Auto kaaran!! (auto fellow)

I was going back home with a friend who’d drop me some place near to home, and I had decided to take an auto (aatoe/otto) from there. The very thought of taking an auto is so strenuous when you stay in Bangalore. First of all you have to find an auto who decides to come to the area you want to go…. second, the one who’ll agree to come all the way up to your home (most fellows want to drop you on the nearest auto stand/main road) and THEN…. Third, You need to decide whether you’ll bargain with him, or just pay up what ever he wants!! (the meter reading is one thing.. the extra is another) Well.. autos are as despised as the cops are in almost every city in my country, but I’m not sure if the “thought” will be as “strenuous”.

But then that this evening as I got out of my friend’s car, a rough voice sounded “Yes saar... Where do you want to go??”.. man.. I’d landed right in front of an auto stand. I took a moment to understand that.. confirmed with him.. “auotOoO??” (that can only be sounded, not worded) “alright how about Kamakhya theatre??” (and then I was waiting for the first test to pass) “haaaaann!!! How bout you .. are you going that way?? “ he asks another auto fellow.“Test 1 failed” I thought, “naaaa..” he says.. (yeah yeah .. i saw that coming) but before I thought of what to do next, this man is suggesting.. “why don’t you try on that road.. they will come” .. “okay then.. I’ll try” I said… and then, what happened next, led me to write this incident on the blog!!! I stopped an auto, and asked him “Kamakhya??” … this old face turned around and asked me the question I’d heard before “Is it the main road?? Or do you want me to go inside somewhere??”. But then even before he asked me, I’d decided I’ll get off on the main road and walk home!! :P it was not to increase the chances of him saying yes, but because of this interesting co-incidence. I had once got dropped by another friend on a bike, at south end circle, and I was looking for an auto then…. I had run into this same old man. There’s no way I’wd not remember. He had a short sight of may be -9 or something (soda buddi), and he could barely see the road (or anything at all with out his specs) and man was I scared that day, waiting for my “main road” to arrive. So I knew he would say that the moment I saw him, and that was because he would be headed home before it got dark. He lived somewhere nearby there and he would only take passengers who want to go near his home at that hour.. and he’d told me all the things that I’d never bother to ask him… like he had a son and two daughters.. although he lived with his son, he had to go out earning on his own. But his grandchildren loved him very much.. et all et all .. I would have saved myself of all this if I’d just shut my mouth and not asked him why he wouldn’t come inside the “main road”. But I hadn’t seen THIS coming.

Although this time, it was quite a feeling to have run into the same old man again.. in a similar situation of getting dropped by a friend.. and all. I could not just resist myself to tell him about the previous encounter. I asked him if he was going home after my drop. And I knew what he would say.. and so, I got into the conversation.. only this time, I got more of it from him. He had to show me where he stayed, and how to reach his house from which of the roads.. I didn’t mind hearing him.. I saw it all coming. J

Somehow it has become my pastime, when I get into an auto, and I am bored, all I need to do is poke the driver with some insane comment, about the road, the traffic, the cops, or else, my fav topic.. the auto fellows themselves. And then I don’t have to worry about being bored for the rest of my journey. They keep talking and talking.. and ranting, boasting, praising themselves and then not to mention, despise the Software Engineer (which is their fav topic). A lot can happen over an auto. I’ve run into autos who project this angry guy image.. and want the best out of your pocket, the ones with the real good boys’ image, trying to get some pity from you.. and of course that has to reflect from your pocket, to the real hard ones, who behave as though they are the saviors of the auto community by their sincerity (as in, never failing the three tests, and having the latest updated meters, to mention). All in all, the autos as a part of this city, have an image of their own.

- brv

(btw.. why do we not have an auto USERS’ association???)

(more on how to annoy auto fellows who fail test 1, 2 and 3 coming up, you may post your ideas as comments and I’ll try and add them)