Meter Down ...

"Meter down ... down down down ..." goes a latest chartbuster song rendered by Adnan Sami ,But the song doesnt mean much in Tamil Nadu. No , its not because they dont follow Hindi songs , but coz such a thing as meter doesnt exist in the autos over here ! You wud have heard of the word motor mouth (for a talkative guy) , but in these parts of India be prepared for 'meter mouth' ie mouth is the meter , Whatever the auto driver says is the rate for ur trip. Ofcourse u can haggle , yes u r expected to haggle, so he always says 100 when he expects 60 bucks , u offer him 50 , then after a few rounds of negotiations when the hot sun gets to everyone , we settle for 60. The going rate is roughly 10 Rs for a km , double of meter charge , but still that seems to be the norm. Since i use the auto on rarest of rare occasions this impression of mine cud be wrong , it mite be worser than this !. After living in 3 southern states and not owning a vehicle at places other than my hometown of Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) , i have fairly decent idea of this unique 3 wheeler vehicle and the unique folk who sit in the drivers seat and rule the roads with their own brand of rules.
Having spent most of my life there , i thought i will begin with Gods own country.
In Kerala my to and fro auto trip is well etched in my memory of early school days.
I think they are by far the best Auto drivers down south ... no hassles with them !
But my 3 years in B'lore and some time in Mysore have all been full of complex negotiations n fights with Autowallas. They have meter , but once they know u r an outsider most ppl try to get something extra out of u , which sucks ...
There are good guys , but some rotten ones are enuf to give a bad name to the enite lot ,once they find that u dont speak kannada , the attitude changes.
I learnt bits n pieces of Kannada , just for dealing with Autowallas , I always found that once I give direction in kannada , the guy wud be willing to settle for the exact meter fare. Though acc to rules from 10 PM to 5 AM they can charge 1.5 times normal , anytime after 9 at night or before 7 in the morning becomes 'one and half ' time for the auto guy , similarly any place whhich has bad roads are 'one and half' journeys ! unless u r ready to shell out more money u wont find anyone willing to take u there. Similarly any place which is not on main road means 5-10 Rs extra !
Most of my trips to railway station ( after 9 @ nite ofcourse) means most often than not they guy will expect more than meter fare and an arguement will ensue. Almost everytime I get into arguement over the extra fare demanded and unfortunately end up cursing that guy and resolving to take the bus next time . Only to resolve to forget all that while waiting on the platform for the train which never arrives on time. While waiting on the platform i suddenly realise that the poor guy also has a family to feed and all and feel bad for gettin angry.
So last weekend as i was leaving for my trip home I waskinda prepared for this cycle of fighting and later regretting.I got into the Auto and noticed that the details of the driver including his name address and all were displayed in one corner , good going by authortites , I feel. As the auto approached Railway station , i shot a quick look at the Meter and at my watch , Rs42 and 9:55PM , the latter meant a possible verbal showdown as the time was close to 10 and so auto driver wud announce "sar , one and half fare ". Was ready with mental math and was prepared to settle for Rs50 and I was gettin ready to shout my response incase he asks for more than 50. I extended the Rs.50 note to him , he shot a quick look at the meter , here we go , i thought as i waited for him to go into the now familiar its late nite i need more / the gas rate has increased etc .. dialogue
But was pleasantly shocked when the guy gave me 8Rs back , with great struggle i managed a smile and uttered a relieved Thanks ! as i realised that good autowallas do exist in real life also not just in films !