I wonder if you have ever traveled by an auto with the driver completely sozzled?
Well, when my husband and I recently did, the 10minute ride was quite an earful fit for the corporation officials and politicians to take Notice and Act, which is a million dollar wish.
Even as we got into the three wheeler, we had requested the driver to drive slowly to prevent recurring of my back ache.
He obliged us and suddenly broke into a song in Tamil which had lyrics of his own —“Nan eppo mellama otre, aana road mattum sari illa (I always drive slowly but the roads are bad).
Then followed another song, again one of his own creation —‘enna akshi vandal enna, engalku onnu prayojanam ille (whatever party comes to power, it will not benefit us). ‘ akshi kar than saapduvanga’( the people in power will build their own coffers)
When we were thinking as what issue he would take up for his next song, he turned around to face us (only then I noticed his blood shot eyes and felt the whiff of alcohol) and went into an autobiographical mode. But all the while only his speech fumbled sparing us the risk of his three wheeler colliding into other vehicular traffic!
As we were approaching our destination, my husband pointed to a dentist’s board and asked him to stop there.
He had one look at the distant board and said in Tamil ‘ange kuppe thotti than thriyadu, pallu theriyale(I see only a dustbin, but no teeth).
As he came nearer the board he said, ‘ippo rendu veru theriyadu’ (I can see two roots now).
Do you want me to wait here? I don’t mind dropping you back, he had offered while we alighted.
Please spare me his monologue , I whispered to my husband.
n.meera raghavendra rao
Just Li'Es 
Thank goodness you were not flying in a plane with the pilot sozzled ! See this report carried in Times of India:
TNN, Mar 11, 2011, 04.14am IST
NEW DELHI: Air travellers would do well to say a little prayer before taking a flight. Pilots faking flying hours was bad enough, but now it turns out there’s a reasonable chance of the pilot turning up drunk for duty. And getting away with it. Between January 2009 and November 2010, as many as 57 drunk pilots were detected in random pre-flight medical tests – that is two tipsy pilots every month. Of these, only 11 lost their jobs for endangering passengers; the rest got away with mild punishments including being grounded for up to three months and a pay cut for some time.
Its like the devil and the deep sea–the choice is between a sozzled pilot and one with a fake license !Well, the decision rests with the traveller ,whether its worth taking the risk !
We had a colorful and equally dangerous experience once. We were traveling to Tirupati by taxi. Nirupama was sitting with her parents at the back and I was sitting in the front next to the driver. Apparently the driver had not slept the previous night. In the hot afternoon sun, he was dozing off once in a while at the steering wheel! I was on my edge, looking at the fellow and expecting some nasty thing to happen any time. Fortunately, we reached Tirupati safely. Next day, I was wondering what was going to happen on the return journey. As we were crossing Renigunta, the car axle broke and it stopped right in the middle of the road! No quick repair was possible. We walked to Renigunta station, waited for the Bombay Mail and huddled into the corridor till we reached Central Station.
I could imagine your plight .Whenever we travel by road, my husband makes it a point to keep himself awake so that the driver doesn’t doze off. I remember when we were travelling along with a friend in London,(he was driving at 80mph) ,suddenly the car swerved and our friend managed to bring it back on track before we realised what was happening .He had dozed off for a few seconds !
At least the driver of your taxi was not responsible for breaking of the car’s axle.