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All Aboard....

Let me tell you that writing this kind of piece when I'm forced to time travel is not easy. For starters, remembering my childhood and reliving memories of old roads and dilapidated towns makes me feel as young as a fossiled dinosaur. Or maybe as fresh as a Harappan stone. Sigh.

Ok, moving on, I am actually going back to the days when horse carts did exist in the Indian cities. I think some of the villages and small towns still have them but no more in the metros. In the 60's, our quaint part of the Chennai city had only horse carriages to carry passengers for short distance travel. Animal rights activism was unheard of then. And, of course, walking was also the most used mode of transportation to get around. Boo to you treadmillers.

Then came the rickshaws pulled by humans. Very inhuman indeed, but no one knew anything different. And what about bicycles? Well, that was the popular transport to get to schools or offices. Boo to the cardios and....nah, forget it. I'm tired of booing now.

Only the 80's saw bursts of city buses and autos which are actually rickshaws but thankfully powered by engines. Hooray, we were finally becoming part of a more civilised world. Scooters also splurged their existence then. The 90's witnessed a generation of youth booming on their motorcycles around town too. Stylish and my favorite of all times.

This millenium, though I see some of the above, there's more and more of cars everywhere. So, for me, from carts to cars.....I can safely claim....what a ride it's been so far :-)

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