“I’ve been a horse cart driver here in Rameswaram for the last 40 years. There were 300 of us before the bridge was built. Today it’s just me,” 65-year-old Subramanian tells me.
A survivor of the 1964 Dhanushkodi cyclone, which killed over 1800 people, Subramaniam started living in Rameswaram from then onwards. His family lived near the Dhanushkodi railway station before the cyclone hit the town. “Somehow we climbed on to a train one night after the cyclone. Four days later, we reached Rameswaram and walked into our relative’s house.”
Subramaniam studied till Class 4 at a school in Dhanushkodi. After being displaced by the cyclone, he ended up working in a canteen and later joined the bandwagon of horse cart drivers. “We belong to Dhanushkodi, but our ancestors did not practise fishing,” he explains.
The bridge that Subramaniam was referring to is the Indira Gandhi Road Bridge, built in 1988 parallel to the Pamban railway bridge, which connects the town of Mandapam in mainland India to Pamban Island and Rameswaram. After the construction of the road bridge, transportation shifted mainly to auto rickshaws and cars.
Not only due to the road bridge, but many people also quit horse cart riding since there were no mechanics who could work on horse carts anymore. The mechanics opted for other jobs related to the roadway bridge.
Subramaniam has gotten for newer wheels and also made many changes to his cart since the time he purchased it, and changes his horse every two years at a cost of Rs 10,000-15,000. This has helped him stay in business. For the first 10 days he trains the horse. Till the training is complete he does not use the cart for commercial purposes.
He calls his horse Raja. He names every horse he rides. “It creates a bond,” says Subramaniam. Raja’s fodder costs him Rs 150 daily.
The horse cart driver’s day begins at 4 am, when the first train arrives at the Rameswaram railway station. He works till 1 in the afternoon. “After that, I have a heavy lunch and then take a nap,” he says.
Ferrying passengers only up to a limited distance, Subramaniam charges Rs 50 per ride for four people. His income is around Rs 100-150 daily. He says, “People who find it interesting get on for a ride.” He pays Rs 1,000 as tax/license every year, in order to park his cart at the railway station.
Subramaniam is now well-versed in Hindi. He says he learnt the language because many north Indian tourists have started coming to Rameswaram in recent times. Since the time he began the business till today, he says the number of people visiting Rameswaram has increased but the number of horse carts has come down to one.
He notes that there is no specific time when there is a surge in customers. “During the new moon days, the number of customers increases. Tourism or not, interested people take my cart, others don’t.” He seats two people facing the outside of the horse cart, one person in the middle and one next to him.
“I have appeared in many interviews and my photo has appeared in the newspapers, I’m very famous in Rameswaram,” Subramaniam says proudly.