Arguements with Auto-Rickshaw Drivers

In some of my usual crabby and irritated moods, I enjoy picking up fights with auto-rickshaw drivers. I have always found these guys a pleasure to be argumentative and pick fights with.

By and large, most of them have meters that are tampered to run faster than usual. Having spent a good part of my life traveling in these rattly things, gives me rough idea on the meter readings from various starting points to various destination points in my city. This rich & varied experience helps me immediately detect a faulty meter when I see one.

The best practice on detecting a faulty meter is to incite an argument mid-way through the journey aided by veiled allegations and mildly provocative words, albeit in soothing polite tones. Something on these lines, "Is your meter OK? You sure its not tampered."

Invariably this gets the auto-rickshaw driver's goat, and he vehemently denies it, saying that this was vile allegation on someone as honest as him. (Yeah yeah)

Next, one can make the same comment with more exasperation, more provocative words. "I'm sure you have done something to the meter, it can never be this high."

That does it. This begins a volley of exchanges, between passenger and driver. At this juncture, while the less vicious driver continues driving and takes passenger to destination, the more vicious driver asks passenger to get down immediately. The passenger need not alight, and its now time to strike and say the magic words, "Police Station"

"What do you mean get down from your auto? First of all, your meter runs too fast. Secondly, when I complain you start fighting and abusing me, on top of that you don’t even take me to my destination, and you are forcing me to get down, now this matter will be settled in the Police Station only, I will only get down there, Chalo Police Station."

Try it out, it actually works, the driver will just grumble a lot while taking you to your destination, then meekly accept the correct fare and not the overblown fare that appears on his tampered meter, as he knows that you know the right fare. And you can walk away with a smug face at having picked yet another fight with yet another cheater robber rickshaw-walla.