Ok, where do I begin…
Many of you would know that I had invested in a Rickshaw for a young boy, Ani, who had been riding me around Dhaka every so often. The agreement that we had come to was that I would make the initial capital investment into the rickshaw (8000 tk) and that he would continually work for me (be there for me 24 hours a day – as he said at the time!) for 3 months and that the rickshaw would be his.
What I thought would be a good idea. A bit of a win-win situation for us both, he provide me with a service that I require everyday to get to and from work as well as when I go out socially and I provide him with an interest free micro-credit loan that he would pay off in kind and also remove him of the burden of having to pay 100tk per day to hire his previous rickshaw.
After informing many of my friends back home via email, I got a lot of well wishes from them hoping that it all works out well. Almost like they could tell from their distance that this relationship was going to be a problem. Little did I realize this at the time.
It all started out rather smoothly, he would catch the bus to my house and pick me up at 830am, work throughout the day and then pick me up at 5pm to take me home. Easy really. The first bump we came to was the need for a rickshaw license. How much? I enquire. Twenty Thousand Taka he responds! What? Why had you not told me about this hidden cost beforehand? Probably because he knew that I would say no. Anyway, I told him I couldn’t manage that money for this license… so against my morals he buys one on the black market for 1000tk, of course with my money!
In week 2 of our relationship, I am left standing outside my house for 2 consecutive mornings at 845 with no rickshaw, or wallah in sight. No call, nothing! Later those days he rings me at 2pm to inform me that he is sick. I tell him that if so he needs to call me at 8am to tell me. No problems, I promise he says.
In week 3 not only does one of our wheels break on the rickshaw (300tk) but the kid continually begs for a mobile phone. An idea that sounds interesting for me, as now I will be able to contact him rather than waiting for my daily phone calls from him to tell me that he cant make it. I provide him my old mobile on the proviso that he pays me back 50 tk a day until he pays 2000tk. He promises 50tk a day.
Also around this time he asks if he can borrow my bicycle so that he can ride to and from my place rather than having to pay for the bus, I don’t see the problem with this, as by this time I had started riding the rickshaw around the area when I needed to do things, so as long as I have one of the bikes I am happy. The agreement with him using the bike was provided that he kept upkeep and maintenance of it.
All of a sudden one week I just don’t see him or rarely hear from him, and when he does call it sounds like the voice I put on when ringing my manager to pull a sickie. I try calling him and there is no connection, what is he up to or what has happened to him? Either way, why wont he be honest to me about it?
I had become really annoyed with his lack of work or communication. The following week, he has bruises and scars over his body, not sure if they are self inflicted. Tells me that he got mugged and bashed and the bike was damaged and that he was fixing it. I was more worried about his welfare than the bike; we agreed that we would go to the police with the problem but he never followed me up on that. During this time he also informed me that his brother in law had taken the mobile phone for a few weeks and that it would return soon. He had also stopped paying the 50tk a day for it claiming that he had been sick and not worked and therefore couldn’t pay me!
Things kinda continued the same, he would turn up 3/5 days a week and he never had the mobile or rode the bike to my place. I eventually gave him an ultimatum – he produce the mobile and bike or we would be finished.
During this time the rickshaw seat broke and we agreed that we would fix it… I somehow, stupidly in hindsight, gave him 2000tk to head off and fix it. He had sold me on a story that he would pay 4000tk of it and me 2000tk. Where was the guy going to get 4000tk from???? He wasn’t even paying back the mobile! Little surprise that the seat never got fixed did it!
Anyway the deal was that he had to continually work for me and if he was not going to make it in the morning he had to call and have a darn good excuse. He went well with the first week and I thought that he might have turned the corner… but he didn’t turn up for two days in a row. That’s when I called it quits and told the guards that he wasn’t allowed into the house to pickup the rickshaw anymore.
One weekend when I was out, he came over and the guards refused him. He complained and complained to them but also my flat mates that they let him in and I would sort him out when I got back in an hour. Anyway, somehow the guards let him leave with the rickshaw! I got a call from him that night as one of his friends had caught him trying to sell the rickshaw, I went across town to where he was and found out the true story of what he had been up to…
I was informed that the kid had a gambling problem and had gambled himself into massive debts so much so that he had lost my mobile and my bicycle in the games that he had been playing. I never found out how much trouble he has got himself into, but realize that I have done all I can to try and give this kid a chance in life and he has just thrown it back in my face. I continually got promises after promises about what the money, the bike and the phone. I had lost so much money on trying to help him and all he did was lie to me and cheat me.
As hard as it was to say no to a guy that has a gambling debt, I had to cut ties. For now it is time to look for a new wallah to ride my rickshaw… maybe Mohammad Yunis is onto something with lending micro-credit to women only… if only there were women rickshawallahs!
