Integrity.

I have come to realise that no matter how many cars you own, you better keep alive your connections with the infamous world of autorikshaws. Here's why.

Red, my car, has a driver who takes him cruising around town, dropping my mother and me off to our respective workplaces, taking us shopping, eating out and do plenty other stuff. There have been times though, when Red's services have been unavailable to me. Like this morning, when the driver went on leave and i had no choice but to take an auto. From my grandmother's place, which is in the back of beyond.

Sure i can drive, but i refrain from doing so simply because i'm too young to be imprisoned for life, for committing mass murder on the roads.

There were five... no, eight autos waiting to bait wary travellers at the Jagdishnagar bus stop. True to tradition, a good three-quarter of the drivers were missing from their autos, while the rest left behind carried the legacy of immobility forward by refusing to go anywhere.

One autowallah finally agreed to drop me off at 100 feet road - a tactic that i often bring into play when the autos refuse to see me to my destination. It requires changing autos from mid-point or wherever, but at least i'm not wasting time.

Anyway, i got into the auto while sending up a silent prayer of thanks.

Close to CMH Road the autowallah asks me, "CMH Road or 100 feet road?" Confused because i'd forgotten i was travelling in an auto, i said "100 feet road...no, CMH road. Actually, any auto stand where i can get autos from easily." He nodded his comprehension, and a took a turn that i hadn't expected in a million years. Reason? I knew not of a single auto stand within a 1 mile radius of that place. Unless things had changed so drastically in the couple of months of my travelling by car that new auto stands had cropped up there.

Our man had a different tactic in mind. He stopped all empty autos he met on the way, asking if they would go to Residency Road. The second auto agreed, and i got off after paying the fare in the auto that i'd come in. Just as i went to board the second auto, the driver asks me, "Kidhar madam?" and i say, "Residency Road". He made a clucking sound and zoomed out of there. Without me in his auto!!!!

My first auto was still there, so i told him incredulously, "That auto you stopped is gone!" The man just murmured his sympathies and took off too! The cheek! I was left stranded in the middle of nowhere - at least a nowhere for autos - without any means of transport!! I fumed and fumed because i had to walk up the road in extremely uncomfortable heels till i found an auto willing to take me where i wanted to go.

May those two autos burn in hell. At least there was a saving grace - neither asked for any extra.