indian autowallahs : a case study

objective: to present the result of the study conducted on the salient features of the autowallahs across the various cities of india.

sources: cities where i had spent substantial amount of time to have a good understanding of the autowallah's business. these include jaipur, mumbai, bangalore and kolkata

1. jaipur: in my hometown, i had used the services of auto mainly for commuting to school from home and back. the autos used to be jam-packed with school going kids, i remember most of the time the total capacity used to be around 13-14. still the auto drivers were nice people, realizing that we might confuse with other auto, they used to be there at the main gate of school in the afternoon guiding us towards the right auto. our family actually had good relationship with one of my auto-drivers, his name was kaan singh. he always consulted my father in case of any health related problem to himself or his family. he even agreed to become my student when at school, we were asked to teach an illiterate person as part of the nationwide literacy drive. we all were very happy when he passed the basic-level written exam conducted after his teaching was complete. having said all this, i feel i might be a bit biased towards the autodrivers from jaipur because much of my interaction with them happened at a tender age.

2. mumbai: the city that never sleeps and the place where i spent the best days of my life. the best thing about the autowallahs here is there highly professional nature. they won't generally take less than what the meter show (though sometimes they accept 50-100 ps less in case both the passenger and the driver don't have change), but more importantly they won't charge you more. they make it a point to return your change even if it's just 50 paise. and similar is the case even if it's night charge. one more thing, they don't start charging night-fares before the stipulated time. for all these things, i find the mumbai autowallahs very honest citizens. the capacity is restricted to 3 but if you plead them, they might agree to 4 but charge some extra money for that. another thing about them, is the funny sound that they make out to attract the wannabe passenger's attention (thakur n varun are good at imitating that sound).

3. bangalore: the story started one day when myself and bhase kumar were returning back to his senior's place where we were put up temporarily. on the way, to my utter surpise, bhase told me that it's customary to call the autodrivers SWAMI in bangalore (i still don't know who fooled bhase in believing this crap). anyways so we get down at our place and bhase pays him a 50 rs note, our fare as per meter was arnd 38 rs, and there goes the auto at full speed without paying back the change. bhase kept shouting Swami, Swami for some seconds, and probably for the last time (he also concluded that Swami is too reverent a word for these autodrivers). these kind of incidents happened many more time with us and i reached the conclusion that these autowallahs are a complete opposite picture to those in mumbai. they won't take even 25 ps less than the meter reading but are always on a run to leave without paying back the change. night fare starts as much as 1-2 hr before the stipulated time and if you want them to take 4 passengers be ready to pay an exorbitant charge. i still remember the day when myself, thakur and chamad took an auto to the urvashi theatre and felt like winning a battle when we payed the autowallah 3 rs less than the meter reading.

4. kolkata: like anyone else, the autowallahs in the city of joy are referred to by the popular word DADA. we use them mostly for commuting from the campus to shokar bazar and from there to tollygunge metro station and back. though there is no meter system in the auto, the fares are so cheap that we never feel like complaining. rs 3.5 from campus to shokar bazar (arnd 3 km) and rs 5.5 from shokar bazar to tollygunge (arnd 5 km) is not expensive from any angle. the autowallah are also able to make their money even with these cheap fares as the autos are 5-seated, besides the normal 3-passenger back seat, there is a hand-made wooden seat to the right and one to the left of the driver. all and all, the autodrivers here are nice people. only problem is when they start fighting by shouting at the top of their voice (just like anyone else in the bongland) adding to the agony of the passengers already stuck in a jam-packed traffic.

conclusion: ours is a country of diversity and the autowallahs have not disappointed a bit. you go from one city to another and you are sure to find a big difference in the way they operate their business.

