My automate

The car beside my auto was honking into my ear constantly. It irritated me so much that I wanted to hurl something in that driver’s face. I was on my way to college was running late as usual because of the crazy traffic. I was clenching my teeth and controlling my temper because I didn’t want to start my day on a bad note. On the footpath there was a girl calling out for an auto when I stressed to listen clearly I heard her say Christ University. She wasn’t getting an auto and seemed like she was getting frustated. I waited for a while and something struck my mind. I called her and told her that I’m from Christ too and we could share the auto if it was okay with her. After a moment of speculation is agreed. We started chit chatting and talking about college, attendence and movies etc. we were so engrossed in our conversation that we didn’t realise we had reached college already. Before going to our respective classes we exchangd numbers. And from that day onwards we both started traveling together. over the time we developed a special bond and both of us became very good friends. Now when we travel to college both of us focus more on our conversations than the traffic.

Rana

A well scripted drama

All of us have had some experiences which make us laugh. There was one such incident which is very funny. Once me and my friend parked in a no-parking area. We didn’t see the no parking board. We went and finished our work. when we came back we saw a cop standing near our car from a distance noting down the number of our car. We instantly saw the no-parking board and realised our mistake. We planned to get out of this situation without paying the cop. My friend pretended that she was very sick she was leaning on me. When we reached the car the cop asked as if its’ our car, we said yes, he pointed towards the board. My friend pretended to fall out of dizziness. I told the cop that my friend was really unwell and we had to park here because I had to take her to the doctor immediately. My friend to make it more dramatic started to behave like she was going to vomit. I told the cop to let us go. After some pestering and more drama by my friend he finally let us go.

Ayesha

Distress

I loath getting up in the morning as I never manage to get to college on time because of the traffic everyday. As I travel by auto I cannot ignore the fact that most of the autos going in the same direction as mine are occupied by just one person. Its’ strange that we all are going towards the same direction and the same destination but are stuck in the traffic because of too many vehicles. I often wonder if there is a solution to this enormous problem which causes so much of distress in our lives and ruins my mornings.

Tessa

The road trip

That day I had lots of fun. It was a scary as well as a lovely experiences. it was on my tenth std farewell day, the first time I wore a saree and sat on a bike. My whole class went on bikes like some kind of bike expedition was going on as all the guys were riding in a line and the gals were sitting behind them. That day I missed an accident, even rode a bike for the first time and escaped policemen too. Back then traffic and choas was not on our minds it was all about having an amazing time unlike today. my first bike ride on the road was the most memorable moments of my life.

Nandita

Nandita

The rat race

Clogged roads of Bangalore often make me wonder whether the roads are for the vehicles, pedestrians or the cows and dogs because all of them seem to be part of a rat race. Taking an auto to college has become a routine for the lot of us staying together even though its’ just a 15 minutes walk but I end up taking an auto to reach early and to get 5 minutes of extra sleep. But soon I realised its’ better to wake up early and walk rather than take an auto and get stuck in the jam for half an hour.

Jija

curse them all

In the scorching heat, on my scooty pep, in the middle of the road I am waiting for the traffic to move…I am inhaling the pollutants which are coming out from the auto directly on my face…the songs on my ipod also doesnt seem to please me either at this moment. On my right side there is a Honda civic with a driver and a girl sitting behind. On my left side there is an esteem with a young guy, probably working somehere, windows shut and listening to music. I look at them in disgust… wondering how comfortable they were at the moment as compared to poor me. No heat, no pollution. Sitting comfortably and alone.
I don’t want to start my day with a curse….but I just cant help it coz its' too late for me to reach on time for class now.
Rashida

The stuntman

Traffic- one of the issues we students have to deal with on a daily basis. We come across many incidents which actually make us sit back and think about what we can do. I want to share one such incident. While I was on my way to some place there was heavy traffic. I was so irritated. I saw a man maneuvering his way through other vehicles tilting his bike and doing all sort of stunts to get to the front. While doing so he titled his bike again and this time his bike slipped and hit a car with a loud thud. The owner of the car came out of it and starting shouting at that man. The man apologized and said that his mother was in the hospital and he had to reach on time as she was getting operated that day. This incident made me think how we think only about ourselves and keep cursing the traffic but we never seem to understand other people’s problems.

-Apoorva

traffic block saar

On Being Stuck In The Back Of A Rick (With a million others in the same position)

It's bad enough being stuck in traffic but what's worse is being stuck in traffic while everyone else faces the same situation. When late, I usually end up flagging a rick to get to college faster. The worst part of this is that the roads to college are jammed (usually just five minutes away to 9 o'clock) with lots of other people racing to class. This happens almost everyday and so it's a slow, slow rat race trying to get to class on time. What I'm thinking is this: instead of hundreds of students taking individual ricks, it would be so much better (and faster!) if we started sharing transport. And it's not even like having to ride with total strangers since we all are from the same college after all. At any rate, one of these days students from Christ college are going to wake up and realize how awful it is to have the auto driver turn back and say, "Traffic block only, saar!!"

- Ben

What it takes to be a Bangalorean

It doesn’t matter how old you are, what your gender is, whether you’re a student or just another IT guy, or even whether you’re hooked on speed or you’re the calm, placid type. Regardless of your roots (Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi or someone zimbly plugged out of God’s own country), the only diagnostic criteria specified to be termed as a Bangalorean is that you fulfil two of the following two criteria:

1. Resided in the city for atleast two hours
2. Shown pervasive patterns of disgruntlement about the (horrific) state of traffic on city roads

In that sense, we’re all true, even loyal Bangaloreans, and especially the 20 of us who’ve decided to venture out on this obscure (!) path. Each of us has undoubtedly muttered about and cursed our dug-up roads and our militant auto-drivers. And yes, fretted about whether it was even humanly possible to ever hit that 85% attendance mark, when all these other idiots were cluttering up the roads. United by that common mindset, we’ve come together under the cover of a college assignment, and have decided that its time to move on from couch-grumbling to doing our bit in bringing about that change we can believe in…

No, we’re not talking about revamping the BBMP or overthrowing the auto-drivers union, though admittedly, that would be a revolutionary cause. We’re starting small; we’ve resolved to Eco-Pool.

So what's the big idea, you ask? Well, just think of Car-pooling and extend the concept to autos, and two-wheelers in addition to cars. Carpooling is still quite an alien concept to most Bangaloreans; the understanding of which, for some of us, may just be confined to that of Bumstead running to his Car-Pool stop or the TV series of the same name. Do the math, though: Get a good number of Bangaloreans to travel with other Bangaloreans to the same stop, and you’ve got Bangalore’s road population halved… at least, in theory.

To put this into practice, we’re kick-starting Eco-Pool by attempting to reform our college-mates, but for all we know, it could catch on quicker than we think possible. So here’s what you can do: write in and flood the inbox of greenonwheels@gmail.com with your Bangalore road experiences. We’ll post it with your name, and who knows? Maybe eventually, your contributions coupled with the idea of Eco-pooling could pave the way for a greener and less-clogged-up Bangalore.