💬 My auto driver took one look at Google Maps and told me to put it away

Took an auto from Tolichowki to Mehdipatnam on Tuesday. I opened the map to check the route. The driver glanced back, laughed, and said put that away, I know a road. Then he turned left. It was a lane barely wider than the auto. A woman was drying red chillies on a mat in the middle. He drove around the mat without slowing down. She didn't even look up. I held my bag very tight. Halfway through he stopped and said 2 minutes. He walked into a tiny shop and came back with a cup of tea. He didn't offer me any. He just stood there drinking it and talking to the shop guy about a cousin's engagement. I sat in the back like a parcel. The meter wasn't running because autos here don't use meters anyway. I did not argue. The man had a plan and I was only the passenger. We got there in 14 minutes. The app had said 35 minutes when I first checked it. The fare was 90 rupees. I gave him 100 and he handed back 10 without being asked. He said, next time just tell me the area, no need for that phone. I laughed all the way up the stairs. The app was still open and it said I'd arrived on a different road. My friend says I got lucky and a different driver would have got us stuck behind a truck. Maybe. I asked him about it and he said in 20 years he's been stuck only 3 times. He remembers each one. The dates, the roads, and the exact colour of the truck. I saved his number. Next month I'm going to Charminar and I'm not opening the map.

Walking into a tiny shop to bring you tea mid ride is next level service. I took an auto from Secunderabad once where the driver refused the map too and cut through a school playground because the gate was open. I held on to the side the whole time. Did he charge extra for the shortcut, or was the fare the same?

My auto guy in Banjara Hills does the same, phone mounted on the dashboard and never looked at. Once he cut through a petrol bunk to skip a signal and said this is also a road. I paid 20 rupees extra just for the confidence. Did yours stop for tea too? Mine stopped to talk cricket with a stranger for a full minute, meter off, no apology at all.