The ricksha walas of Mumbai nagariya

"Autooooo", I scream each time I need one and then realise that it is referred to as "Ricksha" here.

I have to confess that I have never had a better experience of commuting by auto/ricksha or auto rickshaw (as you would like to call it) in any other city. And I know for a fact that the local residents here would never understand what that means because after having spent just about three months here, I already feel so used to it that I have forgotten how horrible the commuting experience in auto has been for me or can be for anyone else in other cities.

When I say cities, it may be important to mention that I have lived in quite a few cities already- Jaipur, Delhi, Bangalore and now in Mumbai. Besides, I have also travelled to a few cities but I would prefer not taking into account those experiences because I haven't lived long enough in these cities to figure out how the autos operate there. My experience (good or bad) in these cities may not necessarily be the general trend as such.

However, out of all the cities that I have lived in so far, Mumbai is the only city that has pleasantly surprised me with its ricksha walas. At first it felt almost unbelievable to see ricksha walas turn the meter down on their own as soon as you got in because I was so used to being extorted and being taken on a ride by their brethren in other cities. By the way as most of us would have noticed already, it is not that the autos in other cities don't have meters, its just that their masters don't believe in turning them down and the role of meter has only been restricted to avoid paying fines if caught by the officials (which is rare in our country) for not operating in the prescribed manner.

So how do they really function? Well, by quoting random fares and hey believe me the trend of quoting random fares in other cities is as normal as it is in Mumbai for riksha walas to turn the meter down. And I am saying this because I have commuted like this for years. Ask why!- because there is no concept of turning the meter down! And on days, when you are really (read REEEEEALY) lucky or rather you think you are lucky and you end up getting into an auto which does not just have a meter but an operational meter, you will hear something to this effect from its master as soon as you have placed your self in it - "20 Rs. extra!" After these exact words, you dare not ask the master "why" because you will either be asked to get down the auto or you will end up causing yourself a headache from the most ridiculous of explanations that they have to offer to answer that specific question.

On the contrary in this city (Mumbai), the riksha walas take you strictly by the meter, so much so that they return even 1 rupee change on their own. Only people who have lived in other cities (specifically in Bangalore and Delhi) would know how unbelievably amazing it feels to be paying by the meter. It still amuses me each time I get into an auto here without having to think, negotiate or bargain and I guess by now it is evident that I am not over this fantastic trend that the ricksha walas of Mumbai nagariya have set for their city.

The saga of reaching office late

I am absolutely sick and tired of being late to work and even though I am late only by 5 to 10 minutes, it sucks as much when you have to report your in time daily. Or rather it sucks even more if you are late only by 5-10 minutes because while in your own head that hardly constitutes as being late, for your senior all that matters is whether you are in time or not and not by what time are you not in time.

First Saturdays are working for me and today is that Saturday of the month. The entire week has been immensely hectic work wise but I am happy that I have been able to cope up with the stress (caused by unreasonable deadlines) successfully. In fact I managed to wrap up some stuff before the timeline, of course by burning the midnight oil. I don't know why though! It's a disorder that I have no control over. I had the urge to knock it off last night in the hope of a peaceful weekend and so I did. And I am happy I did that. What I am not happy about is that I reached office at 9:38 am. Exactly 8 minutes late and as soon as I called the Delhi office to report my log in time (yes I have to do it every single day. Feel free to feel lucky if you don't have to.), I hear the voice that I detest the most from the other end- you are late today? Well, someone please PLEASE for crying out loud tell me, how do you respond to that! I mean isn't it obvious I am late when I have already given him my in time as 9:38 but no apparently some people hate numbers so much that they don't understand numbers verbally either! That apart, I cleared my throat to say "yes I am slightly late" and just when I thought the worst was over, I hear "how come" from the other end. This is when the person talking to you is not even your partner, it is his irritating EA for the record. If only I knew how come, I wouldn't be coming in late by 5 minutes so often I thought to myself. I wanted to scream out loud that it's most certainly not to hear him for longer on phone first thing in the morning! I was obviously caught off guard by that question and so my instant response was "it's raining outside and I couldn't find my umbrella". As ridiculous as it may sound I have to admit that I said that.

I am told that he sends out an email listing everyone's in time to the Partners daily with reasons for being late. Believe it or not, my concern is this- will he be writing this against my name today- "log in time - 9:38 am; she was late to office because she couldn't find her umbrella."

No seriously, now that would be hilarious!