driver may take the wrong turn and threaten to offload you, especially when there are no other CNGs about. The driver says that you are the big dolt who took the wrong turning to Farmgate.

Once I asked a CNG to drop me to Dhanmondi 4A. While coming from Dhanmondi 5, I twisted, turned, heckled and ripped off some money in the process. And all this happened in the 2pm heat, even though the usual traffic jam had abated somewhat. 

Of course, I can think of even bleaker occasions. If there is a baby in the vehicle, one has to beg and plead to mind the speed-breakers, and you can count your lucky stars if you all do come home in one piece. 

Foreign riders have a more hazardous time, it is reported. One internee was sobbing when her camera was snatched whilst travelling via a CNG. Unfortunately, she initially resisted and was injured in the process. 

Another CNG-walla asked me to wait, at Dhaka Art Centre, Dhanmondi Road 7 A, and exploited my naivety, buzzing off with my expensive packet of Chess set – which I was sending to friends in Australia, plus a gorgeous coffee cup, which I had destined for Mum on her 90th year.

I remember an occasion when I had to report on an art exhibition at Banani. I asked the chap who drove my CNG to wait. Somehow he took a strange 'fancy' and wanted me to visit his home and children. I raced back to be in time to do the page, paying him off heavily, to let me off. Sharing the CNG with others, whether I am sharing the vehicle with someone else, going the same way, I realise that one has to scream and shout at times as if the driver was doing us a favour. 

If one is alone, the driver can be more rude and rough, not pausing at speed breakers and driving hazardously. 

Catching a CNG in places like Banani can be difficult as one is expected to dish out more as Gulshan, Baridhara and Banani are places where the embassies are, and where the rich and the privileged care to reside. 

One knows that the rickshaws are cheaper and better, but one cannot lug all one's bags and baggage in a rickshaw and rickshaws are not allowed to ply on all roads.  One has little choice as a result. When it rains, the CNGs often get water-logged and their engines stop working, thus adding yet another headache.

The CNGs in our city have to be coaxed and cajoled as it is the travel means for most of the people. There are many reasons to go out, especially shopping for essentials. Thank God for home delivery then! 

People are somewhat suspicious of any technology or progress that makes things too convenient, so do not expect the CNGs to go away anytime soon! 

By Fayza Haq

Photo: LS Archive/Sazzad Ibne Sayed