For days, like a hunter stalking his prey across the savanna, I have been trying to get a clean shot of this beast of a car. It is the Tempo, a three wheeled taxi-bus, once common here, but now critically endangered. Its nickname in Hindi is a 'Sulda' which translates as 'Pig'. The Indian government is trying to phase out these inefficient two-stroke people carriers due to the pollution they belch out, particularly when stuffed full of passengers (i.e. always).
In the towns and cities, most of the smaller auto rickshaws have already been upgraded to run on CNG, LPG and diesel. Particularly in provincial areas, and amongst the poorer population, the Orwellian mantra "Three wheels good, four wheels bad" applies (ok, so perhaps not a direct quotation). Just wait for the revolution, when all the three wheelers rise up to overthrow the bourgeois in their TATA Indicas, Suzuki Maruti Swifts and Mahindra jeeps. (I can see a Pixar movie in the making - a sort of 'Cars' meets 'Animal Farm', but with Bollywood dancing thrown in).
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