Fuel price hikes have become an aspect of life. Protests go with them. Everyone, except for those in power, will protest. Given the widespread nature of the dissent, protestors have to be creative to have their shouts heard. In recent times, they have been.
An example that springs to mind: Telugu Desam Party workers wearing helmets and blazers and riding buffaloes, in Visakhapatnam in February 2013. In July this year, Congress MLAs in Bhopal abandoned their cars for horse-drawn carriages while going to the Assembly. A week later, in Jaipur, Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot registered his protest with a cart driven by a camel.
These protests strike a resonance with most motorists. Because they count the costs of travel every day. When petrol prices were reduced twice in the first half of this month, the move would have meant something to them. Most Indian families plan their commutes carefully. The choice of a car or a bike often involves months of deliberations.
Often , the best plans fall flat. I have heard about a person who went in for a diesel car only because his office was located on the fringes of the city, while he lived in the heart of it. A comparable petrol car would have cost him Rs. one lakh less. He, however, dug deep into his pockets and bought the diesel car. A couple of weeks after he started driving his new car, he was transferred to a branch within the city. Interestingly, his new workplace is just a skip away from home.
I can relate to such unexpected turn of events. In 2012, I went in for an underpowered, small petrol car with an LPG option. I am tempted to say I wanted to go green, but that would be a blatant untruth. Economics dictated the choice. To cut a painful story short, I could not afford a diesel car. However, buying one would have made terrific sense. Because, I live in a place where Mahabalipuram feels closer than Mount Road, where I work.
I was banking on Auto LPG to bail me out. In March 2012, when I booked the car, the price of Auto LPG in Chennai was around Rs. 47/ltr. In April that year, when I took delivery of the car, it had shot up to Rs. 54. It subsequently climbed down. And then, climbed up and climbed down again. (The last time I visited a filling station in Chennai, it was Rs. 47.95.) However, after a point, I stopped using LPG regularly. For a totally different reason. My car has an underpowered engine. Over that, driving in LPG mode on ECR and OMR, where I live, makes me feel even more underpowered.
And, not going in for a diesel vehicle does not worry me anymore. Now, the gap between petrol and diesel prices is not as wide. At the time of this article going to print (you never know with fuel prices), in Chennai, petrol costs Rs. 73.59/ltr and diesel, Rs. 62.42/ltr.
Though I mostly drive on petrol, I have worked out my commutes to manage costs. After serving as unpaid driver to a working woman and a school-going boy in the morning, I head to the Velachery MRTS station, park my car there, and entrust my life and the rest of my journey to a loco driver.
Friends have asked me to try car pooling. In Chennai, I have seen ‘bike pooling’. Motorcylists using a bike as if it were a car, piling passengers — sometimes five — on to the hapless machine. For me, car pooling remains an animal yet to be sighted.
Sometimes, when I consider other ways of beating commuting costs, I think of Sharath Nambiar. Chief operating officer at DakshinaChitra in Muttukadu on ECR, Sharath began to cycle to work in 2009. At 52, he is still at it, covering 52 km on the saddle, both ways together, travelling between his workplace and his home at Madambakkam.
On the way to work and back, he hits the ECR Link Road, between Sholinganallur and Akkarai, passing by my house. I have told myself I should wave to him every day, and cheer him on his inspiring journey.
