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`Run the meter'

Sehjo Singh wonders why autorickshaws in the city have defunct meters

I am an independent filmmaker. I came to Chennai six months ago; I thought I'd make it my new home. I was born in Delhi, and lived there for 40 years and more and I felt I'd had enough. I chose Chennai because whenever I visited it earlier, I had always felt a sense of calm in the city.

Maybe what I call "a sense of calm" comes from the well-known god-fearing conservatism of the city, but I don't mind it. I wanted to experience a rule of law in a far truer sense than I'd ever experienced in the North, at least as far as the ordinary people are concerned.

And then I hired an autorickshaw, and all my notions of order, rule of law, god-fearing people, came crumbling down. It was hard to believe that the whole city had given up on even maintaining a semblance of regulation as far as the autorickshaws are concerned.

From Besant Nagar to Sathyam theatre, I've been asked to pay anything between Rs. 80 and Rs. 250. The stories of commuting to and from the railway station and the airport are far more shocking, and god forbid, if you have to go to some place a little out of the way or if you are going back home "late" at 8.30 p.m. I am sure several readers would have been subjected to a similar treatment. And yet why is nobody bothered?

I have to begin my day bracing myself for a fight with an auto driver, and to be tortured for the rest of the journey by my conscience, wondering whether I was right or wrong.

How is it that no one else minds? Is it that the only people who matter in the city are those who drive cars or engage call taxis? Is the auto driver's constituency only the meek middle class and am I a misfit?

I have quizzed innumerable auto drivers in my broken Tamil... yes, I came across several decent ones too, Sekar, Muthuswamy, Saravana, and many others. Their lot is not an easy one either. If I have to be ready for fisticuffs once or twice a day, they have to do it several times a day. Why doesn't their union put the defunct meters back into use, give them a rate card revised with rise in fuel prices, like they do in all other metros in India? Why do the policemen look the other way? Or is the rumour true that most of the rickshaws are owned by policemen and hired out for the day to the desperate, otherwise unemployable drivers?

Now, whenever I go to Delhi or visit other cities, the sound of the meter being turned down sounds like sweet music to my ears. I never knew that things would come to such a pass in this city of my choice, Chennai.

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