YOU ARE READING

365 Days- Book I

Losowe

This is my collection of writings for the three hundred and sixty five day writing challenge - where one has to write something daily, every day, for one whole year, based on the prompts provided - as part of an exercise to improve creative writing...

#challenge #creative #creativewriting #general #prompt #random #wattpadindia #writing

132. Transport

15 3 6

by -Nynaeve

by -Nynaeve

November 9, 2018

"Write about taking your favorite (or least-favorite) form of transportation."

----------------------------------------------

Well, my favourite mode of transport,which I already wrote about is the train, so I shall write about my least favourite - the auto. A bane on the road and a thread to people and vehicles. It is surprising to believe it but then it has to be experienced.

Why do I call them a bane? Because they are. People will tell you that they are economical ways to transport but that is only if they agree to ferry you in the first place. And here is the fun, auto drivers have two criteria to judge the distance – too short or too far – not that it makes much of a difference, they refuse in either case. Short distances do not pay well and long distances do not work for them. I can recall one incident when around half a dozen of us for waiting for an auto, all of us had different destinations and he refused all of us. It is a different thing that I got tired of asking and being refused and decided to leg it down, a distance of around four and a half kilometres. Good exercise for me.

Then there is there inane idea of charging extra for luggage, I mean they would not mind three passengers, each weighing sixty kilograms or more but if it is you with a large bag or a suitcase, they chant the mantra, 'extra for luggage. I lost count of the number of battle I have had on this count.

Auto drivers are also a bane on account of the way they drive, most of them are delusional, convinced if the front wheel fits through the gap, the entire vehicle will. Do not ask me how or why they are convinced of it, but they are, and which is why they are a driving hazard, you never know from where an auto will pop up.

Further they take the widest possible U-turn, almost blocking the entire traffic on both sides of the lane. Honking, cursing, shouting, nothing works, you grin, grit, grip the steering wheel and your temper and continue.

There is only one good thing that came out of my encounters with these autodrivers, tired of haggling with them, I decided to buy a car. I still encounter them but differently. The independence is worth the stress of driving.

Note: I always harboured the illusion that autos were generic to India, I am grossly mistaken. There are auto rickshaw all across the world:

El Salvador