11 hours Ago By Joy Sengupta
Pune: Rafq Jamaaluddin Shaikh (65), an autorickshaw driver from the early 90s, still remembers the tonga (horse cart) operator's flogging he and his peers had to tolerate at the Pune railway station. "Back then, several tongas ferried passengers from the station. Autorickshaws were few.
Tonga operators envied us. Whenever we would pick up a passenger from the station, a tonga would be on the road beside us. Its operator would use the whip to hit us or our vehicle.
We maintained a distance from them. They realised it and extended the length of their whips," he laughs. Even while struggling or getting flogged, Shaikh and other old timers fondly remember the respect they earned as autorickshaw drivers then.
Passengers would call them "autorickshaw kaka". Munna Babu Mian Shaikh (73), an auto driver since 1973, says, "Every second or third locality had at least one auto driver. People living around the area would call themselves lucky to have us.
They knew that in any emergency, the auto driver would help. Those days, booking autos was difficult. We used to get requests 7-10 days in advance.
That image has vanished these days, thanks to those auto drivers who misbehave and do whatever they want to without any fear." Ganesh Nana Mathe (60) has been an auto driver since 1984. "Now, autos are of good quality and speedy.
Back then, the engine used to be below the driver's seat. One can easily gauge the troubles we faced while driving it for the whole day. The passengers' seat was meant for two people only.
We have seen times when one had to pay just Rs3 to travel from Khadki to Pune station. When I started, there were roughly 15,000 to 20,000 autorickshaws in Pune. Hence, we were always in high demand," he says.
Mohammed Shafiq Shaikh (67) and Sunil Madhukar Bhople (63) have been driving three-wheelers since 1978 and 1984, respectively. They still remember the famous "Deshmukh horns" in vehicles. "Getting a sound out of them needed some practice.
Some auto drivers turned themselves into experts and conversed with the help of horns when in traffic. Not just conversation, if they had a tiff and wanted to use some cuss words, they would resort to these horns," the Bhople says. Madhukar Yadav (63), driving since 1981, says adapting to changes has been painful but necessary.
"Petrol would cost Rs6 a litre in the 1980s. Each auto would be driven by two drivers in shifts. One had to properly clean the vehicle before handing it over to the second driver.
Times have changed now and cellphone applications have come. We have slowly adapted to the changes. Most people don't treat us well anymore.
To an extent, the new age drivers are to be blamed for it," Yadav says. There are more than 1.7 lakh autorickshaws in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad now.
Ride refusals and fleecing are aplenty. Shafiq Patel, the president of Azad Rickshaw Chalak Sanghatna, says, "All these happened because the authorities failed to take action against the errant drivers. My earlier generation used to ride tongas.
I have been an auto driver for long. The senior auto drivers say that they earned well. Many even gave up jobs in good companies to become auto drivers.
".
