You can love them, you can hate them… you can surely never ignore them, especially if you rely on them to get from one place to the other!!... No am not talking about buses, and since I’m not in Bombay, it’s not the local trains, but the famed auto rickshaws of Bangalore… They’ve had such an affect on my moods that this one’s dedicated to them.
I have been tormented, frustrated and sometimes pleasantly surprised by them (the drivers of these autos that is). But no this is not a auto bashing blog, but some of the funny/amusing incidents I’ve had with them. And since I don’t know their names, have taken the liberty of naming them
The Nana Patekar of Taxi 9211: This guy is first on my list. He managed to shock, anger and amuse me all in a time period of 15 mins. Well this guy agreed to come to my place without batting an eyelid and wonders of wonders, did not ask for extra money….well anyways… the journey started… The guy was unusual since he followed a lot of the traffic rules, did not jump lights and change lanes. But what caught my attention was that he kept honking at some pedestrians ignoring the footpath and walking on the road… this when there was enough space for him to pass… when they turned around and glared at him, his reply – “there is a footpath meant for you to walk on, don’t occupy the roads unnecessarily”.. As if that wasn’t enough to shock me, he returned my one rupee change and insisted I keep it since he didn’t take charity!!!
The Senile old man: I usually walk it to work… It’s my way of reducing carbon emission. But there are days when I am either late or plain lazy when I seek out to these ricks. On one such day, I met an old auto driver. He prayed for about a minute before he started the rick. In my mind I thought “what a religious old man.” The guy went of to sleep on a traffic light, with the rick moving backwards and almost hitting the car behind us… and when I woke him up, he tells me that driving ricks is boring!! He then looks everywhere else, but the road while driving… That’s when I knew what he prayed for before driving – my safety!!!
The Himmesh Reshamiya fan: There are a lot of autos in India with music systems. But this one had blue disco lights in the rick. And yes much to my irritation and the delight of my roomie the driver played Himmesh Reshamiya songs… The volume was loud, and his singing even louder…. It was good fun to see someone enjoying himself without any care for the world or his customer’s ear drums! And yes my roomie tipped him for the entertainment he provided her :-)
There are a lot more funny incidents that have happened with these guys, but these three were top of mind… and am sure my tryst with these people will not end here… will keep adding as I keep experiencing
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