CHENNAI: If there's one thing that can ruin your entire day, no matter when it happens, it's got to be a puncture. And if that dreadful hole in your vehicle's tyre happens to strike when you're in a hurry, as is often the case, it can be the most frustrating experience ever. Right? Not quite, if you're savvy enough to call in the 'Puncher' (puncture, as they insist it's spelt) Men.Rolling your deflated bike or car to the side of the road, wiping the unavoidable beads of sweat on your brow and frantically asking passers by where the closest mechanic can be found, is a thing of the past. Now, all you have to do is call Justdial and say the words 'mobile puncture service' and before you put the phone down, they'll call you. "Once we get the customer's number, we immediately find out where they're stranded. And if we can make it there in 15 minutes, we accept, or we pass on the number of other repair men who operate from the area," says Aslam Basha, who operates out of the Ambattur-Padi belt. "But these days, it pays to be on the move and not confined to one area - so even if there's a puncture on the ECR, I will go and fix it if there's no one else to help them," he adds. Of course, out-of-the-way calls and late night punctures will cost you about `30-50 more.Though puncture repairs on wheels have been active for over a decade, the 'mobile' puncture phenomenon took off only recently. "Most of us have shops, but business there is dull. Imagine waiting for some puncture to happen nearby and then going back and forth to fix it," says Karthik, who was one of the first to start a mobile puncture service in 2006 from Shanthi Colony. He was lucky enough to be gifted an old cell phone by a grateful customer and that set the ball rolling, "With a complete puncture kit attached to our bikes, we can fix anything - car or bike, anywhere, at any time, without having to go back to the shop," he adds with pride. And before you can ask, if you've had the bad luck of damaging your tube, they have spares of "most standard sizes" for quick replacement too.But aren't there problems when repair-men from other areas infringe on their home territory? "Of course," admits Arasu, whose team of three, service rubber tears in the Guindy-Saidapet belt, "But then again, we do about 12-15 punctures on a daily basis all over the city, so it somehow works out," he adds. The orders, according to all of them, are pouring in via the mobile phone - so much so that even though they operate 24x7, they have to 'switch off' to grab a few winks. Some like Basha, use back-ups, "I ask my brother-in-law to be on call when I sleep. See, we build relationships with our customers too," he reveals, adding that most people tend to store their number and call them again, when needed.So the next time you hear that dreaded bump-bump sound and your vehicle starts veering to a side, just relax - help is but a phone call away.
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