the ever charismatic amitabh bachchan

i have finally found some time from my busy weekend schedule to update my blog. though i plan to write many posts, thought of starting with this one. felt like writing this after reading varun's post on big b declaring himself as a "beggar for roles" on some tv show. the discussion ended on the note that big b should not get himself stereotyped in playing fatherly roles like the one in recently released movie Waqt where he played the DAIDAA of akshay kumar.
i still believe that big b was just being modest when he said that he is afraid of not getting roles. he hasn't lost his old charisma at all, in fact he has become one of the biggest brand of india. the fact that Cadburys asked him to promote their product (after the insect in dairy milk episode) and the daily milk sales bounced back from a dip following the tv commercial featuring big b with the line "kyonki hum keh rahe hain", says it all. though building a temple in his name is no sanity, but there is no denying the fact that indian people still regard him as much as they did in the 80s (people all over the country prayed for his recovery after his near-fatal accident while shooting for movie Coolie) and have even come to trust him a lot.
agreed that he has not been successful always, e.g. his stint with politics and the abcl fiasco. but he has never given up and always bounced back. though not directly involved in mainstream politics, he is almost there by virtue of his wife jaya bhaduri, so-called bhai amar singh and close alliances with mulayam singh yadav and anil ambani. as for abcl, he had paid all his debts thanks to the popular tv show "kaun banega crorepati". i think it would be fair to say that no other star could have carried the show in a better way than big b, proof lies in the fact that none other tv quiz shows have gained as much popularity among the viewers across india as kbc.
now the next question raised was regarding playing stereotypes roles. at the age of 65, the most obvious role to play is obviously of a father. i personally(and for that matter, hope other big b fans also) won't like big b gyrating with heronies a half/third of his age, no way. and i think even he realised the fact after his new innings in bollywood started on a bad note with super flop movies like lal badshah, suryavansham etc. what's so wrong in playing roles of a father or grandfather when that kind of role suits the age perfectly. and the fact remains, that if one analyses his roles in late 70s and 80s, did he not play stereotypes roles even then. either a good honest cop or a bad person with a good heart who dies in the end, these were the stereotyped roles he played with perfection and people loved it all. on the contrary, if we exclude his fatherly roles, he is getting more variety these day. in my view, the honest but unsucessful and aging a.c.p. of Khakee was one of the finest portrayal of a police officer in recent movies. and then we had Black, another role never before played by anyone in bollywood.
people are waiting for his new avatar in Sarkar (where he is portraying the marlon brando of godfather) and they won't be complaining simply because he plays the father of 3 in that movie. with the KBC series all set to restart shortly, i think he will be adding even more stars to his popularity, the phenomenon that Big B already is. way to go Bachchan Saab.

listed on GSE

thanks to all the regular viewers of my blog, i have finally got listed on GSE aka Google Search Engine (and not any other stock exchange). yeh sab aapke pyaar aur protsahan ka hi natija hai. main apne hridya ke antar-stahl se aap sab ka shukriya karna chahoonga (learnt this line from the maths teacher at ntse camp @ darbar school). after many years of hardwork, my blog page has come above the link of my humnaam "@ theory.tifr". looked too embarassing to me when someone searched for me and found me doing research in theoretical CS at none-other-than TIFR. somehow passed the theory courses at iit, tifr main to tauba-2.

vaise i wrote a long post last week but deleted it on my friend's request. will write more soon. don't go away, i'll be back.

lakshya, the word is lakshya

those were the words of preity zinta when hrithik roshan meets her to tell that he has finally found his "woh kya kehte hain usse" aka lakshya. though i am fast approaching the age of 24 and have no intention to go to 18000 ft to discover myself, i love this movie. since the first time when i watched the movie in Inox @ kolkata sitting in the first row cornermost seat (for which i paid 180 bucks) to the fifth time i watched it after my third term, my appreciation for the movie has increased.
the movie has been shot just beautifully in the hilly terrains of kargil (u see the difference when u compare the dvd print of this movie with other movies) and the music is simply superb. 7 tracks incl the 2 instrumental complement the theme of the movie perfectly. my fav song keeps changing between the title song (which i play to full volume bfor leaving for exams hoping that it gives me some inspiration to crack the exam, which incidentally happens rarely), the romantic number "agar main kahoon" or the senti song "kitni baatein" (a word of advice abt this song, movie has only 1 stanza, for the other 2 listen to the mp3, lyrics r too good)depending on the circumstances that i find myself in.
above all, what i like abt the movie is the concept and the way the story evolves around it. though neither i belong to a rich family having a servant like murli who wakes me up every morning with a glass of juice and whom i ask to switch on the geyser, nor a big brother like udesh whom i can ask to courier me the latest jurrasic park dvds, nor a pretty girlfriend like romila dutta (sigh!!) who can inspire me to pursue my dream, but inspite of all this, i somehow feel related to the character of karan shergill everytime i watch the movie.
and the reason i feel that way is this. i passed out of iit and while working in bangalore, decided to pursue management. i appeared for cat and now i am at iimc but somehow i feel that i made this decision mainly because i wanted to escape from a coding job and partially owning to the "follow the herd" mentality. i don't remember any time when i suddenly woke up from my dreams and decided "yes, mba is what i have to do", i think all that i used to utter during my iim interviews was nothing but made-up and mugged-up lies. having said that and after my current tryst with working in a financial firm, i am sure i won't be thrilled with the kind of work i will be asked to do even after completing my mba.
so where do i go from here. sometimes i feel, i better study further, and something interesting than a mba this time. it' s coming of age for me and i feel that it's hightime i get serious about what i have to do after my mba. looks like in the end, this won't be less cumbersome a task than scaling the 18000 ft heights :)

