Life in the day of an autorickshaw driver

Meet Krishnamurthy, a Chennai autorickshaw driver, sharing his daily struggles and joys as the city's iconic mode of transport.

What is not human and possibly more iconic and connected to Chennai than Rajinikanth? If you want a clue, it’s usually black and yellow and has wheels. That makes it easy, doesn’t it? The subject for this piece is the iconic autorickshaw, essentially linked to the city of Madras, currently Chennai, across an emotional range, on screen and in real life. Meet Krishnamurthy, an autorickshaw driver, the human connect to that all-purpose, all-terrain vehicle.

“Though the city has various modes of public transport, including the newest Metro Rail, Chennai and the autorickshaw are inseparable,” says Mr. Krishnamurthy, a driver from the Egmore railway station autorickshaw stand, who has been plying his trade for the past 14 years.

“My day starts at 4.00 a.m., at times I have breakfast, but most of the time, I go straight to lunch,” he says. “As someone from the Egmore autorickshaw stand, I can say that the hours between 6.00 a.m. and 10.00 a.m. are the busiest. During this time, we get the highest number of long-ride passengers. However, with most of the trains from various parts of the State being cancelled, we are mostly out of work of late,” he adds.

Speaking about the parts of the city where Mr. Krishnamurthy enjoys driving, he mentions Anna Salai and Kamarajar Salai (till fort St. George) have some of the best roads in the city, saying that these areas have relatively better infrastructure compared to the other parts.

“We are a family of eight; on an average my daily earnings would be around ₹700, after deducting fuel costs and other expenses. Our livelihood is completely dependent on these daily earnings. But now it has been severely affected by corporate-owned ride aggregator applications. A lot has changed in this profession compared to when I started,” he says.

“For me, each day is a new beginning. I begin each morning with a sense of new purpose, knowing that my family wholly relies on me. It is their smile that fuels my daily endeavours, and their happiness is the only thing that truly matters to me,” says Mr. Krishnamurthy, with a warm smile on his face.