Autowallahs’ advocate

As we drove from Pragati Maidan to KG Marg, Singh told me about life as an autowallah.

Bijendra Singh has been driving an auto in Delhi since 1979, and believes achche logon ke saath achcha hota hai. As we drove from Pragati Maidan to KG Marg, Singh told me about life as an autowallah. Strangely, he didn’t crib about the haggling hordes. His complaint was more personal. “People put their feet up on the divider; it feels as though they’re kicking us, but they don’t care. It’s so disrespectful,” he said.

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For someone who applauds the government’s initiative to “groom” autowallahs, Singh’s story was an eye-opener. After a series of conversations with other auto drivers, I realised that for all we crib about them, we’re no better. Babu Lal, who drives along the AIIMS stretch, says people keep trying to cheat them. “Once, I dropped a girl to Dabri in West Delhi. She went inside a flat to get chutte and disappeared.”

A similar fate struck Sunil Sharma, a south Delhi driver, twice. Even so, for him, people who mess up his auto are far worse. It seems that there are those among us who have confused an auto with a garbage dump and left empty bottles, cigarettes, chips packets and what not behind. Shashi from Palam Gaon cannot understand why people have to be badtameez when talking about money. I guess most of us are so afraid of being fleeced that we start off by being unnecessarily rude.

Of all the stories shared, the funniest came from Raj Singh, a Central Delhi driver. Believe it or not, he’s scared of letting young couples into his auto at night because they make out unabashedly in the back seat. Khud ko apne hi auto mein sharam aa jaati hain!