Dream Trip 2008: July

Great Travel Moment

After long, exhausting day attending a friend's Hindu wedding in Chennai, India, my friends and I hailed an auto-rickshaw to take us back to our hotel. Though most of our auto-rickshaw drivers had been wily, inattentive, or simply rude, this driver - R. Nagarajan - was full of a spunky dignity. He went on a charming tirade against the driver that would overcharge, or worse, shanghai passengers on side-trips to shops just for the commission; he asked us to report misbehaving drivers to the government for the benefit of all India. At the end of our ride, we thanked him for being a fantastically entertaining driver and four-star person. He replied "It will make my wife and children so proud" to know that we thought he was the #1 auto-rickshaw driver in Chennai.