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Auto Anna

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by Agatha83, Aug 9, 2019.

  1. Agatha83

    Agatha83 IL Hall of Fame

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    Hullo everybody! Is there anyone there who would like to have a peep in to the famous chennai slang culture, and also enjoy an Additional Aadi (month of discounts) offer on an in-depth analysis about the present water crisis or the latest happenings in Big Boss serial- all in pure 24 carat Chennai Tamizh! Are you eager to hear a slew of colorful, choicest abuses while having the most scariest roller coaster ride without paying even one tenth of those pricey Disneyland rides? Our Singara Chennai’s famous Auto Annas welcome you all with a big warm hug.

    As additional perk, would you also like to have a free shower in the red-stained pan juices and thank your stars for the precious gift, after your annoying experience of having only air gushing out through the shower in your bath? No worries dearies. Welcome to our singara chennai where our most humble Auto Anna will drive you through the most narrowest streets in chennai, showcasing his absolute mastery in his daredevil skills. Be it riding in one of the most congested roads, narrow roads, one way roads, potholed roads, roads bulging with humanity and cattle in equal measures —no problem. Namma Auto Anna’s driving skill is unique—one which you would not have witnessed even in an international circus. The thrills of experiencing an action packed James Bond movie, the nail biting suspense of Alfred Hitchcock movie — you can have it in one go by riding with our Thalaivar Auto Anna.

    From hand pulled rickshaws, cycle rickshaws of the old peaceful and tranquil Madras, I finally graduated to the three wheeled contraptions, courtesy our outdated and inept public transport system. We have buses that run without brakes, clutch, doors, seats, foot boards or even handle bars, but to compensate for all these basic features of a bus, we have loads of pickpockets, drunkards and men from 80 to 18s ready for an opportunity to harass, grab, grope women, under the protective cover of the swelling crowds. Complaints to the conductor, passengers, driver or even police — they all look the other way, with a sadistic question: so you are a Kannagi — why use public transport?

    I used to deliberately avoid the autos, scared of the sadistic behavior of the drivers, but at one point of my life, I had no other option, but to depend completely on them, courtesy my sick mom, who was hospitalized for a year. With big bags bulging with clothes, food and paraphernalia required by a bed-ridden patient, I was at the mercy of those autodrivers who never thought twice before fleecing a customer.

    Brought up in a family with its members brazenly exhibiting their religion on their forehead, with either sacred ash, vermillion or sandal paste, I related goodness with such religious symbols. Applying the same principal, while hunting for an auto, I always looked out for a pious driver sporting any of the religious symbols, with the firm belief that my ride would be smooth.

    But my firm belief went in for a toss one day, when a ride by a Shivaji Ganesan of Thiruvilayadal film look alike auto driver, dropped me in the middle of swirling waters of a flooded road, during heavy rains, the road engulfed in complete darkness. It was a terrifying experience to walk all alone in neck deep water, with the constant fear of ending up in the gaping storm water drain holes on the way. When I reached home I was shivering like a young penguin in the Antarctic region. But for once my mind was cleared of the hypocrisy surrounding the human behavior with exhibitionist attitudes and thus no more looking out for pious drivers.

    Ahaaa! Here comes an auto driver, looking very much an exact replica of Sandana kadathal (sandal wood smuggler) veerappan, with his handle bar mustache dominating his entire pockmarked face, and eyes as red as a tomato. Putting aside my stupid notions I got into the auto with a prayer on my lips. Expecting some fireworks during my travel I was sitting at the edge of my seat, barely noticing that I had arrived at my destination smoothly. What a surprise. Not even a murmur from him when I handed out the exact change as shown in the meter. He accepted it with great reverence and left me dumbfounded with his Thank you Akka. For once I felt like shouting from the top of mount Alaska, ( long queues waiting in Mt. Everest ) to the entire world ‘Auto Anna Vazhga’.
     
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  2. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Agatha,

    Your writing skills makes an ordinary set of events into an extraordinary snippet. What a delightful read this snippet is! "Don't judge the book by the cover" is the saying and it is unfortunate you had a miserable experience with Thiruvilayadal Shivaji Ganesan look alike auto driver and a great experience with Sandalwood Veerappan look alike auto driver.

