“Auto Rickshaws” fondly called “Autos” in Chennai alias the old “Madras”. Everybody in Chennai has their own tales to tell about the Autos and their experiences with it, and so do me, after all I have lived all my life (except for some bits and pieces in other places!) in this wonderful city and take pride in calling me a hard core Chennaite!!

There are some strict rules that you will have to follow in order to ride an Auto in the city of Chennai. Here they go:

1.  Never let the Auto driver put the Meter. All the autos running in Chennai city have corrupted meter. The meter is said to be hot! (Meter la Soodu Vechurukanga!) The meters always run faster than our runners in the Olympics (Wish the meter of Chennai Auto participates in the Olympics so that we could get a couple of silver on that – of course the gold goes to the meters from Coimbatore! They are the worst!)
2. Always fix a fixed price between the place where you are getting in and the place where you are getting out
3. Always specify to the Auto driver the exact lane, or pathway in which you need to get down, else if you are just going to say “Near Pondicherry Guest house K.K. Nagar” and make me drive 10 feet more, he will start cribbing and demanding for more. So avoid these last minute demands, tell him exactly here you want to get down.
4. Always try to have the exact change that you need to pay the auto driver – Sometimes, they demand Rs 5 -10 extra just because they don’t have change to return.
5. When you start bargaining with the Auto driver on the price, please let him start the negotiation with his price first. Irrespective on what he asks, you can clearly ask for
   • Rs 10-15 less for any amount the auto drive quotes less than Rs 50.
   • Rs 30-35 less for any amount the auto drive quotes between Rs 50 - Rs 100
   • Rs 50 less for any amount the auto drive quotes between Rs 100 - 150
   • Rs 50 less for any amount the auto drive quotes between Rs 100 - 150

For any amount greater than Rs 150, please don’t take an Auto take a call taxi.   These are rules not made over night, but over several experiences with Auto and Auto drivers.

I have had some pleasant experiences riding in an Auto. Those were my good old school days when I had to travel from KK Nagar to Gopalapuram to school. Morning times, bus was not very crowded and can be managed. But the evening, I had to get bus from the Old Saffire bus stop. This I am talking about is during the years 1997-1998. We were a group of 5-6 girls from the T Nagar, Mambalam and K.K. Nagar area. One among them, Nithya, has a major past time – Bargaining with Auto drivers to pass time during the waiting time in the bus stop. Nithya is known for her conversational skills that she once traveled in an Auto on lift! Yes, Nithya did travel in an Auto on a lift in Chennai!! So Nithya always starts counting the number of heads on any particular day and the strict policy we follow is Rs 5 per head. On worst case Rs 6 per head but nothing more! We were students after all!! We were ready to adjust 5 or even 6 girls in an Auto. Why should the driver have a problem? In fact sometime we also sit in front with the auto driver and travel! So if we were 5 of us, it’s Rs 25 from Saffire theatre to Pondicherry guest house (I was always the last to get dropped!), else Rs 30 if 6 of us, or Rs 20 of only 4 of us! That the rule and nobody break it! So Nithya will start stopping every auto in the bus stop and ask and sometimes we succeed in the 5th or the 10 or sometimes the 15th or sometimes the bus comes and we get into the crowded one, but never broke the rule.

The ordeal does not end when we get into the Auto; it goes on till the time all of us get out. One of my friends Shiva (short for Shivasankari) had to get down at Mahadevan Street. So the first pain point starts, when we have to ask the auto driver to deflect from the shortest path. He starts wailing how the petrol prices have gone up and why girls of today are given so much freedom and so on, we do out part replying how much hard our parents have to work to send us to school and money doesn’t grow on tree in our houses. After Shiva, it’s mostly me and Nithya left. So based on the kind of auto driver (if he is not drunk and doesn’t look rugged and some factors like that) I decide to go till my house in the auto, else myself and Nithya get down at her house and my house only 3 bus stop away from these, so I take a bus.

Every day was a different experience and every day it was a joy ride!!

I miss my school days!! Reliving those joys thru this blog!!