Woman's Tips About Language To Bengaluru Auto Drivers Goes Viral

In July, a picture of an auto in Bengaluru with an inappropriate message surfaced on social media, sparking massive outrage among netizens. A woman named Dravisha took to X, formerly Twitter, to share a few ideas for Bengaluru auto drivers who expect people to speak Kannada.

Listing out a few suggestions, Dravisha wrote, "Idea for Bangalore autos: Instead of expecting folks to speak Kannada and have rude posters, here's something that might work better."

Woman Gives Tips For Bengaluru Auto Drivers

She went on to point out some suggestions, including having a small poster or placard inside the auto to learn basic phrases such as asking for the fare or pointing directions. She urged auto drivers to use polite and warm phrases to encourage people to speak in Kannada to them.

Further, she expressed how Kannada was dying and showcased her passion to protect it. She said she was hoping Namma Yatri would help in implementing this. In a following tweet, she wrote, "One could argue that change doesn’t happen bottoms up (in a few cases, it has) but top down." She went on to say how apps like Namma Yatri, Ola, and Uber could introduce regional linguistic phrases for users to communicate with auto drivers based on geographical location. She said that both seemed like great initiatives from an actionable pov to remove the current friction and added that she was open to everyone’s thoughts.

With over 300K views since being posted on Sunday, the post has been winning hearts among netizens. In the comment section, one user pointed to the 2011 census, which said that 26% of Indians are bilingual and 7% are trilingual. They went on to highlight the census, which stated Hindi was the most preferred language, followed by English, which was only possible for a minority (7%) of Indians.

Appreciating the idea, another user said that it was a fantastic initiative for Ola/Uber to implement. While it might not nudge people to learn Kannada, it will at least make them aware that the other person might not be comfortable speaking in Hindi.

A third user said they appreciated the idea and suggested she might talk to the Namma Yatri team to add this to their app. The user pointed out how people use a French or Dutch language translator when travelling around the globe.

Another user said this was a good idea to protect local languages. They said that one could protect their native language without being rude, mean, or outlandish.

Suggested Reading: Woman Alleges Bike-Taxi Driver Masturbated While Riding, Arrested