Autowallah, Autowallah

An "autowallah" is a man who drives an autorickshaw - a three-wheeled, rickety vehicles that is also known as a "tuk-tuk" and which seems like it is always going to tip over. By now, I know many of Udaipur's autowallahs very well. And frankly, they make life here more interesting, even if they do try to rip me off all the time.

Mostly when I approach a parked auto, I find the autowallah asleep on the back bench (see photo below). Sometimes when he hears me he jumps awake and eagerly negotiates prices. Other times, he lazily opens one eye and asks where I want to go. When I say "Bedla Road," he thinks for a moment and shakes his head. Too far. He would rather nap.

Autowallahs' business logic seems very... illogical at times. One time my friend was bargaining an auto for me. I gave my final price of 80 rupees, but the driver insisted on 90. I knew it was too much. My friend told him, "She will only pay you 80 rupees - good price. So you can drive her for 80 rupees, good business, or she can find someone else and you can have no business. What do you want?" He thinks, slowly shakes his head, and mutters, "No, no business," and turns around. So I found someone else.

Sometimes I hire an auto and the driver jumps in the front seat and exclaims, "Yesssss! O.K.!", excitedly showing off his nicely decorated seats. Sometimes he blasts Bollywood music and may even have some flashing colored lights under the roof. Other times I hire an autowallah to take me somewhere, and I sit in the back and wait for quite a while while he talks to his friends until he finally agrees to start the engine. My friend Maddie once hired an auto and the driver said, "First I take my chai." So they sat while he drank his tea.

My favorite autowallah is a man who always hangs around my neighborhood, but I don't know his name. He has dry, matted gray hair that kind of sticks straight up in the back. His eyes are big and round and he always looks somewhat surprised and eager and mischievous in a very boyish way. His lips are plump and always pursed out. When I talk to him, he turns his head completely around and looks at me as he accelerates.

This week I hired him to take me to a nearby village. I hopped in the back, he took out a box of bidis (small, hand-rolled, unfiltered cigarettes that smell like marijuana) and offered me one. I kindly refused, and we went. In the village, he was kind enough to drive me across a field full of pits and rocks. It was bumpy, and I bounced completely off the seat several times. When we shouted from the back, he turned around and yelled, "I am driving across a field!" as if we didn't know. The three-wheeled auto was not meant for rough terrain, and we easily could have tipped over.

Though auto rickshaws can comfortably sit about three people, I have been in an auto with eight friends before, with our overnight luggage and all. I sat on the floor by the driver's seat with my feet on the pavement below, and when we drove, I hugged my knees to my chest. One time, I went with 4 other friends to a party in an auto. The party was on the side of a big hill, which the autowallah knew very well. It was also somewhat far. So the five of us got in, and after about half of a kilometer, it was clear that the auto was not going to make it. The engine failed and started smoking. He ordered us all out so he could lift up the seat and fan the burning engine. "Just five minutes," he told us. So then we got back in, rolled downhill for a while, then when the ground flattened he started the engine again. Another half kilometer later we stopped and all got out again. He fanned the engine again. "Just five minutes, no problem." Finally we convinced the autowallah he could not take us to the party, though he protested and angrily chased our new auto down the road - until his engine overheated again.