"Love is Slow Poison" said an auto that nearly killed me yesterday; I would have normally belted some un-pleasantries to nobody in particular and forgotten the close-shave. But how can one not stop and mull over a near-death-experience that comes with such succinct wisdom? I assure the auto-driver that no love is lost between him and I now. May all his passengers readily pay him ‘double meter’.

We must make haste in claiming credit for any pop-culture phenomena that may have emerged from the city and label it ‘city-chic’ or some such; you will agree that this sort of thing is important these days. Let us then smile ( a tad difficult, what with the recent hike in fares) and pat the rickshaw driver community for establishing their own sub-culture.

Regardless of how much spite we reserve for drivers of auto-rickshaws/cabs in namma city, we must admit that the dreariness of many a traffic jams have been alleviated by the spotting of pop-philosophy tidbits courtesy our own Auto-Rajas (Cab-Rajas are next-gen). Blogger Vasuki Raghavan must agree. He has been running a two year old blog Gaadi-Slogans about "Auto…taxi…one and half…double meter…10 rupees extra…yellige…baralla…"

This is for Auto-Buddha-ism that goes beyond the ‘Hai Raju’s and pictures of Kannada superstars. For instance his recent post sheds uncommon knowledge on the Kanaka Das fan following amongst cab drivers.

My personal favorites are all ones dealing with that slow poison, Love , which almost always finds a woman throwing a spanner in its works.

‘ನಕ್ತಾಳೆ ಸೋತೆ
ಸಿಕ್ತಾಳೆ ಸತ್ತೆ ‘

(Roughly translates to She smiles and I lost it; I found her and I died. Or something.)

Pop-Culture fans, rejoice. Print those T-shirts. Mind The Gap, meet Love is Slow Poison

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