Autowallas in Bangalore

If you have been living in bangalore even for a few days, you probably know why i have dedicated an entire post to the autowallas in bangalore. Traveling in an auto is an experience in itself, especially in bangalore. And given the traffic in bangalore the experience becomes unforgettable. But dont take it for granted that this experience is yours for the taking. remember i said something about an unforgettable experience?

Chances are you are new to the place and dont know how to travel in the city transport buses. so your natural recourse is to look for an auto. So you stand beside the road hoping to spot an empty auto coming our way. Spotting an empty auto doesnt tilt the odds in your favor either. what matters is whether the auto slows down taking cognizance of your existence and eventually stops. Lets go through the available scenarios logically. When you see an empty auto, as a wannabe passenger your natural reaction is to flag it down. nows the time for chaos theory to kick in. the following events could happen with equal probability.

• The autowalla couldnt care less to have a passenger at that moment so shoots past you making you think it wouldnt have mattered even if you were standing right in front of his auto. Since this is the 'n'th auto zooming past you wonder whether auto wallas are so fed up of stopping every few hundred feet for a junction or a signal that they dont bother stopping anywhere in between!!!(Since this is none of your concern you get back to the game of spot the empty auto)
• You find another auto with noone in the passenger seat coming from a distance. You suddenly feel its your lucky day. To top it all even the autowalla seems interested in you. Thanking lady luck you ready yourself to end the ordeal. the auto comes and the autowalla has the expressionless question written over his face. Hes just slowing down though, depending on the place he wants to go rather than you want to take him decides whether he stops his tuc-tuc. The next word that you speak is going to be the most important word you would have spoken and would be speaking in the entire day. You sheepishly tell him where you want to go. As you hope atleast this one says "Yes, I do", he does the unthinkable; just drives on without stopping at all or even giving you a glance.The autowallas certainly believe in actions speaking louder than words. For no sooner your cursed destination babbles out of your mouth that guys just plants his foot on the accelerator - maybe ruing the fact that he lost precious seconds slowing down.
• by now you know that yoga was invented to tackle autowallas - since nothing tests the limits of your patience as much. You feel small and helpless as you return to your pass-time of the morning. Suddenly out of nowhere an auto comes and screeches to a halt in front of you. You pinch yourself and just to be sure check whether the autowalla has stopped to talk on his mobile. you find that untrue and backing your luck as well as the new found patience you ask him as politely as your Indian politeness allows. A few excruciatingly long seconds later the answer comes in the form of a longint (long int is a datatype in programming languages used to store variables of big integer values). For the uninitiated, the answer is simply a number that the autowalla shall charge you for the journey. The amount he quotes makes you honestly wish autowallas should also start accepting credit card payments - since no one carries around that much loose cash. And dont you even think that the amount quotes has anything with the distance to be traveled. It becomes a function of unknown variables.( Dont even try to think what the number would be in case you are traveling in the evening - the rates become 1.5 times normal. so better be your lucky day) When you try to protest by some bargaining you also get a free geography lesson on the bangalore traffic problem first hand. "one way street hona bhaiya. aage 3 km jaana padta .. gaadi khali hota utna tak."."traffic hota sir . adha ghanta traffice me waiting hoga ". When you ask for a lesser fare these guys actually remind you of your salary and give a free advice saying " 5 rs me kya hai sir ". And dont even think that these guys are not up to date. The first question i was asked when i was traveling to my office on the first day itself was " Kitna package hai?". Talk about keeping up with times.
  So with the geography lesson out of the way the autowalla gives you a beaming smile with accompanied satisfaction of having educated a moron and takes off.
• the final possibility occurs when all others have actually happened. You ask the guy and he agrees with / without bargaining. And you are more relieved than happy to end the experience.

All said and done, this is just a small piece of the cake we get to eat everyday. I mean wouldnt it be boring to always get the first auto you stop. Knowledge doesnt always help! its the way we get to meet so many auto wallas who themselves are working, have a famly to feed, are rushing around to get long distance passengers. Since any profession has all kinds of people it would be wrong to stereotype a particular character to one profession. I have had many good experiences with the auto wallas in bangalore and i believe that they are as fallible as we or for that matter all humans are. more about auto wallas in later postings ...:)