The year 2010 turned out to be unexpectedly special for Aishwarya Raman (23) and Anubhav Agrawal. Aishwarya, a student of sociology at MOP Vaishnav College, was in her final year and had to submit a thesis. She along with her team members decided to research on Chennai auto drivers. “The project took us to various auto stands in the city. We went to areas like Chemmenchery and Kannagi Nagar and to pockets where the families of these auto drivers lived. We found out that there was a problem with the system itself. Among many things, we discovered that almost every driver was indebted to loan sharks but continued to nurture their middle-class aspirations. However, when the external examiner, who read our thesis, asked for a solution, we could not offer any,” says Aishwarya. She none the less uploaded excerpts of her thesis online.

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