89 is just a number for this tuk driver
Patrick Perera: On the road in his tuk for 25 years. Pic by Nilan Maligaspe
Age is just a number for someone who is confident of his abilities. Patrick Perera, at the age of 89 does not hesitate to drive at any time of the day and proudly proclaims that he knows most of the roads both in and out of Colombo having been a tuk driver for nearly 25 years. Living down Sri Maha Vihara Road, Pamankada with his wife,children and grandchildren, Patrick is still on the road daily. “I can drive anywhere day or night,” he says.
Patrick drove a rented tuk for which he had to pay a daily rental before buying the blue TVS tuk he drives now. Earlier he operated from the three wheel park at Duplication Road, Bambalapitiya but “after the roads were broadened the tuk drivers had to move out from the park,” Patrick says. He now picks up hires on the go.
“Nowadays most of the tuk drivers start the tuk meter from Rs.60. But I start mine from Rs.40,” Patrick says as he values making a living by fair means.
He is also proud of the fact that throughout his 25 years as a tuk driver he hasn’t met with an accident or been fined for violating traffic rules, showing us his driver’s licence issued on November 8,1993. Driving long distances also does not bother him – only last year he drove the tuk all the way to Gampola from Colombo by himself.
His daily routine is disciplined. He wakes well before dawn and leaves home around 4 a.m after lighting the oil lamp in obeisance to the Buddha. Patrick never misses his homemade lunch prepared by his 85-year-old wife, Margaret Fernando. After lunch he takes a few hires and gets back home in the evening. “It’s not easy to drive around any more as there are a lot of vehicles on the road,” Patrick says. Weekends too are not for relaxing. “I take hires on weekends as well. If I just stayed home how can I earn a living?”
Born on July 2, 1930 in Kochchikade, near the Colombo harbour, Patrick remembers the pre-Independence wartime days when English soldiers put up camps in the capital. Patrick was 12 when the Japanese bombed several locations in Colombo including the Colombo Dockyard and the Trincomalee harbour in the Easter Sunday raid of 1942.
Patrick had six siblings in his family of whom he is the only one alive today. He fondly recalls his mother’s cooking which he believes has given him the strength to keep working all these years.
This old-timer can recall how 40 years ago, a gallon of diesel was Rs.6 and a lunch packet was just 50 cents. “In those days Morris Minors were the taxis and taxi fare started from 50 cents or Rs.1 depending on the distance,” he adds.
Known to all in the neighbourhood as ‘Patrick Uncle’ or ‘Patrick Aiya’, this veteran is determined to drive his tuk as long as he has the strength to do so as he neither wants to be a burden nor depend on his children in his old age.