As the lift doors slowly closed in front of me, the visiting doctor from England scurried along the corridor to enter the lift. When we reached the ground level, I offered to drop him at his hotel. He smiled wickedly at me and said, “I am looking forward for a ride in the death machine. It is like a roller-coaster ride with all its thrills and ecstasy, but it is real.” He was raving about our autorickshaws.
Unlike their tumultuous ride, the journey of auto-rickshaws in India has been smooth and phenomenal ever since they were introduced 60 years ago. They slowly replaced the inhumane hand-pulled rickshaws in the 1980s and ruled the Indian roads for the next two decades. They grabbed the vacuum created by the scarce and crowded public buses, and the lack of personal vehicles for the Indian families. Car was a luxury then. For the typical Indian middle-class family, the auto (as it is affectionately called) was an integral part of the weekend relaxation. A visit to the cinema, a nearby restaurant or a relative’s home culminated with a trip in the auto. The auto accommodated the whole family, however big it was. People unhindered by their age and size sat on the lap and side bars of the vehicle, and sometimes the driver would gracefully share part of his seat to a child of the family. The only blemish in the entire trip used to be the fare-fixing bargain, which sometimes continued throughout the journey. The metering machines were just an additional contraption, and even if it was running, it competed with Usain Bolt’s speed. Before the standardisation of school buses, autos were the most preferred mode for transport of schoolchildren too. It used to be a jaw-dropping experience to watch the driver pull the starting lever with a macho effort to start the vehicle. We continue to witness these scenes still, but to a less extent.
Despite the advent of app-based cabs and call taxis, autos still continue to dominate the Indian roads. There are several reasons they are able to hold the fort. They are easily accessible near our homes. Every other street corner has an ‘autocratic’ auto stand, where three or four languishing autos would be parked occluding the roads. The drivers double up as party workers, cine-star fan clubs, social servers, political pundits, Google maps for those lost their way and so on. For those uninitiated on app-based cab booking, these autos are an easy pick. Especially for the elderly people, they provide a sense of comfort and familiarity unlike the unknown cab drivers. Apart from the harrowing experience of fixing the fare, they make sure that we reach our destination well ahead of time. They know all the streets and by-lanes, and the fastest way to reach a destination. The absence of any fixed road rules for the autorickshaws further enables their cause. They jump signals, ride along the wrong side, blare the horn horrendously, push the two-wheelers towards the edge of the road and mindlessly go through the pot-holes and speed-breakers. They can squeeze through the most populated road like Abimanyu finding his way through the Chakravyuha. I have never seen them just idling their vehicle on a congested road. They are always on the move, squeezing their way through the faintest of gaps available between the vehicles. Often, they are the first hands of help in an accident or a vehicle breakdown. Some of them are extremely philanthropic and genuine in returning lost goods and transporting pregnant women pro bono.
Though my westerner friend called it a death machine, it is conventionally safe for the passengers inside it. Only the fellow travellers of the road may find it an enigma. One cannot be sure which way would an auto take a turn — they are as unpredictable as the deliveries of Shane Warne. An indicator or a hand signal is an optional gesture for them. They may park anywhere, slow down whimsically, take an unannounced U-turn — all with the sole purpose of serving their commuters swiftly. Even the most intelligent, mind-reading driver would get stumped once in a while by the capricious auto-rickshaws. We may hate them like a batsman bamboozled by a googly but we love them when we are in their back seat. Though autorickshaw services have caught up with the changing times with app-based booking, the ‘friendly neighbourhood’ auto-drivers of our streets would continue to be preferred for reasons stated above.
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