Autos boon or bane

From the last three years my two friends and I have been travelling from Gandhi Bazaar to Blore Cantt by autos and we have met practically all the specimens there are.The torment starts in the morning between 9.15 to 9.30. We stand in the corner of Surveyor street and start waving at empty autos. some of them though empty pretend to be deaf and blind and simply zoom off, some others look at our frantically waving hands and still drive off, yet others stop and the moment we mention Cantt shake their heads as if we said Timbucktoo and drive away. Some stop and we tell them our destination and get into the autos dump our lunch bags and then when we tell them the route some agree and some drivers have actually made us get off the autos. We are at our most desperate with anxious glances at our watches thinking of the attendance which we have to sign before 10 o clock and the imminent threat of missing the attendance hangs on our heads menacingly. (It is no easy task to coordinate three women at a meeting point and even if one of us is late it upsets the schedule of all three.)Finally after we sit in an auto and the driver agrees to our route andwe heave sighs of relief and after much jostling and jumping over potholes more now thanks to "namma metro' we start scanning the meter because experience has taught us that the meters ar in autos are always right and we are miserly women trying to cheat the poor driver. Most of the tribe argue fiercely and one guy even had the cheek to say that his meter was indeed tampered and we could go fly a kite.They generally order us to get off. My two friends are really good at arguing ( i am hopeless ) and many times we have paid the right fare and got off, whatever the amount and sometimes we have been chased into the office. On many occasions we have got off the autos and than caught another one. One guy argued that since we were well employed we could afford to pay the inflated rate. On the the other extreme we have had where the drivers have regaled us with funny stories and kept us in splits, confided about their family problems and unbelievably some meters have displayed less amount but we scruplously pay the right amount and tell them their meters need to be repaired. Ouch now it is time to call a halt as my back is aching. my auto today was hit by a mini lorry and since i was alone i took the full impact. i waited in the auto in the middle of Nrupatunga Road till the auto driver and the lorry driver fought it out. i was too tired to get into another auto.But i did feel sorry for the driver because the auto was new and he had to make good the damages sustained by the indicator. he told me that he had to get it repaired and he had to pay the daily collection amount even if he does not take the auto. After a lot of haggling he managed to collect only Rs.200/- from the driver of the mini lorry. But who is going to take care of my aching back. So tomorrow is another day another auto and another experience.

blissful sunday+

There are a lot of advantages in staying alone. no guilt feelings about sleeping late, one to make coffee for, no one demanding breakfast. I get up at my time rustle breakfast for myself and after washing my still long hair get dressed and wait for my niece or rather my daughter so that we do what both of us love doing. Today we had a lovely lunch at Punjab Grills- very crowded but lovely lunch. Prices are a bit too high but ambience is good and they also serve something called panshots, a drink tasting like a "beeda". it was good. Then went to Blossoms and spent a most pleasurable time browsing for second hand books. Picked up an old Edgar Wallace, Georgette Heyer and other favourites much to my niece's disgust who is always asking me to come out of my comfort zone and go in for new authors. The only unpleasant experience was with the auto driver who wanted to pocket the balance change of Rs.5/- My niece Pinku argued ferociously and got the money back from him and also gave me a mouthful for trying to forget the change. Really some auto drivers are so nasty and mean. Honestly, i could write a whole book on the behaviour of auto drivers.