Bombay auto drivers have always been outstanding at giving exact change, never rounding off the total, which is quite something given auto fares are usually odd numbers

Illustration/Uday Mohite

The city has naturally changed a lot since I came three-and-a-half decades ago. But the fact that women can travel alone at all times has remained a constant. The thing that has changed is the business of change.

Bombay auto drivers have always been outstanding at giving exact change, never rounding off the total, which is quite something given auto fares are usually odd numbers. This was true even through that one phase in the 1990s when there was a change shortage. At the time, it became common for shopkeepers to give you a toffee in lieu of the lacking coins, so that a kismi toffee was........

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