After braving her way into the streets of Dhaka with a scooty, Trishia Nashtaran has chosen to help more girls learn to ride it…writes Saad Hammadi
Two years ago, when Trishia Nashtaran first thought about riding a bicycle on the main streets of Dhaka, it was still quite audacious in a city full of reckless drivers and dysfunctional traffic signals. On the other hand, the daily traffic congestion would take up so much of her time, she could not think of another alternative.
She borrowed a bicycle from her friend, Noor A Nazia Bipa, to try out riding it on the streets but fear caught up with her so much that she kept it home until her friend asked her to return it. That is when she realised that if she had to return it to her friend, she might as well ride the bicycle to her friend’s place instead of carrying it on another vehicle.
That was in fact how, Trishia got rid of her fear of riding on the main road of Dhaka and since then she has bought a scooty for her to save on the time and energy.
In the middle of 2014, Trishia bought herself a TVS Wego, a scooty to reduce her travel time to work and other places. Since she knew how to ride a bicycle, it only took her a little guidance from a friend to get the hang of riding a motorbike. ‘It took me 10 minutes to learn it,’ says the 29-year-old.
Trishia learnt that many women, despite their interest to learn riding motorbikes to avoid traffic, did not know where they could find hands on training. That is when she conceived the idea of offering a platform that provides lessons to women about riding bicycles and motorbikes.
A fighter of social injustice and inequality, Trishia was already a founder of a facebook social support group ‘Meye’ (Bangla for Girl), which helped women of all ages seek advice and discuss about issues that they would not otherwise feel comfortable sharing.
This group, which she started with the help of her friends on facebook after experiencing workplace discrimination in 2011, has created a community of about 4,850 members to date.
Through this group, Trishia became friends with Tahsina Mahmud Pritha, who rides a scooty herself and helped Trishia to buy one and later taught her to ride it. As a licensed scooty rider herself, Trishia wishes to make learning to ride motorbikes easier for other girls.
As a part of the effort, Trishia shared the idea with a few of her friends who have the skills and together have offered to train girls who are interested to learn riding bicycles, motorbikes or even driving cars. They are offering the service from another facebook social welfare group ‘Shondhi’, which is a subgroup of ‘Meye’.
As much as riding a motorbike is a convenience to avoid the long traffic congestion (for those who have been able to overcome the fear), many women still do not consider it an option because of a discomfort they feel about people ogling at them.
‘I have a superpower of ignoring people. Nothing bothers me. My experience is very good so far,’ says Trishia, currently an engineer at a telecom company. She continues, ‘People drool at me in an appreciating way. They ask me questions about my scooty, many a times for their female relative.’
Her street adventure however, happened after a major compromise with her career. Trishia finished her graduation in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in the interest of her parents. She was interested in fine arts but her parents were not ready to approve of their only child choosing a career which was not of scientific discipline, and she thinks back then she was not yet rebel enough to push the boundaries.
After five exhausting years of an education, she pushed herself toward completion, followed by a handful of rejections in the creative job arena, she has finally landed a job in the area of her discipline in 2010. Although she likes her coworkers in the company where she currently works, and appreciates the money which helps to support her passions, she says, ‘I cannot say I love my job.’
‘It took me a long time and loads of psychological stress to come in terms with my professional identity. It was hard,’ she says, until she realised, ‘Life is too short to be wasted in regrets.’
These realisations pushed Trishia to create ‘Meye’ and later ‘Shondhi’ for other girls, so that they can take conscious decisions, live their lives in full spirit and avoid the kind of a situation Trishia and girls like her have to put up with on daily basis.
Scooty for Trishia has been liberating. Riding the scooty has in fact helped her become more sociable, she tells New Age Youth. ‘Crowd, socialising tire me. I think scooty made me more sociable. The way I interact on the road brought a different dimension to my social behaviour,’ concludes Trishia.