What really grinds my gears about the local autodrivers

As I mentioned in a previous post, I finally found a life form that is lower than the scum known as the Chennai Autodriver. The Chennai Autodrivers, to those that aren't familiar with them, are notorious for overcharging passengers, especially from the railway station. Many drivers, in spite of having a working knowledge of other languages like Telugu, Kannada, Hindi or even English, steadfastly refuse to speak in those languages to secure their position while bargaining. They don't use meters, which means they can ask for whatever price they want. Fundamentally they have a sort of God-complex which was unfortunately secured by the Rajni song "Naa autokaaran".

Well, the Chandigarh/Panchkula autodrivers aren't that much different from their Chennai brethren. (Yet another factor that unites the two halves of the nation.) Basically there is no public transport in the city, or atleast, none worthy of note. I think I vaguely remember seeing a city bus sometime in the past, but I wouldn't know how to tell one from an inter-state bus. The alternates to the auto are the share auto and the cycle-rickshaw.

The biggest problem is that these auto drivers are sort of unionized. They'll never "bid" against each other and this means that if you walk into an auto stand and the guy quotes a price of Rs. 100 to take you to a place you just paid Rs. 60 to come from, the other guys in the stand won't deal with you for a lower price. And worse they seem to share the fares from all these trips and pool them. It's a weird form of communism. There's usually a "leader"-type guy who'll talk to you when you approach the stand and once you've agreed upon the price at which you'll be fleeced, he'll pick a driver, usually a younger guy, to make the trip. The only reason for this seems to be that they pay this leader some sort of extortion money or they're sharing their profits.

Of course, this isn't to say that the other problems like randomly inflating prices don't exist.

I wrote most of the previous paragraphs a while ago, when I first got to C'garh, I just never got around to posting this. Now that I've been here for a while, the situation is a little more tolerable. For instance, a few days ago I had to make a trip from C'garh to my apt. I stopped an auto and told him where I needed to go. He quotes Rs. 100. I said Rs. 80. "No sir, that's too far." Immediately I turned away from him and started walking away. He stops me and agrees to Rs. 80! I guess, like you do with dogs, you can't show any fear while dealing with these people