Surat - Part I - Autorickshaws

OK. I know I have spent three months in Surat and no news about the place. So in an attempt to answer this, here goes the first of many posts on the topic.

People used to exorbitant rates for auto rickshaws will love this place. I used to pay 30 rupees in Bangalore to travel distances as short as a km. Here I travelled 12 kms from my residence to the railway station paying only Rs 12.How? Read on.

Running on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), these auto drivers charge you at around 3 rupees a km. It gets better. Tell him you want to travel to a place with “share” system and it goes down to Re 1 a km. It basically works that the auto driver will load “any number” of people moving in the same direction into the rickshaw. All paying at re 1 per km. Usually, they take up to 5 persons in the rick (one person sitting on either side of the driver and three at the back) it works out for the drivers too. However, if you are in a penny pinching mood you can load as many people as you are comfortable with. At one point of time 7 of us have squeezed into a rick. The cops are all too happy to look in the other direction as long as they get their cut. However, come the end of the month and then the share system drops to only three people in the rickshaw as the cops are out with their fine books.

One must be warned though. Auto drivers seldom have their eyes on the road. No. They aren’t looking at the pretty young thing making out on the side of the road with her boyfriend; (more about this in my next post) they are looking for possible customers.

City buses are specimens. In three months here I haven’t seen a single one. But my friend tells me I should be thanking my lucky stars. He had the “experience” of travelling on one. He recalled it as having spit, pan stains etc all over and worth of being preserved as a specimen of the “I don’t give a shit about anybody else” policy. His experience also included an elderly gentleman taking off his shirt to dry it on the bus window as he was sweating so much. Considering that he wasn’t born in the generation of deodorant users, none of us have had the guts to attempt a bus ride again.

With a bus system nearly non existent, the auto rickshaws are crawling all over the place. With disco lights, loud Hindi / gujarati music blaring, etc they come in all hues and colours. But you have to be on your guard. If they realize that you have no idea of the fares or the distance, instances of charging 150 rupees for a 10 to 15 km journey are aplenty. So make sure they don’t take you for a ride in ways other than you intended.

The FIRST

Over the past one week I have kept hearing the phrase “the FIRST democratic congress in the last 12 years”. I can’t seem to fathom the idea behind “the FIRST”. Wouldn’t it rather be “a democratic congress AFTER a gap of 12 years”? Ahhh…. But that doesn’t sell you see. Artificial hype like this is necessary for the media to survive and maintain its viewer ship ratings. Whatever happened to just presenting the cold, hard facts and letting the viewer form his own opinion? Guess it has got buried under sensationalism that brings in the moolah.

Beauty is only skin deep

Most people (especially the fairer sex) are very beauty conscious. There have been a lot of studies on people aspiring for model like features. This shows you that model like figures are just that. "Models". Not real.

The first time I did IT

“The first time I did it!!!” No you pervert. I’m not talking about sex. I’m talking about the U.S. advertisements to get voters out of their offices and homes to vote in the mid term congressional elections. As in India voter turn out is very low. So this time they came up with an ad campaign that had celebrities talk about the first time they did “IT”. If that wasn’t enough they had a lottery attached to voting!!! One lucky voter would get a cash prize of $10,000.

Can u go any lower??? To exercise ones franchise and to take part in the democracy of the country we need money and sex???? We can’t take an active part in our “modern civilization” without it having to appeal to our most primitive instincts???

Team players?

The BCCI has made a statement that the players would be give performance incentives. That their pay would depend on their performance in the match. Does anyone else find this corny??? I mean in a team game like cricket you want to introduce individual incentives? How are you going to stop someone from getting the other person out just because he can continue to play? Or wasting 20 balls to score a half century etc?

seems to me that the BCCI is trying to cover up the fact that they cant select a good team. They can always add and remove players on their performance. And the match fees are incentive enough don't you think??

freedom????

Had written this sometime back. But worth a read anyway.

There has been a recent furor in the papers about pope benedict the 16th's comments. Certain groups have denounced the statements and called for the killing of all worshippers of the cross.

I say certain groups because I don't believe it is the opinion of all people of the faith. Nor do I believe that they are the representatives of all the people they claim to speak for. The freedom of speech has always been the corner stone of democracy. I agree that even these groups are entitled to freedom of speech. But is it sane for someone to incite murder just for another's opinions?

Women's voices have always been stifled in these nations. Now they are crossing barriers and asking even others to shut up??? And "THE CHAMPIONS OF DEMOCRACY" are saying we are sorry?????? Cant they see the foolishness of allowing these people to dictate terms????

The pope actually went all out to issue and apology???? Heads of state were fence sitting???? Has terrorism become so real that we are afraid to stand up for in front of them???

doesn't this mean that we are slowly degenerating into a civilization where might is right??? One can only hope not. Because as this continues it is the innocents who suffer. (Attacks at churches that weren't even roman catholic)

Really makes one think about where we are headed.