You need auto?

Indian cities are filled with auto-rickshaws chugging their way through traffic. Most of them have the standard black and yellow paint job visible back in Picture Post v1.0 and all of them have a badge on the back proudly advertising their two-stroke engine that spews exhaust reminiscent of my lawn mowing days. Like all Indian vehicles, their most essential part is their horn. Some have buzzers or car horn-esque noisemakers with a trigger or button built into the steering wheel, but the best of them sport bulb-and-brass, hand-squeezed honkers that produce a pleasant, yet sufficiently alarming, "Womp!" It's the least abrasive and most comical horn variation in India.

On the go, rickshaw drivers shoot soul-piercing stares at potential customers, diverting their attention from the road in front of them for unnerving amounts of time. Stationary drivers have a pimpish way of quietly announcing themselves to passersby with calls of "Auto. Auto." But it's the pimping of their rides in the XZibit sense that is the most interesting. Most rickshaw drivers personalize their rickshaws somehow, but some of them go all out. Exterior-wise there are decals and custom paint jobs:


Hindu gods are common. Here's Hanuman, the aforementioned muscular flying primate.


Jesus makes an occasional appearance.


Along more secular lines, this driver loves his mother, acoustic guitars and... the Chicago Bulls?


I didn't see the driver of this one, but I'm pretty sure this is not a picture of him.


A lot of the stickers are English phrases that I think are intended to be funny. Today I saw "I busy. Can I help you?" which seems like a butchered version of something someone from Lakshmi* Sticker Co.'s creative department saw on a sassy pre-teen tourist girl's t-shirt.


This mountain goat sticker is popular, but the pierced horn and bindi are a rare addition.


The relationship between mother and child seems to be a common theme.

On the interior, there are goofy posters like the ones from a few posts back, shiny upholstery, speaker systems, and colored lights.

Two girls studying yoga with me saw a pair of Buddhist monks, complete with red robes and shaved heads, ride by in the back of a rickshaw that was blaring 50 Cent's "In Da Club."