Bandra's rickshaw-cum-lounge has a large-hearted driver

Sandeep Bacche’s rickshaw screams of colour. You are bombarded with the daily weather update, the stock market update, and the gold and silver prices written in marker pen on a small yellow panel. A movie is playing on an LCD TV and right next to the meter is a payphone. You can pick paper tissues from a dispenser at the rear of your seat, and even candy if you put money in the donation box. You can also drink tea for Rs5 and water if you’re thirsty. He will even recharge your phone balance; he stocks up on every network provider’s recharge slips. And if you can’t afford the recharge, he has free wi-fi. There’s hundreds of photos and stickers in the rickshaw, testimony to his various news interviews, his pictures with celebrities, his speeches at events and one from the TED talk he gave last year.

Sandeep Bacche, 38, has been in the business for 16 years. He gives Rs2 from each fare he gets to charity and provides medicines to the needy. He gives free rides to people who have kidney disease or cancer, to the blind, and to everyone on his birthday (December 31) and Gandhi Jayanti (October 2). He gives discounts to senior citizens and to newly-weds. He can be found in Bandra usually, though not exclusively.

Bacche stopped wearing footwear when Sanjay Dutt was jailed; he will be shod only when Dutt is out. “My mother was sick and I desperately needed money. Nobody helped me except him,” said Bacche, who has a tattoo of the actor on his arm, with ‘Baba’ written below it. He has around 10 tattoos on his body. Bacche wanted to serve the nation by being in the armed forces, but couldn’t do so for lack of money. “I have only studied up to the 10th grade.

I was in the National Cadet Corps (NCC) for two years, and didn’t have the money to pay fees for the third year, because my father was poor. But driving my auto makes me happy, too. It is also a service,” he said.

Bacche has a few fixed customers, and also takes normal fares. He raises money for his charities by attending birthday parties and weddings, where he parks his rickshaw as an object of display. He goes to houses to collect old and used clothes, which he keeps if he is in need, or donates. 

He said people have used him for their work but have never paid him. “Many people call me for interviews, speeches and other events but don’t pay me. They don’t realise that I do this work to run my house and even spending three hours elsewhere costs me. When I ask for donations, they refuse. Celebrities merely shake hands and click pictures with me. I have refused many people because they didn’t offer me money. Once I did an ad, and the guy who called me took Rs2000 as his commission from my earnings of Rs5,000,” he said.

Bacche loves Bandra and was born in Bhabha hospital. He has a son and daughter and wants to see them receive an award, with him clapping in the audience. His wife works for the BMC. His dream is to buy his own house one day. “If I can bring a smile to a face, I consider my work done. I don’t want anything more,” he said.