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.
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.
posted by himanshu agrawal | 1:19 AM
4 Comments:
well, the 'tender' age comes in again!
BTW, if you want info on rickshaw-wallah's, yours truly is a good source. His greatest shocks of life have been in Kanpur rickshaw's and tempos.
Still have a high tempo, though :) (a very-IITK PJ :P )
... just to add, they were maybe the second greatest. The greatest shocks are tied:
a) Mess food at IITK
b) Sitting behind someone's (whom I can't exactly remember) luna while going up the C-scheme fly-over :P
:)) btw that is Bias Godown flyover.. u reminded me of that jai-veeru chat we had :)
What a wonderful invention it is, this thing we call the Internet!
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