Tough ride for Jalandhar’s lone tongawala

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 14

It is 12 noon and the train has just arrived. With passengers coming out of the bogeys, a huge crowd of people is witnessed outside the railway station with their luggage, ready to go to their respective destinations.

As auto drivers and rickshaw-pullers run towards the passengers to convince them to come to them, a silent tongawala, who is in his late 50s, also tries to woo passengers by telling them that this mode of conveyance will give them “happiness”.

With time, this musical and royal mode of conveyance is now struggling to get clients.

Pritam Singh is the only tongawala left in Jalandhar who is keeping this old tradition alive. As he interacts with this correspondent, he also keeps an eye on on persons coming out of the station and in between the conversation, he runs to them, only to hear a no from them.

“Everything has changed now, I had started this work around 35 years ago. Tab baat kuch aur hi thi, ab to sirf main hi bacha hu, koi aur tonga nahee hai yaha,” he says, his eyes fixed on other auto and rickshaw-pullers.

He knows that in the crowd of a plethora of autos and rickshaws, no one would choose to go with him, but still the man does not seem to accept this truth and keeps trying hard.

He continues, “This horse has become my life, as it helps me earn.” He stops the talk as he sees a migrant labourer waiting for a conveyance. Singh rushes towards him and lures him by saying that he won’t charge much and he could give whatever he thought was ok. Still luck doesn’t work for him and he comes back to continue the talk.

“Thoda dekhna padta hai ki koi nikal na jaae,” he tries to clarify. He said everyday he comes to the station around 3 am and go back home by 10 in the morning.

“It is easy sometimes to get a passenger in the wee hours as this is the safest mode of conveyance too,” he explains as he moves his hands over the horse’s back gently.

Bollywood’s tonga connection

Bollywood has used tonga in many films and has picturised many songs on this mode of conveyance. Many songs have also used the original sound of horse’s feet. Ello ji sanam hum aa gae, a song from Andaz Apna Apna movie is one of them.

But, Singh has his favourites and he knows almost every song that was filmed by using tonga, he says, “Even Sholay has a tonga in a superhit song. My favourite is Bachpan ke din bhula na dena that was shot on a tonga and I connect with this song because I feel that people who used to go by tonga in their childhood should not see at it disgracefully.”

After waiting for long, as Singh finds no one to ferry, he takes along his tonga and leaves the station with the decision to come again and the hope to find someone to take ride on his next visit to the station.

Tonga stand doesn’t exist anymore

There is a place in the city which is famous by the name ‘Tonga stand’ where every tongawala used to gather in the morning and people used to travel by them. Tongas were the only mode of travel many years ago.

Now, only Singh is left as a proof that tongas were once the most preferred mode.