With "Laila", the
rains have arrived in South India. The first rain brings in pain for some.
Especially the govt agencies, who are bombarded with complaints. Flooding of
low lying areas, road blockages, tree falls, power outages, accidents etc etc.
But most people are happy with the rains. Temperatures come down. The smell of
soil is pleasant. There is a splash of greenery that blooms. Lazy cold nights
brings in good sleep. And rains bring in big
moolah for the Great Indian Autorickshaw.
Today started with rains. I had to carry an umbrella to
the cab stop early in the morning. It was slightly greater than a drizzle, but
not heavy. As I stood in my stop, I watched a atleast 4 autos come and pick up
their customers..Rather the customers were ready to catch an autorickshaw.
Usually the autos have to wait for sometime to get customers (or even go empty
to the next location). The people do not have umbrellas and do not want to get
wet. They cannot wait for the bus in the rain. And so catch a rick immidiately.
Imagine yourself in this
situation.
It's raining. You get down from the bus. Your house is
1km from the bus stop. You have to reach home early because the kid is waiting
or you need to cook or there is an RCB vs Chennai IPL match or any other
urgency. On any other day you would have walked home. 10 mins walk (or 5 min
run) perhaps. But today, you would just ask the autorickshaw to drop at home. He
will also try to make most of your urgency and demand a higher price. You can't
get wet, so you just oblige to pay more.
There are various other rainy situations where you have
only one option - The Autorickshaw.
It's brisk business for the autos when it
rains...
Pure coincidence - May 23rd 2005, I had blogged about the arrival of rains.
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