The Auto-Rickshaws are back!

Missing from my first two days in Delhi has been the incessant honking of auto-rickshaw drivers as they navigate the chaotic streets of the city in search of fares.

But no more - after two days of an organized strike, they are back, and one of them is now carrying me to my first meeting with my academic advisor, Sri, at the School of Planning and Architecture.

The drivers were upset about reforms Delhi's government has been pushing in advance of the Commonwealth Games, which India will host next fall. For years, many of the laws governing rickshaws had been ignored, with drivers frequently overcharging, refusing to use meters, or refusing to drive to certain areas (the latter refusal not foreign to me as a now-former Brooklynite).

The government didn't bend, however, and the drivers returned to the streets out of economic necessity. It is amazing though, how transformed a city is when 100,000 vehicles suddenly vanish from the road.
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