Pay more for downpour

Have you been a victim of the horizontal head nods, surge pricing and being ignored like you don’t exist while you’re getting drenched to the bone? Welcome to Bengaluru, where half the city is with you. While we were just beginning to calm ourselves and take comfort in the much-needed rains, we might now be facing a new snag – how do we get from point A to B without any transport?

Kannada rapper, Karthik Gubbi says he’d rather ride his bike in the rain than have to deal with this. “Autos don’t even stop when it’s not raining, so might as well not try when it is. I’m not asking them for their property, I just need to be dropped off in exchange for money!” he says, adding that cabs are no better, demanding about five times the fare.

In an overcrowded city like the one we live in, reliance on public transport is at an all time high. But it looks like we can’t rely on them at all. “When it rains and you’re actually lucky enough to get a cab, I’ve been subjected to either my calls not being taken, to switched off cabbie numbers and random cancellations. On losing hope, approach an auto and to the shock of my life, he demanded '475 when it doesn’t even cost Rs 140,” says 25-year-old Vydurya Lokesh, a makeup artist from the city. She adds that this surge pricing is not just when it rains or during peak hours, but on Government holidays too, when traffic isn’t an issue. “Don’t even get me started about the Ola or Uber pool rides. From Lavelle Road to Malleswaram, I paid '260, waited in the rain for 30 minutes because the driver was stuck elsewhere and reached my destination really late,” she laments.  

Even if it’s the ridiculousness of paying “one-and-a-hoff” or a minimum surge of 4x on cabs, some people are actually willing to pay through their nose, “But it’s especially annoying when after agreeing to pay double the meter, the auto driver curses the traffic and your destination the whole way. Like I decided to have bad infrastructure so that roads could flood,” says Rithika Karumbaiah, a media student. “We already know what the traffic situation is like in the city and with the rains it just gets worse. Not all of us take our own vehicles to work because we don't want to add to the number of vehicles on the road, but autos and the cab services pretty much think that charging whatever they feel like when it rains is perfectly fine,” she adds.

So, the next time you think the rain is a good thing in Bengaluru, it might not really be the best for those who don’t have the luxury of their own vehicles. Don’t you think?