I got this email today about the gen-next auto-rickshaws which will ply in India. These auto-rickshaws or autos are a menace and a necessity all the same time. In Mumbai , they are like mosquitoes swarming in the burbs… still I guess I could say there is a method to the madness (lets leave Pune autos out of this …. It’s complete madness). Let me give an example of method….. if you see an auto signaling to go right…. Do not ever overtake from the left cos he can at the very last min. change his mind and take a left turn. The method is for the people following behind the auto. The autos are gravity defying bodies being driven as if they are being tested for speed and requires the passenger to be of an adventurous spirit.
I dread traveling in an auto after meeting with a couple of accidents while being inside. The people who really enjoy auto rides are tourists. Mumbaiites have a very bored expression and a long suffering one while inside an auto. I once had a French friend of mine visiting and she was very excited about the auto ride (she would call an auto a “pousse pousse” motor… I think the Thai autos are called “Pousse pousse”.) due which the auto driver got excited and wanted to show off his driving prowess. We were taken from point A to point B at a break neck speed. It was like being in an obstacle race the only difference being that this man was hell bent on making our posteriors aware of all pot holes (obstacles) existing on that stretch. Not only did he take care to jostle and make us feel each and every bone in our body but also since the horn was like an extension of his thumb our ears were ringing at the end of the ride. The French girl had a glazed expression when we got down. She had probably experienced something far more adrenalin generating than the most dangerous rides in the amusement parks. She had probably communed with God during the ride!
If you look at the gennext auto pic closely you would find that it 
has been fitted with a bar to “restrain” the passengers just like in the roller coasters. Is it I wonder a license to the driver that now it would be legal to drive autos like roller coasters.
From all the autos that ply one can make out if they are self owned or rented out. The self owned one are nicely done up from the inside. You might find stickers of Hindu Gods stuck all over (well you need them to get you through the ride)…..there might even be a small statuette of a particular God which is garlanded. While a rented auto is in tatters. The seats are torn. The auto has a rusted look, paint has peeled off and the driver drives as a bat out of hell scarcely caring for the safety of the auto.
To top everything the autos are now fitted with music systems. From outside you can only hear a loud sound that sounds like “dhin-chak, dhin-chak”….. it can be any song playing the words are not important the dhinchak is (which I came to know much later is called jhankar beat). If you are looking out to flag down an auto, can’t see any and hear a loud dhinchak, be assured that an auto is at hand and you would see it soon enough.
The auto’s fortunes are on an upward swing. Earlier on only the middle class would use them now Mr.Bharat Dabholkar ( a theatre personality) has made a customized one for himself. It seems Salman Khan and Govinda (Bollywood personalities) get a yearning to take auto rides and do so in the dark hours. So suddenly the autos find themselves in the limelight. I read somewhere that the autos will be exported to the UK where they would be used as beach buggies.... an added attraction for the tourists.
Inspite of the menace the auto has become a symbol of Mumbai. Whenever I visit friends from foreign shores I always take with me a model of the auto and these are always welcomed and given pride of place on the mantle or in the show cases. The only lament being that they have not experienced the autorickshaw ride!!!
I dread traveling in an auto after meeting with a couple of accidents while being inside. The people who really enjoy auto rides are tourists. Mumbaiites have a very bored expression and a long suffering one while inside an auto. I once had a French friend of mine visiting and she was very excited about the auto ride (she would call an auto a “pousse pousse” motor… I think the Thai autos are called “Pousse pousse”.) due which the auto driver got excited and wanted to show off his driving prowess. We were taken from point A to point B at a break neck speed. It was like being in an obstacle race the only difference being that this man was hell bent on making our posteriors aware of all pot holes (obstacles) existing on that stretch. Not only did he take care to jostle and make us feel each and every bone in our body but also since the horn was like an extension of his thumb our ears were ringing at the end of the ride. The French girl had a glazed expression when we got down. She had probably experienced something far more adrenalin generating than the most dangerous rides in the amusement parks. She had probably communed with God during the ride!
If you look at the gennext auto pic closely you would find that it 
has been fitted with a bar to “restrain” the passengers just like in the roller coasters. Is it I wonder a license to the driver that now it would be legal to drive autos like roller coasters.From all the autos that ply one can make out if they are self owned or rented out. The self owned one are nicely done up from the inside. You might find stickers of Hindu Gods stuck all over (well you need them to get you through the ride)…..there might even be a small statuette of a particular God which is garlanded. While a rented auto is in tatters. The seats are torn. The auto has a rusted look, paint has peeled off and the driver drives as a bat out of hell scarcely caring for the safety of the auto.
To top everything the autos are now fitted with music systems. From outside you can only hear a loud sound that sounds like “dhin-chak, dhin-chak”….. it can be any song playing the words are not important the dhinchak is (which I came to know much later is called jhankar beat). If you are looking out to flag down an auto, can’t see any and hear a loud dhinchak, be assured that an auto is at hand and you would see it soon enough.
The auto’s fortunes are on an upward swing. Earlier on only the middle class would use them now Mr.Bharat Dabholkar ( a theatre personality) has made a customized one for himself. It seems Salman Khan and Govinda (Bollywood personalities) get a yearning to take auto rides and do so in the dark hours. So suddenly the autos find themselves in the limelight. I read somewhere that the autos will be exported to the UK where they would be used as beach buggies.... an added attraction for the tourists.
Inspite of the menace the auto has become a symbol of Mumbai. Whenever I visit friends from foreign shores I always take with me a model of the auto and these are always welcomed and given pride of place on the mantle or in the show cases. The only lament being that they have not experienced the autorickshaw ride!!!
6 comments:
I thought jhankar beats was a movie.
the new autos look great!
Kunal... These jhankar beats came with nadeem shravan.. much before the movie
the thai autos are called 'tuk tuks'.
jhankar beats were the remix pioneers!
Thanks for the info... yes they are called tuk tuks in Thailand but the french call this mode of transport pousse pousse. The pousse pousse being actually a cycle rickshaw and the pousse pousse motor being an auto rickshaw
Shruti:
Nice post! Hmmm Yes I remember dhinchak dhinchak music. Also the indiosyncracy of the driver to put his foot out on the other guys auto....that always used to crack me up!
I always have a perpertual plea "Bhaiyya ahista chalana".....LOL Good times!
What wonderful things rickshaws are. The pousse pousse ones were better: no pollution, cheap and employment friendly - their only problem was that they made it difficult for motor cars to drive fast (but where's the fire?).
The new breed of autos are gas (and in some countries, electric)powered, so again, environmentally friendlier than the car.
For those who profess to be concerned about such things as morality, sustainability, poverty etc, should be questioning the right of cars to usurp so much of our urban space, since they are wasteful, selfish, contraptions.
Autos should be praised. As for the original post - it should have been titled "auto-rickshaw drivers..." let us not blame the auto for the ill-considerate behaviour of their drivers - and let us not ban the auto, but bad driving and bad drivers.
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