Tuk Tuk… its the story of a common man

When you are in it, you feel awesome, when you drive along with it, nothing annoys you more…

Tuk tuk wisdom quotes are something that is hard to ignore and something which always brings a smile on my face…

''Bob Marley'', ‘’Love is trash, girls need cash’’, ‘’midi koheda thiththa nari kiyai da aththa’’ ‘’chooti kello naasthi wenne naughty kello nisa’’

Some of the quotes which made me laugh when im rushing on road… Tuk guys own mobiles with hutch or etisalaat numbers with loud sinhala boot songs as their ring tones. They are chatty, updated and funny (most of the time atleast) Inside every tuk, if you notice closely is a way of living of the man in front of it, its either soo many steel bars and colourful interior… then the owner is a young guy who’s in colourful tshirt :P if you see pictures of babies, god and flowers inside then more likely the owner is a father and there is a high chance that his daughter’s and son’s name is written behind somewhere.

They are super speed, money oriented and cunning… atleast that is our perception about them… there are many times that they have surprised me and proved me wrong…

Once I left my phone (well its not million dollars but still very precious to me) inside a random tuk, while getting down at office only realizing when I went up that I left it in the tuk, came down again to see he was driving back to office with my phone, gave it to me and said "miss mama hindama hodai, wena kenek nang arang yanawa’’

One time I got into a tuk after work and when I got down I was short of Rs.200 and when I told him ill get it from home he said "miss one naha, wena dawasaka denna mama yanawa’’ofcourse I had to get his no and call and give him money back, quite effective customer relationship building ;)

Another time I had a Cinderella moment with a very old uncle in a tuk, I bought a pair of shoes on my way home, left one shoe in the tuk, had to find him when I realized one shoe is missing. Next day he came back all the way to office and gave it (when I tried to tip him) he said, "epa miss, matath miss wage duwek innawa’’ and went off.

Once I met this tuk driver who works part time after work till 11pm gets into a k-galle bus goes home and comes back in the morning. Said he needed extra cash so he works late, he too dropped me off and asked me for less than what the meter showed me, I paid extra and got off with his no :P again, excellent marketing technique – he was a good story teller, sympathy works every time ;)

Most of the time they can be annoying, they can be rude and they drive you mad…

Despite the reckless, arrogant, super night rider fast driving lies a very ordinary Sri Lankan man who for a change is passionate about his job (we can only find a handful of people happy with their jobs), they are very patriotic than most of us… They are the ones who have national flags during Independence day and despite their high robotic charges they are the ones who go out of the way to help people. During bomb blasts in Colombo, they were faster than any ambulances to take injured to hospital. If someone dies, they are the first to mourn with white flags, they are the most updated about the country, unlike many of us who are biased and commercialized, they express opinions, they fight for their rights, they fight for the country…they fight for the common man…

If you see closely you will see a very passionate person, a very ordinary Sri Lankan making a living, trying to live a peaceful life with the little money he makes, if you hear closely you will hear a heartbeat of a fellow Sri Lankan, a heartbeat of an ordinary man who fights against odds to live a better life…