I read in a news report that auto rickshaw fares in Chennai have shot up to such a level that they are more expensive than even flight charges ...I was totally impressed. Do you mean to say I am actually living the life of a princess - taking the equivalent of an expensive flight to office everyday?
The autorickshaw drivers of Chennai are a unique breed. In every other city I am told they fall in line with the government's order of following a meter rate. I am intrigued by the fact that the Chennai guys alone manage to thwart the government's ideas to impose a check on them. Is it because they have a strong union or is it because they enjoy the patronage of the middle class? I am rather inclined to believe that it is the latter that protects them and makes them so resilient and resistant to change.
I have lived in this city ever since I can remember - I should say that's long enough for me to forget exactly how long - and one way of marking time for me has been the changing auto rickshaw fares. I remember travelling from Radhakrishnan road in Mylapore up to nanganallur and back for just fortyfive rupees. That is a memory from my childhood to be cherished now.
Much later when I was doing my PhD in Matscience, I used to go to my aunt's house in adyar very often - paying the grand sum of thirty rupees, of course haggling over one or two rupees to reach there - highly hassled and entertained - One day, I was cross with my aunt for some reason and I had with me a fifty rupee note that she had gifted me - so cross that on that day when the autorickshaw dropped me at Taramani, instead of the usual thirty or so rupees I chucked the whole fifty at him and said - Go man - (though not quite in the same way that Gautami does, rather more famously, in Devar Magan - The bloke was stunned. For a whole minute he looked. First at the fifty, then at me and then in front and started his auto with a vengeance and drove off at top speed before I could change my mind... God knows he must have thought there was something the matter with me...
There are many such auto stories - If I had the talent of R. K. Narayanan I would be able to write an amusing and perhaps even moving account about autorickshaw drivers... but this is all I can do and so let's wait until inspiration really strikes until I can pen down a better story....
The worst affected is the upper and lower middle class sections of the society, who could not afford engage a taxi or travel amidst the crowds of city buses.
ReplyDeleteThe auto drivers are pious. They just charge fifty per cent more than usual when they see elderly people.
The auto drivers are gentle. They just charge 75 per cent when they see the older people with one or two baggages.
The present rate even for 1 km is Rs.40.
Who can rein in auto drivers? The authorities are helpless before the forces that are the back bone of this auto drivers community.
subburathinam.
Enjoyed reading this whimsical tribute to the Chennai autorickshaw - a Kamadenu of stories, I agree! Btw how much did you pay for Taramani to Adyar?
ReplyDeleteThirty rupees - what else? On that occasion alone I paid fifty.
DeleteOnce long ago, I had to go from Alwarpet to Luz- a distance I usually walk in about 20 min, but I had my toddler son with me. I hailed an auto- he stopped and asked for about double the usual fare. I refused. He yelled at me "enathukku ma niruthine?" (why did you stop me?). A toddler + a few shopping bags makes the rate go up by 100%--the rudeness is free of charge.
ReplyDeleteI always used to get down at Adyar Police station
Deleteand walk down to Matscience crossing the canal.
I was never charged any extra money.
:-D Nadaraja Service as my grandmother used to call it is always the best no substitute for it! Lesser mortals have to tangle with meters and mortals...
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