Thursday, October 16, 2008

“ Meter mele hatrupayi”

Here I am going to tell you an anecdote on my recent autorickshaw-journey!

It was my first team outing since I joined job. We had decided to set-off to Anandadhama, resort on outskirts of Bangalore. It was all the more inviting as the region was ‘Anti-Smoking, anti-alcohol, purely vegetarian’ environment on the banks of river Cauvery.


It was a pleasant morning for everyone, but not for me as I had to get up early. I had to get up at 5.30 am early morning to get ready and had to reach Vijaynagar's ( a layout in Bangalore) Bus-stop by 6.30. It was the first pick-up point. And our Manager had point-blank said we had to be on time to prevent others from suffering due to our laziness! I got ready and set-out on my independent mission to reach my first destination, Vijayanagar bus stop. I bid a good-bye to mom and dad while my brother was still fast-asleep.


I had already decided to take a BMTC bus as I am never used to commuting in autos. It was more because I had heard of numerous woes of my friends and relatives alike – asking more fare than what the meter showed, not dropping at the exact place where we will be wanting to alight, faulty meter etc etc. Though I had personally not experienced any ugly situation, was not ready to experience one on this ‘special’ day and spoil my mood. I reached the bus-stop to find no other person there! It was still a little dark at 6 and I was braving the chill. It was very cold as it was heart of winter season, December. I reached the bus stop near my house and waited for 15 mins but no signs of a Vijayanagar bus . It always happens that when we are waiting for a bus and all other , even rare ones come but not ours. People slowly started collecting and were leaving too. It was already 6.15 and now I had to decide. It was ‘karo something yaa ghar jao’ situation as I don’t own a mobile to tell my colleagues that I would indeed be coming.

Now I decided ‘ Auto sharanam gachaami’. I really didn’t have any other alternative. I called an auto and to my luck he immediately stopped! I told I wanted to go to Vijayanagar and he immediately agreed though not without ‘* Conditions apply’. He said ‘Boni Madam, Hathrupayi meter mele extra’, meaning since I was his first customer for that day, I will have to pay 10 rupees extra fare. I instantly agreed as I feared he would go away if I argued. I am very cautious with the meter and as soon as he switched his digital meter, it showed zero instead of the old minimum 12. Moreover it was blinking. I asked him as to what was wrong and he said some battery problem and it’ll be alright once we start moving. Again, I sat shutting my mouth. As he moved, it showed 12. The trouble eventually started! The meter was running like a counter in a bottling factory. Lo, it was showing 40 at Rajajinagar, just half the distance to Vijaynagar, around 4 kms from where we started.. It was though changing at a constant rate and not jumping numbers. I told him everything was not right with his meter but he back-answered. Another annoying situation was some auto guy had got into a problem on the road and our driver wanted to help his fellow auto bhai. I blatantly told him I was getting late and we moved on. I had to bear with his bhai-bandhan lecture. Just the day before I had paid 65 to Jayanagar from my place, around 12 to 14 km far. But here, at this rate how could I pay him somewhere around 100 to just Vijayanagar, I thought. I was totally helpless.


Finally Vijayanagar came and I saw the meter. It was showing a whooping 85 and I had agreed to pay 10 rupees extra on top of it. I hate to get cheated but how can I argue with him like a fighter-cock early in the morning... I alighted and he stopped the engine. I asked him ‘How much?’. He said I had to pay as agreed, 10 rupees above what meter showed. I again saw the meter to confirm. And now guess what? The meter had reset to ‘ZERO’. I really could not control my laughter and removed 10 rupees from my purse as we had agreed! He was shell shocked, speechless and even breathless. His face was worth seeing. Now he was in pleading mode and ready to accept any decent fare. But who will be that neutral person to settle the fare? I suddenly spotted one of my colleagues who immediately sensed something was wrong and came to us. I told him what had happened and controlling his laughter, he asked me to pay 25 from my place to Vijayanagar. This guy was now devastated. It was seriously very less. We argued for a minute and finally, I really felt sad for him. I decided I could not enjoy the trip spoiling someone else’ day, that too early in the morning! I finally paid him a decent 50 rupees. He did not speak a word. My colleague was not very happy, though. I was wondering as to what was in waiting for the next passenger…


I got into the already parked bus and chose a comfortable seat still musing over my early morning experience. The bus was also funny. It did not have a window to one seat. The DVD player too wasn’t there at all. The organizers were complaining that this was not the bus they had selected. But the bus fellow had already a story, on hand. He argued that it was the same bus and the previous night, a thief had broken the window and stolen the DVD player. We were all wondering if the thief really knew if we were going by that bus next day! One should really appreciate his daring to tell a lie which no one would believe.


The bus picked up the entire team and what followed was a memorable experience - a day a t Anandadhama.

Even today, my friends will not stop laughing even after listening to the same story, for the nth time!