August 10, 2010

Auto wala post

Coming from Chennai, I find the autos here in Blore are wonderful. Most of the guys I have encountered have been polite and honest. Meter Jam comes as a surprise. It would be far more valuable to do some such in Chennai!!

Have any of you done justice to the Flower Show yet?

10 comments:

Choxbox said...

Yup bin to the Flower Show. The kids loved it, as usual!

starry eyed said...

Art, it may depend on the part of town you live in, work in or want to visit. We get harrassed a lot, mostly whenever I choose to use an auto, I feel like whacking the driver and walking back to the car in my basement. Bus service was cut off in our area for 2 years and has recently resumed, so that option is also there, but tough with kids, their timings and potty-habits :)

Our area is advertised as 'center of town' for property buyers, but autos invariably ask for Rs. 20 extra, saying it's outside city limits! I always refuse, but have to suffer asking another 10 autos till I find a decent chap.

Unknown said...

agree with you starry. Any place I want to go, its either too far awy n so give 10Rs extra.. or its too near so give 10 rs extra. Fed up!I think meter jam is all india strike. Just that the widget to get busroutes is up only for mumbai.

artnavy said...

that was quick chox

starry- i guess i have been lucky

shruit- oh i did not realise

sandhya said...

For a born-and-brought-up mumbaiaite, it is nothing short of a denial of my basic human rights. Call it the view of a pampered person, but after coming here from a place where public transport is a given, (most mumbai folks see no reason to learn driving!) this is horrible. I have been stuck in the middle of town with a kid in my arms and a bag full of shopping (books!) with autowallahs refusing to come to my place unless I agree to cough up an exorbitant amount. I have once been asked in the above condition for Rs. 300 from MG road to my place. If that is not armtwisting, what is? I fully agree with the spirit of Meter Jam, esp as buses are better now.

Mama - Mia said...

are you kidding me? just the thought of bangalore auto guys makes my blood boil and strangle as many as of them as i can. i cannot imagine being without vehicle in this city!

been refused and cheated too many times to have a single good thing to say about em! and plus the police in bangalore is purely for decorative purposes! gahhhhh!! :(

yup went for Flower show and tho it was too crowded, enjoyed it! that much oxygen HAS to be good for everyone!! :D

cheers!

artnavy said...

Sandhya- yes when i came from Mumbai i was PISSED off with autos in chennai

BUT beleive me ladies after chennai, this place is auto rickshaw heaven!!

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with all comments above ...
Blore is the worst .. Chennai was so before ... but now with prepaid autos (atleast from railway stations and airports it is better ...)
Blore is what chennai used to be in 90's ..
EXTORTION
i lived in blore only for an year ..
and have literally been shouted at coz i talked to the auto driver in hindi ( i know tamil but during the cauvery probs my bro said it is safer to speak in hindi than in tamil) he said we N indians ( i am not one ) r taking thier jobs .. coming to thier city .. spoiling the roads (eh???) and then cant even learn the language ...
I would love to learn the language .. but i was new to the city ...
I have paid 4 to 5 times of actual rate on friday evgs and monday mornings coz i had to get to the railway station/PG acco and the autodrivers knew that ...
I used to get down at KR Puram and nearly 75% of the train will also get down there since it is closer to the white field where most of the IT single folks live and one auto driver asked 300 rs for a 50 rs distance and when i said no his response .. if not u someone else will pay coz do u see that crowd .. there r more passengers than autowallahs ...:-(
i agreed ...
300 for auto when my to and fro train fare was only 250 ...

Sorry for the long rant ...
but just coz of the above experiences i never could like Blore ....

-Anamika

Arundhati said...

After Chennai, Bangalore auto drivers seem very courteous to me!

A friend and I were driving down to the Dastkar exhibition (thanks Art for letting us know about it) and asked an autowallah for directions. He said "go straight, take a right and then immediate U-turn, then left and U-turn - we were puzzled and our faces must have shown it - he offered to drive ahead in his auto!

On the other hand, Bangalore auto drivers must be sick of *me* - whenever I get into one it breaks down ! On a couple of occasions when I have had to travel long distances, I've had to switch autos multiple times :(

Preeti said...

I participated in meter jam today... it was liberating to say the least... I loved not having to depend on rude and greedy autowallas and actually completed a round trip in Rs.40/- having taken a bus- it would have cost me Rs.200/- by an auto.