A tough paid ride!

I live in a city which approximately has around 80000 auto rickshaws (For people who are not familiar with this word - autos work just the way a taxi works ;) ). Number of autos outruns the city buses here. With that huge number at hand, getting an auto ride when you need is still a problem.
No.. its not that these many autos aren’t sufficient for the city crowd, its simply bcos the rick(auto) drivers won be interested in your destination. Asking these guys for a ride is almost like trying to pull a buffalo into a pond.

Yes most of you out there guessed it right. I live in a city called Bangalore. Here it’s easier to find a eunuch on a road then get an auto.

One golden rule about Bangalore autos is they wont agree to come if the destination is too far nor do they agree for close by places. Decision to take us or not would be entirely dependent on their mood at that point of time.

There are episodes when people here ask the rick drivers where they wanna go, instead of the other way around. This usually happens after a very heated and defeated argument with these drivers.


For my total rotten luck, i sometimes have to depend on these ricks when getting back home from my work. And out of 8 auto guys i ask, may be (if luck decides to run the other way around) one might agree. Last night i had to depend on these freaking ricks to get back home. I asked around 10 ricks and none of them agreed. They all have this sensational your-destination-is-so-lame expression when they hear unwanted / not-so-interested (according to them) destinations. All of them were acting as though i was asking them to take me to some red light area.

With each auto counts increasing, my temper too started its climb. Finally, it mite have been the 10th guy i asked that night. He said 50 bucks. Meter charge for my place will fall just 20 bucks. Normally i would have argued with them and gotten it down to 35 bucks (even though there is no need to pay extra for such a short distance), but i was super pissed with these guys and dint want to pay them anything extra. So the moment he mentioned 50 bucks, i gave him a your-so-lame look and walked off!!

I tried for another three ricks and after that again one more said 60 bucks. i thought thats it.... i am done with these people.. i cant ask them anymore.. i just walked off and immediately called the boy who was busy at work .. told the boy i was not even gonna look at another rick and that i would prefer walking then taking these damn ricks. The boy told me to wait there for him, but i just couldn stand there anymore looking like a fool.. So i started to walk (needed the walk badly to cool my fuming temper). i decided to meet boy at one place which was about one km from where i was. All the way i walked i silently kept cursing in my mind that one more rick guy talks to me, am gonna burn his rick down. I felt like pelting stones on all the ricks in the city. Gosh those guys can really get your blood pressure running if you have a bad office day.


So i have taken a oath that i won be stepping inside these damn ricks at least for a month or until i forget last night’s incident or else if it is the last option and i desperately them. HMPH!!!!!!