Autos sing to Christine Fair's tunes

When autos turn us down, most of us either turn to mindless rage or ignore it and move on. But this American woman has found a novel way of getting autorickshaw drivers to get their metres running when she needs to get somewhere  she serenades them. Christine Fair, an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s Peace and Security Studies Programme in Washington DC, is now a minor celebrity in Hyderabad (and the country too) after she uploaded a video on YouTube of her singing Mujhe Neend Na Aaye from the Aamir Khan movie Dil to a driver who refused to turn on the metre when she got into the vehicle, saying that she would keep singing until he turned it on.

The  driver, who seemed confused at first as to what to do, finally gives in and turns on the metre. Speaking to DC, Christine, who has travelled extensively around India and South Asia, reveals that she has been using the technique for over a year now.“I began using it last year in Delhi,” she says, “In Mumbai, taxi drivers will refuse to take you to places if they don’t want to go there. So I don’t tell them my destination. I just get in and then tell them. When they protest... I sing. To be clear I do not do this every day. Only a few times... but it does work, I must say,” says Christine adding that it helps that her voice “sounds like a cat hollering”.

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“Actually, the drivers who have suffered my singing have been pretty good sports about it,” says Christine, who is also an author. Her inspiration is drawn from her mother, who she says was able “to use outlandish humour to defuse a situation” in her life.“My mother was like a real life Durga  She just made things happen no matter what was thrown in front of her,” she adds.

She also says, that we need to understand the drivers’ side of the story as well. “I’m very sympathetic to the situation, because if you look at the economics, there’s usually some mafia behind it. Bribery and corruption is so rampant in the system. I think it’s about time these structural issues are sorted out.”In Hyderabad for a talk on her book Fighting To The End: The Pakistan Army’s Way Of War at Vidyaranya School, Khairatabad, Christine finally adds that her fame now just confuses her, saying “The video’s everywhere. My husband is really amused by it!”