Autorickshaw Wars

If George Lucas were to make Star Wars again, he defn would need to visit India and take a look at the three wheelers. he could have got some new ideas on how to take some of his chase sequences and action shots of one of those space crafts flying between the asteroids.

Man, its a gamble every day i swear. It all starts with the moment you flag down a auto. The first thing is you have to tell him where you want to go and the auto guy will take a minute to think about it - i guess his brain must be going, i am god for the moment should i say yes or should i say no. and by the time he is thinking, he is actually sizing you up. some guys would ask dumb questions such as oh is that place near this building A or B or watever. What he is doing is figuring out if this guy who is talking to his is a sucker or not, if he is well dressed, then light bulb goes on!! damn, this guy must be an IT guy. so can fleece him or watever.. so after like a time of heightened anxiety he finally acquiesces. Thank you your highness!!! i tell myself.. but wait.. its not over yet.. now comes the hard part.. the bargaining.

The guys have a going rate which is their cut off and usually its about 20 Rs over the actual meter , that is if you ever get to see an actual meter that is not tampered with and by some divine grace of God, you ever get a a auto wallah actually deciding to use the meter and getting paid by it. So you see the chances of that happening are quite remote. Well going back to bargaining, see even though most autos have meters and most of them have the supposedly untamperable electronic meters, ( i doubt it.. some IT guy might start a venture on the side selling code to actually make the meter tick a little faster) its always better to fix a rate cos you never know what these guys will pull you into post the ride. i remember 10 years back when i took a auto and decide the rate as 50 RS (its ambathu rupees in tamil) and post the ride this guy started saying it was 80 Rs(embathu rupees.. dont ask me which idiotic guy had the brains to have such close sounding phoenetics for the language but that something u have to live with). well anyway, i took that guy to the cops and made him pay. Coming back to bargaining.. u see u have to fix the rate and the rate is based on a lot of factors.. refer back to sizing you up.. so it might start from 2 to 2.5 times the actual meter fare and you have to bargain it down..

the good thing is if the auto guy realizes you know what you are talking about, then they come down from the pedastal they are in and then its a ride .. the third part of the gamble. else its like, this guy rides away and you start afresh with the next guy in pipeline. The good thing is the pipeline is quite strong.

Well once you get in the auto, the ride of your life starts.. man its crazy, the weaving, the speed, the sudden brakes, and the U turns, the squeezing in between vehicles where you thought even an ant cant get in.. and by the time he stops at your destination, your gaurdian angel would have had a heart attack.

I keep a separate pack of hypertension tablets in my bag for my gaurdian angel and keep hoping the angel doesnt give up on me and walk away.. just a few more weeks for my car..

I am back!!!

Well i wanted to say it in the style of Arnold Swazzernagger(sic!!) (or Shivashankarnair as the mallus would like to call), but then i remembered, i am 1 feet shorter, have lost all the muscle mass i gained since i stopped gymming like a year back, have put on a small tummy thanks to my periamma's curd rice and mom's food over the past 3 months and also i dun have my Honda Phantom anymore.. :((( - i had to sell it ...

In short.. i quit my old job, moved in with my parents in hyderabad..(luckily my dad didnt call me dandachoru :-)) well before i could give him a reason, while trying to decide between should i join a friend and start a firm or start discussions with a few companies i had contacted, i had one of the most luckiest breaks ever.

Power of Networking - i guess this would be a perfect example. Got in touch with a friend/batchmate of my friend/insead alumnus and lo and behold, i get a call from my current big boss.. end of the day, i landed my new job within one month of my quitting my old one. So now in chennai, joined my new role, found a new apartment, got a new TV and other stuff, and waiting for my maruti swift and my luggage to arrive from singapore.

What a year it has been.. Well, lets see, i last wrote in this space in May 2007. I stopped regular posting almost an year to the month if i am not mistaken.

It was one of those f***king long years that one wishes one never had. Well on the flip side, one always says there are people worse off. Well of course there are people worse off but then that does not mean i have to be worse than what the ideal state should be , should i? :) hell why talk about that.. it was a down trip through out the year.. one of the worst times personally and professionally.. imagine a life if you are not happy both at home and at work.. man, i swear, no one should experience this shit i went through.. not worth it..

Well i just wanted to jot down the last 12 months in one post and close this chapter of my life. After all, if I should not just do lip service to rudyard kipling's words.