Friday, January 30, 2009

Buying Scooter Petrol




A few times since I have been in Sadhana I have needed to borrow a motor scooter for traveling. Once to take a bike to the repair shop and once to go to the other side of Auroville to run some errands. Being the kind soul that I am, also due to the first scooter I borrowed running out, I filled them up wih gas as a thank you. Now this might seem easy, as I thought it would be, so no need to ask how right? Well, not exactly. As I could not find a filling station I asked someone how to get scooter petrol to which they replied "red bottle" and pointed down the street. Being confused and not wanting to go too far I walked in the direction indicated and asked again. Getting the same response I looked across the street and saw what you see in the first photo, this is your indication that petrol is available. The establishment could look anything like the second photo, or more likely the front of someone's house, where they will kindly ask you how much you need and procure it for you from a private storage. The containers for 1litre of fuel are ususally aquifina water bottles, while for the 500ml typically soda or scotch/whiskey/bourbon flasks are the norm. Definitely, not what I expected, but the people are friendly and quite able to deal with my bewildered, western lack of understanding with a smile and a wave down the road.

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