The beauty of Thrissur Malayalam is that even when you speak about a man who has cheated you, you call him ‘changayi’ – a Malayalam word for friend. On the night of July 30, the 'changayi' had appeared at the Thrissur bus stand, looking distressed. He met Revadh Babu, an auto rickshaw driver, who was about to call it a night and head home. "Are there any buses to Thiruvananthapuram?" the man asked Revadh. There weren't. It was urgent, the man said. His mother had just breathed her last at a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram and he needed to reach her side soon, the man said. He couldn't afford a taxi fare. Revadh and he worked out a deal to drive the rickshaw all the way to Thiruvananthapuram and further to Neyyatinkara - a 300 km distance - for a fare of Rs 6,500.
At that time, the thought never crossed Revadh’s mind that the passenger was lying about his mother's death. There was no money on the man but someone he called on the phone assured Revadh that he shall receive the amount on reaching the hospital. Revadh Babu trusted their word, rode all through the night while his passenger slept in the back seat. Only on reaching Karunagappally did he wake up hungry and ask Revadh if he could buy him food. With his day’s savings, Revadh bought him food from a thattukada (street-side eatery).
In Thiruvananthapuram, where they reached at half past six in the morning, the man asked Revadh another favour. Could he lend a thousand rupees for him to take care of some hospital needs? Revadh gave away the thousand he had borrowed from a friend from Attingal, on the way. Moments later, the man, who had gone into a shop, disappeared, reportedly seen running into one of the many bylanes of Thiruvananthapuram, a city too strange for Revadh. It took him a while to realise he has just been cheated of several thousand rupees.
But Revadh's story soon went viral. The young rickshaw driver, who was moved so much by a stranger's plight and took on the unusual mission of this rather long drive for a three-wheeler, touched many hearts. "I got financial help from several kind people, which more than made up the money I lost that dreadful night," Revadh says, three weeks after the incident.
As for the passenger, he has been caught by the police with the help of CCTV visuals. But it was not that easy. "His name is Nishant and he lives in Udiyankulangara in Parassala. When the police first traced him to his house he claimed that he was in quarantine. So they went away. But then the media reached the house, after my story became viral and found that the man was lying. It is after that that he was arrested - on the 10th of August," Revadh says.
The police told Revadh that the man had lied about his mother dying. All he wanted was to reach the capital city urgently. They are still trying to trace the other man that spoke to Revadh on the phone.
But after Nishant’s arrest, Revadh was cornered with questions from people around him. “I was rebuked and verbally abused by some people including fellow auto rickshaw drivers for having the man arrested since I have later got compensation from generous people. But would it be right to not file a case against a man who has cheated you like this and for which so many people showed you kindness?” asks Revadh, half-crying.
Revadh had begun riding the auto rickshaw, taken on rent, after the coronavirus pandemic broke out in March and his other sources of income were drying up. He had been selling lottery tickets before, a job he began as a schoolboy when his single mother had an accident and got bedridden for a few months. “Our father had abandoned us when I was a year old and when my mother fell unwell, we had to find a way to live – my sister, mother and I, at our home in Varandarappilly,” Revadh says.
The little boy selling lottery tickets for a living had then got featured in Mathrubhumi. Reading it, late actor and singer of folk songs Kalabhavan Mani was so moved that he came out to help the family in cash and kind. “He bought us books, bags and clothes and gave us money when we were in need. Some years ago, he offered his music CDs to me to sell at festival grounds and take the profit. I have been doing that until the lockdown put an end to all of it,” says Revadh.
He could study only up to class 7, while his sister continued her education and got a job in Ernakulam. “She is married now and my mother and I live in our home in Thrissur. What I want now is to own a rickshaw since this one is on rent.”