Only if you cry, will I take you: Mumbai auto driver tells commuter

...was what the auto rickshaw driver told the 24-year-old when she finally got the vehicle after a harrowing time

‘Only if you promise to cry, will I take you to your destination,” is what the auto rickshaw driver demanded from a 24-year-old woman, agreeing to which she finally could reach her office after trying for an auto for more than an hour.

Surabhi Pandit 

Surabhi Pandit was aware of the strike and so she left her residence around 7.15 am to reach Filmistan studio in Goregaon West by 8.30 but faced a harrowing time anyway in finding an auto.

Walked from east to west
“I had given up by 8.30 am but then a couple of those waiting with me suggested me to avail a rickshaw from the west,” said Pandit a resident of Vile Parle (east), who had to walk till Parle west to get a willing driver.

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However, that came with a condition. “He told me he would take me only if I would start crying saying someone is in hospital and so I ought to rush, in case his vehicle gets stopped in the way,” said Pandit, who works as a sound engineer in films and her workplace changes.

Currently, her office is in Filmistan where she has to go for three days for her current project Kabali.

Witnessed hooliganism
Her horror did not stop there. On her way to Goregaon, there were some goons near Mithibai College who threatened to break the glass of the rickshaw in case they moved forward.

Though they did not damage the auto or her physically, the event will not easily be erased from her memory for the sheer aggression shown by those youths.

Paid almost double
After all this drama Pandit reached her office an hour late. However, she had to pay almost double the fare.

Read Story: Mumbai: Tough day in store, as largest auto union goes ahead with strike

“Mai apne jaan pe khel ke aapko yaha laaya hu, double bhada dena (I played with my life to bring you here; you have to pay double,” said the auto driver, who finally budged after she paid him Rs 190, instead of the usual Rs 100.

Pandit says she has never faced this in her life, although there were auto rickshaw strikes earlier too.

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