Manual Windshield Wiper

Last week, I landed in Chennai from Coimbatore in the midst of torrential rains - As is my usual habit, I headed for the pre-paid taxi counter. There were two counters there - One seemed to a bit cheaper, with the black and yellow Ambassadors and the other one was more expensive and had Indicas (I think).

I chose the cheaper option and this is the story of my trip from the airport to Kilpauk (which is where I live in Chennai).

Firstly, the car looked like it had been in an accident just a few days back. There was no paint on the whole of one side. Aside from the driver's door, the only one that opened was the one on the rear right. I tried opening that door from outside - No luck, the river tried opening it from inside - No luck. He then tried rolling the window down - Nothing happened. He then physically pushed the window down ! And then brought out a length of wire and did some jiggling and finally got the door open. I jumped in and we were off !

So, the guy speeds off (down the wrong direction of a one-way road), which is quite normal behavior for a Chennai taxi-driver so I wasn’t too perturbed. But then I realized that the car didn’t have headlights ! Of course, there was no point even wondering if brake lights and indicator lights were working ... :-)

So we get onto GST Road (the arterial road that leads into Chennai). At that point the rain had stopped, and I was hopeful that it would stay away until I got to Kilpauk. Ha, fat chance !

So, this guy is speeding down GST Road when he suddenly pulls over to the left hand side of the road and jumps out. He opens the bonnet and curses – He then proceeds to get a can of engine oil from inside the car and pour some into the engine. This brought back fond memories of how I used to have to pour oil into my Camry (which had a bad oil leak) !

We were off again, and then it started to rain …

The driver cursed again.

And then I realized what the problem was – His wiper didn’t work !! The rain was pouring down in torrents and his wipers didn’t work. And then he did something truly hilarious ! He opened his window, took out a single wiper blade from the recesses of his seat and proceeded to perform a wiping motion on the windshield !! All this, while driving like a maniac through heavy traffic !!

And what was amazing was that his manual windshield wiping was almost as good, or even better than the real deal !

We drove 20 kms (13 miles or so) like this !!

Truly an interesting experience. But I think I might pay more next time and take the more expensive option.