The Joys of the Share Auto

Until I acquire my own wheels, the only way to get around Bhubaneswar is to use auto-rickshaws. There are a few bus routes but the "autos" are everywhere. There's two ways to get a ride in an auto, firstly and most commonly is the "share auto" which is where an auto runs from point A to point B and picks up and drops off along the way. The second is "reserved" for which you pay a hefty premium and that auto will take you all the way to where you want to go.

With limited financial resources, time on my hands and a general curiosity about doing things with the locals, I find myself in share autos most of the time.

A newcomer to Bhubaneswar would have no idea about the system as street names and addresses either don't exist or are hard to come by. After a couple of months here I'm finally figuring out the lay of the land, not to mention the share auto routes and the prices I should be paying.

The guys on my neighbourhood routes to/from Kalpana square are great and never try to overcharge me. In fact I find that most of the time the prices are fair. The great autowallah swindle is something that irks many a foreigner in India.

If I want to get from the south side of Bhubaneswar (where I live) to the north side, it can take me an hour and up to five different share autos.

So the system takes a little getting used to and is very intimidating to newcomers but once you've got the hang of it city starts opening itself up to you.

In the past couple of months I've had some really cool experiences with locals in the share autos. Just in the past few days here's some of the "joys":

1. I took a reserved auto on Sunday to meet my friends for lunch at the Mayfair Hotel. It was pretty far and pretty hot so I thought I'd do it in style. I got the autowallah down from Rs80 to Rs70 but he didn't really know where he was going. We stopped along the way for him to check the price with his mates and he told me it should be Rs80. I could've argued we stick to the agreed price but what the hell, he has to make a living and what is Rs10. So at the end when I paid him, he was so happy to get the extra Rs10 and we had a laugh and shook hands. A couple of days ago I went down to my corner auto hub to get a share auto and he was there. He was so happy to see me he shook my hand enthusiastically and had all his mates do the same. We reminisced about Sunday's ride to the "Maypair" (f's aren't pronounced in Orissa, it is substituted by a p). Gorgeous!

2. The other night I was coming back from a meeting and got in a share auto at Kalpana Square. The women are always in the back and the men in front with the driver. I've had as many as nine in an auto before. We had a lady in the back with some shopping bags, then me, then two other ladies with a child aged about three also had to squeeze in. The lady on my right wasn't happy to squeeze over too much and it didn't leave much room for the two other ladies, let alone the child. I grabbed the child and stuck him on my lap so that we could all fit in. Not sure how this bold act would be viewed by the locals, the mum asked him if he was okay and he did the cute Indian head wobble to say yes. He sat comfortably in my lap the whole way to their stop.

3. About half way down from Kalpana Square to where I live in Brit Colony there's a roundabout where we turn. I call it the cow convention of an evening because there's scores of cows that head there when the temperature cools. Loads of dogs too. A few days ago we stopped there to let some people out and they were fixing up the payment. I was in the back seat, at the edge. Perfectly timed, a cow walked up and stopped with its rear less than a metre away from me. It then started to relieve itself. Right there! Not knowing quite what to do, I just had to hold my breath and turn my legs so none of the poo sprayed up on me.

Yes, life in India is never dull!