مرد ریکشا

The Trishaw Man

Gregory Lim was only thirteen years old, but he was the best student in his class. All his teachers said he was doing very well. ‘Singapore needs young people like him,’ they said. ‘He’ll go far.’

But Gregory wasn’t very good at sport. He wasn’t bad but he wasn’t good. It wasn’t important. Not really. He was intelligent but he wasn’t strong.

Gregory’s father, Thomas Lim, was strong, very strong, and he loved his son. No father could feel better about his son than Thomas did. He was always thinking about his only child. Thomas drove a trishaw and he worked for many hours a day. He drove people around on a three-wheeled trishaw bicycle. The bicycle pulled a seat for two people.

It had a kind of big umbrella at the back. This went over the seat to keep the sun out of people’s eyes. Thomas often had two or sometimes three people in his trishaw. They sat under the umbrella while he pulled them around in the hot sun.

Sometimes taxi drivers got angry with him because the trishaw was slow. The taxi drivers also didn’t like Thomas taking business away from them. But that didn’t happen so often now. Years ago people used trishaws a lot. But people these days usually wanted taxis because they were quicker. Trishaws were too slow for most people.

Only tourists on holiday used them. And, sometimes, old people who liked to remember the old days. Thomas often had to work well into the night to make enough money to live on.

Gregorys mother, Anita, liked to think of her son as she worked at a fish shop. Every time she cleaned a fish or put a kilo of prawns in a bag she thought of her only child. She didn’t mind all the hard work and the smell of the fish on her skin. It was all done for her son. The money from Anitas job at the fish shop helped to pay for Gregory’s school things.

Yes, it was a hard life for Thomas and Anita, and everything they did was for their son. Gregory was going to get a good job and look after them when they were old.

Gregory went to school by bus. He hated it when other students arrived at school in taxis or cars. The rich students came in their fathers’ new Mercedes or comfortable taxis. He was the best student but it was the others who had money. That’s how Gregory saw it.

They were the ones with nice new clothes. They played computer games. They ate hamburgers at expensive fast food restaurants when they wanted to.

And everybody knew his parents were poor. That’s what Gregory hated most. They all knew his father drove a trishaw. Everybody saw his father pulling tourists around in the hot sun. Could there ever be a worse job than that? Why, driving an old taxi was better than driving a trishaw!

Gregory wasn’t the only one from a poor family. Many other students also had two working parents. But their fathers had better jobs than his father. They didn’t work in the hot sun and they wore nice clothes. They got paid every month.

Gregory loved his father. He knew how hard he worked. If only his father had a different job. Gregory was an ‘A’ student! But his father was a poor trishaw driver. It was all wrong.

No, Gregory never forgot what his father did. But he often wanted to.

‘Ayuh’ said Thomas to himself as he pulled the trishaw up a hill. There were two heavy tourists in the back and the roads were full today. It was National Day - a holiday in Singapore. It was very busy and everybody was having a party. People were out in the streets. The red and white colours of Singapore were everywhere.

It was a good time for business for Thomas. Cars were slow on the busy roads. This was one of the few times that Thomas’s trishaw could be quicker than a car. It was a good time to make money but it was hard work. After all, he wasn’t getting any younger.

His two tourists wanted to see the famous Raffles Hotel. It was a favourite place for tourists. On that day there was another visitor to the hotel - a beautiful and very famous film star called Dianne Troy.

She was making a film in Singapore. Dianne was having a day off from filming and wanted to rest. But she had lots of fans who wanted to see her. Everybody knew Dianne Troy was staying at Raffles.

The street outside the hotel was very busy. People were there for National Day and also to see their favourite film star. There were hundreds of people all around the front of the hotel. They all wanted to see Dianne Troy.

The fans were happy but after a time they felt uncomfortable. The sun was hot and it wasn’t easy for people to move. There were just too many people there. All the taxis coming to the hotel moved slowly because of the crowd. It was still early in the afternoon. The day was at its hottest.

Thomas could get to the hotel quite quickly. He knew his way around Singapore better than almost anybody. He knew all the shortest ways that cars were too big to use. And it was easier for a trishaw to move through lots of people. Cars were much slower. Thomas always called out in a loud voice to let people know he was coming.

The trishaw stopped outside Raffles Hotel and the two tourists got out. They wanted to see Dianne Troy too. There were cameras everywhere; And so many people! The two tourists took out their cameras and Thomas said goodbye.

He was about to go when Dianne Troy came to the window. Everybody pushed to the front to get a better look. All the people were very close together. Dianne Troy smiled and waved to the fans and they shouted back.

Then Thomas saw something at the front of the crowd. A woman was calling loudly for help. But why? Then he saw why. The woman was trying to stop a young girl from falling. It wasn’t easy with all those people around them.

The girl was about twelve years old. Both the woman and the girl looked like tourists.

‘My daughter’ the woman shouted. ‘A hornet stung her! Please help me. She needs a doctor quickly!’ There were shouts from the people around her. They all knew that hornets in Singapore are very dangerous.

Hornets can kill children or old people. Everybody is afraid when they see the big black and yellow insects.

But the nearest hospital was far away. The woman couldn’t walk through the streets carrying the sick child. Certainly not when the streets were as busy as this. A taxi was too slow in these crowds. But Thomas knew what to do.

Gregory Lim felt very pleased. He was looking at a page from The Straits Times, Singapore’s biggest newspaper. Lots of students were looking at it. The page was up on the school wall.

Gregory smiled as the students read the newspaper story on the wall. That was his father they were reading about.

His father, the trishaw driver.