Opinion: Auto-Rickshaws Ruin My Day, Every Day

Before I continue with my rant, I will have you know that is there is no dearth of auto-rickshaws or auto-rickshaw stands in the vicinity of my current residence. In fact, there are often plenty of willing auto-rickshaws albeit they are united in their unrelenting determination to demand a lump-sum instead of charging by the meter.

I remember this once when I, along with a male colleague, was on my way back home from work, and 30 minutes of trying to hail an auto-rickshaw had failed to yield results. Everyone said the same thing, "It is a strike today, and we are not going to risk our vehicle." Nothing seemed to work, not even telling them that they couldn't refuse to ferry a woman at this hour. As a desperate measure, I hopped into an auto-rickshaw despite the driver's refusal and told him he didn't have a choice.

Instead of complying, he took us to a dimly-lit colony, turned off the auto-rickshaw, and just left! I dialled 100 and was told to wait for assistance. Since we didn't know where exactly we were, we had to go get the cops from the main road to the spot. By the time we returned, the auto-rickshaw was gone too. What followed after that was a visit to the police station, where filing a complaint turned out to be a rather uncomfortable affair. Just so you know, the cops agreed with my concern, but said that there wasn't much they could do about it. I eventually reached home, but kept receiving phone calls from inquisitive cops well into the night.



A couple of months ago, I found myself in a similar situation again; only it was 11 in the night. Unsurprisingly, the auto-rickshaws at the stand demanded double the normal fare. I went "Aha! Not going to be cornered this time!" because I realised that I had the Delhi Traffic Police app on my phone. The delight barely lasted a minute. The app isn't of much help - you get to lodge a complaint about errant auto-rickshaw drivers, but there's no immediate assistance. Honestly, that does not help my case when I am trying to get home without being forced to pay double the amount. Also, you don't get any updates about the progress of the complaint.

My grievance with auto-rickshaws isn't just because of their refusal to ferry me; what irks me is their 'there's nothing you can do' attitude. It is their brazen disregard for laws along with the disrespect that annoys me. It is their boldness in persuading their brethren from complying that makes me want to scream the choicest of expletives in the middle of the road. That's not how I wish to start my day, every day.

For the longest time, I thought I couldn't hate anything more than waking up in the morning. I was wrong.