Many of you would know that I had invested in a Rickshaw for a young boy, Ani, who had been riding me around Dhaka every so often. The agreement that we had come to was that I would make the initial capital investment into the rickshaw (8000 tk) and that he would continually work for me (be there for me 24 hours a day – as he said at the time!) for 3 months and that the rickshaw would be his.
What I thought would be a good idea. A bit of a win-win situation for us both, he provide me with a service that I require everyday to get to and from work as well as when I go out socially and I provide him with an interest free micro-credit loan that he would pay off in kind and also remove him of the burden of having to pay 100tk per day to hire his previous rickshaw.
After informing many of my friends back home via email, I got a lot of well wishes from them hoping that it all works out well. Almost like they could tell from their distance that this relationship was going to be a problem. Little did I realize this at the time.
It all started out rather smoothly, he would catch the bus to my house and pick me up at 830am, work throughout the day and then pick me up at 5pm to take me home. Easy really. The first bump we came to was the need for a rickshaw license. How much? I enquire. Twenty Thousand Taka he responds! What? Why had you not told me about this hidden cost beforehand? Probably because he knew that I would say no. Anyway, I told him I couldn’t manage that money for this license… so against my morals he buys one on the black market for 1000tk, of course with my money!
In week 2 of our relationship, I am left standing outside my house for 2 consecutive mornings at 845 with no rickshaw, or wallah in sight. No call, nothing! Later those days he rings me at 2pm to inform me that he is sick. I tell him that if so he needs to call me at 8am to tell me. No problems, I promise he says.
In week 3 not only does one of our wheels break on the rickshaw (300tk) but the kid continually begs for a mobile phone. An idea that sounds interesting for me, as now I will be able to contact him rather than waiting for my daily phone calls from him to tell me that he cant make it. I provide him my old mobile on the proviso that he pays me back 50 tk a day until he pays 2000tk. He promises 50tk a day.
Also around this time he asks if he can borrow my bicycle so that he can ride to and from my place rather than having to pay for the bus, I don’t see the problem with this, as by this time I had started riding the rickshaw around the area when I needed to do things, so as long as I have one of the bikes I am happy. The agreement with him using the bike was provided that he kept upkeep and maintenance of it.
All of a sudden one week I just don’t see him or rarely hear from him, and when he does call it sounds like the voice I put on when ringing my manager to pull a sickie. I try calling him and there is no connection, what is he up to or what has happened to him? Either way, why wont he be honest to me about it?
I had become really annoyed with his lack of work or communication. The following week, he has bruises and scars over his body, not sure if they are self inflicted. Tells me that he got mugged and bashed and the bike was damaged and that he was fixing it. I was more worried about his welfare than the bike; we agreed that we would go to the police with the problem but he never followed me up on that. During this time he also informed me that his brother in law had taken the mobile phone for a few weeks and that it would return soon. He had also stopped paying the 50tk a day for it claiming that he had been sick and not worked and therefore couldn’t pay me!
Things kinda continued the same, he would turn up 3/5 days a week and he never had the mobile or rode the bike to my place. I eventually gave him an ultimatum – he produce the mobile and bike or we would be finished.
During this time the rickshaw seat broke and we agreed that we would fix it… I somehow, stupidly in hindsight, gave him 2000tk to head off and fix it. He had sold me on a story that he would pay 4000tk of it and me 2000tk. Where was the guy going to get 4000tk from???? He wasn’t even paying back the mobile! Little surprise that the seat never got fixed did it!
Anyway the deal was that he had to continually work for me and if he was not going to make it in the morning he had to call and have a darn good excuse. He went well with the first week and I thought that he might have turned the corner… but he didn’t turn up for two days in a row. That’s when I called it quits and told the guards that he wasn’t allowed into the house to pickup the rickshaw anymore.
One weekend when I was out, he came over and the guards refused him. He complained and complained to them but also my flat mates that they let him in and I would sort him out when I got back in an hour. Anyway, somehow the guards let him leave with the rickshaw! I got a call from him that night as one of his friends had caught him trying to sell the rickshaw, I went across town to where he was and found out the true story of what he had been up to…
I was informed that the kid had a gambling problem and had gambled himself into massive debts so much so that he had lost my mobile and my bicycle in the games that he had been playing. I never found out how much trouble he has got himself into, but realize that I have done all I can to try and give this kid a chance in life and he has just thrown it back in my face. I continually got promises after promises about what the money, the bike and the phone. I had lost so much money on trying to help him and all he did was lie to me and cheat me.
As hard as it was to say no to a guy that has a gambling debt, I had to cut ties. For now it is time to look for a new wallah to ride my rickshaw… maybe Mohammad Yunis is onto something with lending micro-credit to women only… if only there were women rickshawallahs!
