Adventures in an Auto

I am not completely sure this story is blog-worthy, but I found it funny...

A couple of days back we were travelling in an auto (rickshaw) back from spending time with some friends. All was normal for the first 70% of the journey. We then stopped at some traffic lights and the guys on a motorbike next to us became fascinated by the fact that there were a couple of "whities" in the vehicle next to them. At first they smiled a lot.

The traffic light went green and our auto moved off. (There are no windows or doors in an auto, this is an important fact in this story). As we were travelling the motorbike caught up with us and they started shouting in, "where are you from?"...depsite this being an unusal setting for such a conversation I told them we were from the UK. They liked this. However they sped up and went ahead of us.

About 2 or 3 minutes later, they pulled up along side the moving auto once again (unbeknown to us they had slowed down deliberately and come back for more). This time the passenger (I forgot to mention there were two guys on the motorbike) stretched out his hand as if to shake. Again, despite the rather dangerous conditions (i.e. two moving vehicles) I, not wanting to come across as rude, stretched across Andi and tried to shake hands. We held for a moment, but at that stage the auto slowed down and the motorbike sped up...meaning I was actually now pulling the passenger off the bike! However, we both managed to let go in time and any potential accident was averted.

You may think this is where the story ends, but there was still one final twist...

Once again the motorbike had slowed down and once again came from behind to draw along side us. This time, the passenger was brandishing a bottle of Kingfisher (the local beer). At first he drank it himself, but then he offered it to us. (Let me reiterate at this point that both vehicles are still moving and at quite a pace) The driver of the motorbike kept insisting that we drink and the passenger was forcing the bottle into the auto we were in. However, you will be glad to hear we politely rejected the offering of golden nectar and decided it best to ignore the terrible twosome from this point on. It worked and they sped off into the sunset.

Only in India. (and maybe Glasgow!).