powai: now and then

i came to bombay first time in my life in june 1999. the purpose of the visit was the iit counselling and other formalities. though i din't stay in iit hostels during that trip (was put up in some remote part of mumbai known as bhivandi) but still managed to catch a glimpse of powai and hiranandani (located in powai but famous by its own name). hiranandani had just started to grow around that time and the buidlings and ongoing construction were simply awesome. watching the beautiful carved and painted tall complex (which i saw first in the Dilbar-Dilbar song) in reality was a breathtaking experience for me. anyways so i left mumbai with the dreams of returning back shortly and visiting the much hallowed lands of powai. i came back in july and on the weekend paid a trip to hiranandani with my friends. as adviced by seniors, we went to Hakone (a gaming zone in Galleria) and Go-Karting site. 6 years back those were the only two places for doing timepass as i remember now. things changed fast soon..
over the next 4 years during my iit stay, there were some additions to the HN area. a host of eating joints opened in the ever crowded galleries of Galleria. one just had to take a seat there and in no time, he was surrounded by the waiters from every eating joint, each trying to thrust his menu-card into the face of the visitor. but i was a brand loyal guy ordering mostly from Nutan Snacks (chamad, i hope u remember our order, 2 plate parantha: 1 aloo and 1 cheese, 1 bhel puri, 1 dahi puri). most of all i liked Baskin Robbins there. shortly Planet M store also opened there followed by the so called environment friendly e-cotel Rodas which became the favorite hang out place during the nights. a shopping mall Haiko also opened next to Planet M. a bad thing that happened to HN was the prolific growth of call-centers in that area. that was one reason for the house-full show at galleria whenever we went there. but i think these were just indicative of what was to follow..
in no particular chronological order, i will try to list the changing scene of HN. Haiko has shifted to the complex housing Planet M and Rodas. with the changing taste of people, they have opened Bowling facility also (i scored 133 there this weekend, jat beware !). the famous coffee-cum-hukka joint of Bandra, Mocha has replaced the old Haiko place. but inspite of its popularity it doesn't host the kind of crowd one gets to see at the bandra one. it looks like the designers & builders hadn't ignored the varying tastes of people. for those interested in food and drinks, places like Pizza Hut, Saffron Spice and many more have opened. for the literary kind, there is Crosswords around the corner and i am quite sure that Landmark would be eyeing some other corner of the locality. last but not the least, how can you forget the multiplexes. yes, finally apna powai is opening multiplex also and not one but two. i really feel sad about this because this may reduce the popularity of Shreyas which still remains my favorite theatre in mumbai :)..
all this leaves no doubt in the mind that powai area has undergone mass commercialization at a much faster pace during the last 2 years when compared with the 4 year period of my iit stay. but some things never change. one of them being the Bhayaji Tea center serving the most energizing tea in the locality. i visited the place this weekend and to my surprise found that the old man has been replaced by probably his son but the tea still tastes very sweat. another one is Shri Ganesh Rasvanti Grah located just outside the y-point gate serving the most refreshing and thirst quenching ganne-ka-jucie. i used to visit the place daily during the summers and it was the place where our cse batch used to celebrate our victories in games of football and cricket during the final year. what is most amazing is that despite the inflation and other factors, the price has remained Rs 5 per glass for the last 6 years (defying the quote "nothing is permanent except change") without any deterioration in the taste. another thing which hasn't changed at all, though on a negative side, is the horrendous traffic outside the main gate despite the opening up of flyovers at gandhinagar and seepz..
finally i would like to end this long post hoping that the BMC takes some quick steps to save the beautiful Powai Lake from drying up..