We shouldn’t call them relics of the past, for the veritable and all pervasive Mumbai ‘Autos’ are the lifeline for the average commuter (albeit for shorter distances) after its local trains, the Metro, the Taxis and BEST buses. Their business badly hit by the onset of on-line cab services like Ola & Uber that emerged around two decades ago, these versatile three wheelers breeze on undaunted, braving megacity’s sweltering summer and monsoon mania !
Those of us who grew up in smaller towns, cycle rickshaws and later tempos were favored shared modes of transport and were easily available at every nook and corner where one could just hop on. In today’s highly automated age, many of these continue to be attached to mohallas or residential areas , plying children to schools and taking working people to offices & markets ! Remarkably, they manage to co-exist with the burgeoning vehicular traffic of cars, two wheelers and newer entrants on roads- the electric rickshaws.
For residents of the bustling metros like Mumbai, autos remained the basic facilitator for short distance travel in the last few decades. They have also been providing major employment avenues to people from parts of East UP and Bihar and one rarely finds anyone else driving private taxis or autos in Mumbai except them. It’s fun chatting with these informed guys, if like me you are from Lucknow, wanting an accurate ground report on UP & Bihar !
Without being parochial, I’d say the auto guys are generally professional, never rude except when they’re asked for change ! With the huge number of commuters travelling across the megacity on daily basis, some people tend to misplace their documents like passports, DLs and mobiles in transit. The auto-walas claim that if a person has left behind something while travelling with them, they’ll try their best to ensure the owner gets it back. It’s quite true – one auto-driver did come back to my home to return my lost mobile !
Good news is that like all else, the latest autos that are hitting the road have swanky & colorful looks with doors that lock, preventing you from crashing out since no safety belts still are fitted in ! Don’t undermine humble autos available just outside our gate. Economical, they too make our lives easier !
Working on Living 