Tongas trot away into twilight

Parkal (Warangal): Tongas (tangas), horse driven carriages of Parkal in Warangal district once a popular means of travel for locals have now gone into oblivion, courtesy, modernisation of travel. Though tongas had a history of being a luxury ride during the days of the Mughal Empire, have become popular with the middle classes and rich elite alike during the era of British and Nizams of Hyderabad in Telangana.

Just a decade ago, there used to be hundreds of tongas moving around in the villages Koukonda, Nadikuda, Choutupally, Dharmaram, Mallakkapet and Narsakkapalli, which is the native place of Telangana Assembly Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary. Though there are no apparent reasons for the presence of so many horse-driver carriages in this part of the district, the residents of the above villages in Parkal mandal cherished to travel in tongas to nearby Parkal town.

With the advent of auto-rickshaws and auto-trolleys the tongas slowly faced out giving way to speedy mode of transportation. But there are a handful of tonga owners do not want to part with their legacy. At Narsakkapalli, where according to the locals, once each household used to own at least one tonga, now a couple of tongas are left, albeit in bad shape. “We can’t afford to have the carriages repaired though we can manage to look after the horse” explains Avula Mondaiah who still owns a tonga.

He removed the canopy (Topu) over the carriage and converted it into a goods carriage. The tonga driven by their horse called ‘Raju’ stands at their small hut in the village hoping of a hire call by someone. ‘In the olden days we used to be busy carrying passengers to Parkal town and transporting agriculture produce to market and nearby mills, but now I hardly find a hire’ he told The Hans India.

In the good olden days he used to earn around Rs 150 per day. Now, every so often, his carriage is hired by locals who wish to take cotton to Parkal market or fertilisers to their fields. And the pay is less. Mondaiah aged 65 years claims that he has been operating the tonga for the past 30 years. His wife Agalakshmi and son Chandra Mohan, a lorry driver takes care of ‘Raju’, the horse.

At a distance from Mondaiah’s house at Pasula Narayana’s residence stands a tonga in redundant state while his horse idly grazes in the nearby fields. ‘Occasionally, the local farmers come to me seeking to take cotton to market but I can’t take the ride as the carriage is in poor shape’ Narayana says.

Skilled blacksmith, carpenter and cobbler are needed if a carriage is to be repaired. Such men are now rare in the villages, besides money needed is also huge. ‘If wish to sell there are no takers for the carriage or the horse, so keep them for the sake of olden days’ he adds. With decline of patronage those who owned tongas have sold them to buy auto-rickshaws few years ago.

There are still a few who still have tongas in their possession in neighbouring villages but do not operate, he informs. ‘Riding in a tonga ride used to be fun always, we used to prefer tongas instead of bullock-carts’, says a 30 year old Ram Chander Kunamalla cherishing his childhood memories.