    Auto drivers are also good in finding difficult addresses as well in Chennai. The local bus experience for any woman is bad and any complain goes into deaf ears everywhere. The conductors and drivers are focused on their collection bonus to load as many as possible in a bus while police stations are managed by heartless inspectors and constables.

    Instead of sympathizing with a shivering sister wading through the neck deep water, you made me imagine a young Penguin in Antarctic region shivering in cold weather!
     
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  3. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    Appearances are always deceptive.Wonderful narration!Autowallas have mellowed down a bit as Olas and Ubers are becoming popular.There too we hear of mischievous behaviour.
    Sometimes we get into trouble even with private taxis.
    Last July we booked a taxi to Maraimalai Nagar through our regular cab agent.Just in time the cab arrived.I asked whether he is from'Ravi Travels.The driver nodded.
    Myself and my husband got into the taxi. As he was just crossing Ashok Nagar, he went through so many lanes we have never seen and he didn't reach the main road at all. We got suspicion. Immediately I made some signals to my husband and told him that cell was ringing.I took the phone and answered in anxiety" how, when, which hospital? we will come immediately".We asked the driver to stop the vehicle immediately .We gave him Rs 100, sent him away, took an auto , came home.Before getting down we ascertained the name of the driver as 'govindan',.
    When we returned home with an intention to inform the travels, we saw a taxi standing before our house.It was the taxi we had actually booked.We understood that there was no driver by the name Govindan in our list.

    How did he come to know that we have booked taxi, our address etc.We have complained to the owner. It is two years.Till now they have not been able to find out.Now we specifically ask the company to furnish car number, name of the driver before hand.
    Had we not stepped down, that Govindan would have robbed us and tortured us or would have black mailed us.Govindaa! Govindaa!
    One has to be shrewd now a days and always have an eye of suspicion even on honest people.
    jayasala42
     
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  4. Agatha83

    Agatha83 IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Viswa,


    Right from my childhood days I saw my father always wearing the scared ash covering his entire forehead. Maybe this instilled a belief in me of connecting religious symbols with good character.
    Unless one is sure about the address of the destination, the auto drivers take the passengers for a ride and demand exorbitant sums of money as auto fare. Google maps are of no use, because there are very small dead ends and streets, which are not shown in the Google maps.
    After the terrifying experience of getting drenched in rain waters, many times I wonder how actress Sri Devi, could have performed those erotic rain dance sequences, in most of the Telugu films, which was a must for the front benchers!

    Agatha83
     
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  5. Agatha83

    Agatha83 IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Jayasala,

    I know very well how people cheat you in many ways, particularly senior citizens. Daily we read news of old people being cheated of their entire bank savings through ATM cards. As we age our mental faculties also decline, and we cannot be as shrewd and alert like when we were young.
    Of course there are good people who go out of their way to help people in distress. But finding such people is like finding a needle in a haystack.
    One Old driver during a ride, was arguing about Google paying huge amount of dollars to its employees as salary, but the Ola drivers who use their maps get nothing. Even their customers think twice when it comes to giving some extra money, and are always rude towards them. I kept quiet as I knew my further arguments would tend to end in an ugly spat.
    Thank you for your expansive feedback.

    Agatha83
     
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  6. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    :hello:@Agatha83
    The nightmare of hire and travel in an auto in CHENNAI is well captured in your essay with generous humour in every passage keeping the world at large in the backdrop. I enjoyed and relate to the story as I was exposed to travel in an auto through floods and especially when my home marooned for a few days with rain water entering our ground floor indoors to a height of around one foot.
    In monsoon rain during 1964-65, I was compelled to take food in a large career to my sil who was in family way at a different place . After lot of haggling an auto agreed to take me at a fancy rate around ten times normal tariff. We had almost made it but Sil’s residential area marooned to a radius of half a kilometer when driver said I must alight as auto can not move into water of some two feet above ground.
    I keep as a habit little cash in my trousers pockets and chest pockets besides my purse in back pocket.
    I settle to auto driver from cash kept in trouser pocket: and with heavy food career alighted and carefully wade through water. With few more steps toward Sil residence the level of water almost reached my hips as rain was pouring.
    I could not hold career any longer above the water level. Already by taking little above my shoulder sambar and rasam were spilling out. As street full of bungalows with sprawling compound wall, all along the road , no elevated shelter could be found .

