The ubiquitous 'auto'.....

Catch the City Happenings - Daily life in Hyderabad***
"Auto strike called off, panel formed", says The Deccan Chronicle

And now for an update on life in our beloved city....
For a week now, they have been off the roads, and traffic has never been smoother, better, more organized and anxiety-free, on our (justly) much maligned roads. The ubiquitous 'autorickshaws', which have been a permanent fixture on our city roads, since the early 70s, make sudden, sneaky appearances and disappear, after fleecing an odd customer. The reason behind all this--our dear 'automen' don't want digital meters and have gone on an indefinite strike, assuming that they would bring the city to its knees. Well, that didn't quite happen--life goes on, schoolchildren continue to get dropped, resources get pooled and the RTC does it's fair bit. Meanwhile, some of them--the auto fellas, I mean-- have never had it better--a two mile ride can now cost you a hundred bucks!
So much for 'desh ki dharti' post-Republic Day. And speaking of Republic Day Celebrations, who doesn't know how it's celebrated? As a child, I'd see my parents sitting glued to the radio listening to Melville de Mello (was it?) on AIR, describing the Parade in Delhi. And in later years, when you had nothing but just Doordarshan to watch, the entire household (and this was a 'ghar ghar ki kahani') watched the Parade in the Capital on TV. For donkey's years now, neighbourhoods have had the habit of planting a loudspeaker somewhere (courtesy local MLA, for the most part) and subjecting the entire neigbourhood to patriotic songs like 'mere desh ki dhharti', 'ai mere watan ke logo' 'yeh desh hai veer jawanoN ka' 'apni azadi ko hum' etc., played endlessly all through the day.Well, things haven't changed one bit (in this respect) in all these years.

*** Much more in pictures: Life in Hyderabad ... photos by Steve Cubbins and Alex Wan