Attack of the autos.

Everyone I know has had at least a couple of bad incidents with the auto drivers in Bangalore. But as soon as we meet a good natured, 'ready for your service' kind of an auto driver we tend to forget our brushes with the unfortunate events. Read Dhi's blog. I have done that a lot of times. I give the auto community the benefit of me having met a sensible and understanding auto driver. But a couple of weeks back the auto drivers lost all the (little) respect I had for them.

I was at brigade road at 8pm on a Wednesday and was looking to get an auto back home. I made sure I completed all my work well within time so that the auto guy could not demand one-and-a-half. But time does not seem to be factoring into their logic for claiming one-and-a-half. I think there is no logic behind it. When I say Vijayanagar - Chandra layout, these are the answers I got -

"Double agutte" [I will charge double meter]
"Do sau pachaas lagega " [It will cost you Rs. 250] (Here I could not stop laughing.)
"Meter mele 40 kodi" [Give me 40 above the meter] (Meter mele 10 and 20 was at least heard of, but meter mele 40... strange)
"Corporation tanaka bidtini, 40rs agutte" [I can drop you till corporation. I will charge Rs. 40] (And that amounts to double meter).

I was not ready to pay even Rs.10 extra. So I told one auto guy that I am going to the police. The word police does not seem to scare them anymore. He gave me a 'police eh? They are capable of nothing' kind of a smile. Nonetheless, I went up to the police and asked him to get me an auto to Vijayanagar and that I was not ready to pay a rupee extra. The police said -

"You slap the guy who asks you one-and-a-half, we shall take on from there". I told the police that I did not want to get into a fight with the auto driver, so it would be nice if he could get me another decent auto driver to drop me home.

To my shock, the police guy said -

"Please walk up to the end of the road till Vellara junction. From there take a bus to majestic and then take another bus to Vijayanagar. We cannot command to the auto drivers. They do not listen to us anymore. And it is embarrassing when they reply back"

What could I do?

In that time another traffic police standing there went up to the auto stand and got me an auto. But he had told him that I would pay 10rs extra.

At the end of the day I had lost my battle against an auto driver union. Now I ride the bus as much as possible.