    Fotunately a bullock kart was waiting in front of a bungalow and spoke to that kartman a few words and next minute I was in his covered kart. Seeing me through window alighting from rear of the bullock kart, my manni -sil- astounded. The kart man refused to take the cash I offered. I stood still watching the bulls making their move to pull the kart ahead to the tintinnabulation of tiny bells from its neck.

    After drying up and changing to dothi and anna’s shirt, I was crisscrossing cand perturbed. As sil was watching me restive, she enquired what was bothering me. She found I was searching pockets of my wet shirt and pant and the floor in semi darkness as there was no electric supply.

    I told her I lost my purse from my trousers’ rear pocket in which I had kept some cash and reserved train ticket for next day journey to Bombay.

    From middle of her eating, she too searched and concluded that I might have lost it in auto or in bullock kart and promised to check with bullock kart man later. I was cursing in my mind the auto driver and my mother.

    She rolled a coin in wet turmeric slathered cloth and left it on a small shelf before deity.

    Then next morning, it was sunny day : water in streets and around her home receded; and when her domestic help came, it was a pleasant surprise. She said she found a purse near entrance in which saw group photo of me, manni, Anna and my mom.

    With great delight she handed over the purse to me. I stood in front of deity, offered my thanks. When I offered some cash to the domestic help, she politely declined.

    In my mind, I apologised to auto driver and mother for having been cursing them the previous evening.
    But my recent experience with chennai auto autodrivers have been sweet and they are helpful to the extent that they when found I forgot to carry money with me, offered me money to return home when after hiring them to a destination.
    In a feedback to recent thread of @satchitananda , I had narrated my exp with chennai auto.
    Thanks and Regards.
    God bless.
     
  7. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    Don't forget. Psycho auto sh nkar was also an auto driver. BTW like Shivaji Ganesan in Thiruvilayadal ? Which look? He sported many looks in that movie?
     
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  8. Agatha83

    Agatha83 IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Thyagarajan,


    With your expert writing skills, you have vividly brought out your horrible experience you had, while navigating the flooded roads. Water levels knee deep or neck deep, unless you are an expert swimmer, walking through them it is a punishing task, particularly for lay people like us who are hardly exposed even to a small tub of water.
    My experience while hiring drivers during late evenings or nights is terrible, for I found most of them to be drunk smelling strongly of liquor. It is literally a nightmare driving through the maddening traffic, particularly for a woman who is traveling alone.
    Today I read in a newspaper that an old lady who had gone for a darshan of Athivaradar at Kancheepuram, had lost her handbag containing her adhhaar, pan card , cash etc but didn’t report it to the police. The next morning a police constable was handing over her handbag back with all the valuables intact. So divinity helps us sometime through some one, when least expected.

    Thank you for your compliments and your extensive feedback.

    Agatha83
     
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  9. Agatha83

    Agatha83 IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Balajee,

    How come you still remember Auto Shankar’s case, while his name completely skipped my mind while penning this snippet.
    Shivaji has donned different roles in Thiruvilayadal movie, but the very first scene where he appears in all his splendor is stuck to my mind even after decades of having seen the movie. So that is the Shivaji I have mentioned here in my write up.

    Agatha83
     
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  10. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    The response is not related to auto, but related to floods.In 1924, there were huge floods in cauvery and kollidam.The flood did not subside for nearly ten days,It was a big joint family. My periappa's wife was carrying her third child and full term pregnant.My Amma was just 20, not yet become mother. My paatti was caught in some other village. When my Periamma developed labour pains, only my mother attended the delivery..Entire house was in floods. periamma was made to lie down in a coir cot,about to break down any time. My mother being very wise ,cleaned a dusty woodden marakkaal ( marakkaal is wooden tub used for measuring paddy)with her saree palloo and kept the baby in it, so the wooden tub may float in water in the hall.Amma used to say that she was reminded of young krishna floating on Aalilai sucking his toe .Simply amazing was her common sense!
    jayasala42
     
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