Easy Auto.

A novel concept has been introduced in Bangalore - the first i heard of it was this morning on my way to office. It's called Easy Auto. Remember those times in school when we had autos whom we paid every month, and who came and picked us up from home and dropped us back in the evening? Well, this is a service for adults. (Nothing X rated about it. At all.)

The Karnataka Autorikshaw Association along with Bangalore cops (i don't know what their association is called) have started this thing. You can bet your shiny *** that this is going to whoop the backsides of all those snooty drivers who ask for atrocious sums of money any time of the day to go even as far as a 100 yards. And the thing is, it works out as well for drivers as it does for passengers - the autowallahs get a steady income every month from the fixed passengers, besides making money from other passengers through the day. And for us passengers, well, it's a Godsend.

The mandates that are created for the autowallahs would be cause for immense glee to any Bangalorean who's stood for hours on end waiting for one decent auto to agree to take him/her to his/her destination, minus any extras - it's almost like the cops' families and the association people have experienced how anal autowallahs can be, and sympathise with us. Take this for example: the auto must be equipped with an electronic meter, the autowallah should carry a mobile phone (doesn't affect out lives so much, unless we're fixed passengers), must have a steady supply of water and, get this, soft drinks in the auto; he cannot, at any point in the day, refuse to take any passengers wherever they want to go; nor can he charge an extra pie.

Apparently, the response so far has been good. My auto's EA (short for Easy Auto) number was 101, which means there are 100 more around the city that i know of. Who knows how many more there are - every day, two or three of them trickle out of the woodwork and pledge to reform themselves by registering with EA.Oh, and passengers get a cool Pepsi kit when they register for the facility. And they get plenty of goodies along with it.

Happy days are here agin. It's probably one of those few times i'll be glad to get back to a life similar to school.

P.S: Anyone interested can call +91 9844112233 for more details or to register. (CTA, the bane of advertising life.)