Riding an Auto rickshaw in Delhi - My Experiences

Once you are out of the phase where the main concern is about getting an auto, fare negotiations, traffic hassles and the like, you enter a phase where you start appreciating the fact that you are in the company of a person you hardly care to know but someone who still teaches you a lot. Over the last couple of months I have started spending my auto travel time in observing the drivers. And what I have deciphered is something I find very amusing. I am definitely not trying to be judgmental or anything, I am incapable of passing judgment on others. I am only trying to jot down the events as they were.

There are numerous types of auto drivers. Let’s begin to understand them and their idiosyncrasies. And then we can move on to particular interesting cases.

One of the rare types is the absolute quiet ones. You tell them your destination, they just start their meter, you reach your destination, you pay the fare and he is gone. These are the silent journeys. All you get to know about the guy is that you don’t know anything him.

Then there are some who talk a lot. They are so happy and preoccupied talking that they don’t even care if anyone is listening. For them more important is to speak their heart out without wondering where the monologue is headed. Journey with them is not very enjoyable or at least is not for the whole path. Even if they have something interesting to share it is lost in the excess information they are providing.

Then there are others who lie somewhere in between these two. Some are closer to former and some to latter.

Among the rest what is fascinating is not how much they talk but it’s what they talk about. Some are political commentators, some cricket enthusiasts, some socially concerned, some indifferent towards everything, and some, well they are of every possible type. So let me take you through some of the very interesting ones I have met.

One of the most interesting ones I met, an incident that to some extent gave me the idea of sharing my experiences, was a person who has lived the history in Delhi. He has been driving the auto for like always. He shared his experiences with me that included being there to pay homage to Pt Nehru when he passed away. He vividly remembered standing just next to Indira Gandhi and crying that day.

He started driving an auto when there were less than 100 autos in whole of Delhi. We all know about the fare related problems with autos. But look at the world as it was then. He once took a passenger from ISBT Kashmere Gate to Khanpur then. The fare was only 3 rupees. Now very few people used autos then and once he reached Khanpur the passenger gave him Rs 5 saying that he knew he won’t get any passenger back. Can that happen today?

There is a temple on Shankar Road (SR) which looks quite new from the looks of it. But to my utter surprise that temple is more than 40 years old; of course it has been redone now.

People used to avoid using SR late at night then as people do today not because of traffic as is the case now but because what is New Rajinder Nagar now was a thick jungle full of wild animals and the road used to be pitch dark.

He talked about so many things. He felt so happy when he remembered those times of very few vehicles, no traffic jams, and of helping and trusting people. He had memories of Asian Games to share and of leaders & politicians of high stature he had listened to addressing rallies. He has seen face of Delhi getting done and redone and changing to a figure he can hardly recognize. But still he looked at all those changes in a very positive manner; he believed strongly that we are moving forward.

To me that ride was very enriching experience. Listening to a man talk so passionately about all those things, well the rides in autos in Delhi are definitely a worthwhile experience.

Written by: Rohit Mishra