This post of mine is inspired by Priya's most recent blog post, 'Me and Chennai autos'. Well here it comes my story about 'Me and Chennai's autos'. Before I start narrating my story, I highly advice you all try it. When it comes to autos and bargaining, I bargain hard. I know their main aim is to rip me off! I have been known to get on the nerves of many auto whallas. The most notorious of all the nungambakkam ones! Surely though the feeling is mutual, they must think I am as notorious as they seem to me. Ask my sister she will second it! ;-)
Scenario 1
· Point of Departure: Move n Pick, Nungambakkam
· Final Destination: Kakkani Towers, Nungambakkam
· Price Suggested by Auto Whalla: 40 rupees
· Price brought down through bargaining: 30 rupees
· Priced suggested by me: 15 rupees
· Estimated Time by Auto: Less than 5 minutes
· Time taken to walk: 5 mins
· Weather: Bright and Sunny
Scenario 2
· Point of Departure: KNK Rd, Nungambakkam
· Final Destination: Thirumalai Pillai Rd, TNagar
· Price Suggested by Auto Whalla: 55 rupees
· Price brought down through bargaining: 35 rupees
· Priced suggested by me: 25 rupees
· Estimated Time by Auto: 15 minutes if not less
· Time taken to walk: 20 mins
· Weather: Bright and Sunny
Ok well now that the scenes are set, you must be with me in saying... WOW some of those Auto Whallas are ridiculous and also in saying WOW your (as in ME (PreethZzZ)) bargaining is ridiculous!
Scenario 1
This was pretty straight forward. We wanted to get from the point of departure to the point of destination. The only problem being that we didn't know where exactly the point of destination was. So we decided to ask an Auto Whalla and use an Auto to get there. So here's what happened.
Me: ***Hailed an Auto***
Auto Whalla (AW): Where do you want to go? (Ofcourse this was in thamizh)
Me: Kakkani Towers, Nungambakkam
AW: Where is that?
Me: I don't know anything apart from that its in Nungambakkam.
AW: (Sees the opportunity for ripping me off as I don't know where it is) Ok ok, Kakkani Towersaa. I know where that is. 40 rupees.
Me: Whaaaaaattttt.... 40 rupees?!?!?! It is within Nungambakkam surely and I am sure it is on the main road. So that should be about 5-10 minutes maximum.
AW: Hmmmm Ok so you tell me a price.
ME: 15 rupees
AW: No chance give me 35 rupees, the base charge is 15 rupees.
ME: Hmmm 20 rupees and not a bit more. This will be the same as you driving around to find another customer.
Sis: ***Whispers to me*** Oi Preeth lets get away from here, before he decides to harm you.. Go easy dude...
Me: ***Ignores SIS*** What is your final price?
AW: 30 rupees
Me: No cha..........
AW: ***Drives off with a super speed, I am sure Narayan Karthikeyen couldn't compete with his speed***
Me: ......nce.....
Sis: Phew at least he didn't beat us up. I am happy for that much at least!
Scenario 2
Here's where the real fun started. Also might I add because of my previous experience with the Nungambakkam Auto Whallas (NAW) I decided to always bargain hard when it comes to Autos. Also I follow my Thatha's policy of bargaining hard if they are unreasonable and if they are just and reasonable at the beginning to give them a reward for their sincerity. So once again from the point of departure to the point of destination here's what happened.
Generic Script
Me: ***Hails an Auto***
NAW: Where do you want to go?
Me: TP Rd, T.Nagar
NAW: States the price.
Me: 25 rupees
NAW: No chance
Me: Ok tell me how much
NAW: ***States their price***
Me: ***States my bargained price***
NAW: ***States a slightly lower price*** (Still not good enough for me)
Me: ***Walk onwards***
[Several NAW stop by, but some see from far and don't bother even stopping and just drive past]
So this is what happened. I had changed my price from 25 to 30 by the end of it. One NAW had actually offered 30 but I had refused it (this was because I wanted to see how low they would go). Funnily enough as we walked closer to our destination the prices just became higher. So what did we do you ask? We just ended up walking the entire way back home! It served many purposes: Exercise, Money Saving and seeing how just the Auto drivers were! LOL! Fun fun times... I suggest you all try it someday. Oh and for the records out of the 30 auto drivers (no exaggerations) only 2 were reasonable.
