Ola Wali Story

Being a software engineer isn’t easy.. it gets worse when you realize you are not much liked around.. Never sit in a cab and get the driver started on “IT engineers”

Bengaluru – a typical metropolitan city, various people, lot of cultures, but local cab drivers!! A bad combination!

In general Bangaloreans accept people very easily and are very welcoming to outsiders! But it gets little uncomfortable sometimes when outsiders come and boss around and shout at the locals(Some people do that, I am not talking about you). Cab drivers easily get chances to lock horns with outsiders and hence they hate each other – understandable. No one is wrong here. EGO is an emotion created by god.

Usually cab drivers start trips and mind their businesses! They often don’t care who you are. But for a change, we got a real talkative driver today. It was fun. Dad, Mom and I were on our way to Chickpet from Marathalli. A long drive that was. He was happy as we were locals and he started conversation in Kannada.

It all started with Highly jammed Old airport road. “Bengaluru isn’t like it once was any more!!! Damn these software people coming from all over." Said our driver. 

WHAT? That hurt my ego. I asked - what happened? What did they do to you?

Driver: These people, lazy bums – always sunk in their mobiles. 100 kgs ke ho jate hain khaa – khaa ke. Fir jaake gym me daudte hain (He said that in kannada)

Me: So?

Driver: So nothing.. put a bomb under their seat and let them know.. they will search google on what to do. Bloody hell.. they won’t realize they should run.

Me: You tried putting bomb? U seem to be very sure.

My Mom & Dad were giggling all the time as I turned red with every passing second.

Driver went on - "Other day a lady made a booking. Woman was 150 kgs, She was shouting from half a km even before boarding the cab - “AC chalao bhaiiyaa.. Ac chalao bhaiya..” I said its not working.. :P you know what? I hardly take bookings on Saturdays and Sundays after 8 pm. People drink, no conscious of themselves nor of the clothes they are wearing. What would they do if I took them somewhere and did something? I feel so bad for these kids.."

He was suddenly sad.. suddenly.. and that made me curious. I said go on..

Driver: Not that I don’t like these people. These are kids in their 20’s.. They are frustrated already with lives. They earn more than they can handle. They don’t know what to do with their lives.. No family around. 

He went on to tell my Dad who was sitting in the front seat.. “Sir, don’t take me wrong but our next generation isn’t doing really well. They are weak, scared of their own lives”

He sounded very hurt and his tone was very matured. He was very observant and had lot of stories to tell. I learnt lessons in that journey, I would like to share..

Driver: "Sir, a girl made a booking at about 8 pm on a Friday night. I picked her up from ***** Tech Park. She was talking to someone on phone, apparently another girl. I heard her say she was going to her boyfriend's place. Apparently her friend on phone said – "how many do you want?" And was advising her not to do this. 

But this girl was all laughing – "life fun karne ke liye hai yaar.. chill maaro."

Sir, I have family, my sisters are of her age.. I would have broken her ribs if she was my sister. I dropped her to the location, it was not my business.

Sir, I started with a very small job, lot of uncertainties. I have done mistakes but I was always close to family. I had my family. These people wouldn’t have done all this if their family was around. They work hard, intelligent people they are, but they lose track, fail in relationships, lose faith in lives and then make wrong decisions."

I stopped him there. I said -
May be there are few people who end up taking wrong steps with their lives, but just because they drink on weekends or go partying doesn’t mean they are irresponsible people. They are people who have left homes and come here to work hard. People need to support families. They all have studied hard and faced difficulties just like you have. Just because they order food online doesn’t mean they don’t know life.

He agreed. He said - 

"Maga(Beta) I don’t mean they are irresponsible. I am just telling you things that I see as a cab driver. Two guys booked a cab that day. Both were drunk. They had different drop locations. A guy, apparently their friend informed me to drop them off at two places which I did. I don’t know if they crossed road safely and reached their houses. Should something happen to them at 2 am in the night,can you imagine what will be left for their parents to see? You kids are all that they have. I cared about these people earlier, made sure I dropped them off safely to their gates. At times I got down from the cab to escort them. Now I am afraid I have become indifferent. I see this more and more now and it scares me.

People are weak, they can't handle stress. They escape. But stress should be faced not escaped from.

Life is getting tough for girls specially. It hurts me. I have three sisters.

We are adapting American cultures. Court has agreed for Live-ins.. not that it is my business. (He sighed) People live alone.. No family here, No one to look upon them. Do we care..? All these freedoms lead to lot more things.. Stress.. Weakness.. Suicides.. We have seen it all.. People in west are resorting to family values, Yoga, sound health and strong minds. We are going away from these very things we gave them."       /*not bad, he was a cab driver*/

It did hit me. He was referring to my people. Sadly i could relate this to myself. I know i am very weak at times. I freak out too. I have these thoughts of escaping reality. Of course I control those thoughts and get back. But for sure I feel weak and start complaining easily. How healthy is my body? How strong is my mind? It has only gone bad in last few years. I can't even compare myself to how I was back there in college campus. I always had energy! Always jumping! facing life head on! Now ten minutes of traffic pisses me off so much that I feel like punching someone and break someone's nose. I was lost in thoughts in the cab.

Driver was still speaking to Dad.  "Sir, I picked a lady from airport and dropped her to her place. She didn’t have enough cash to pay me. She gave me her number and said - I will give you tomorrow. I called her up next day in the day time. She didn’t pick up. She called me back at 9 in the evening and said she got late at office and that I can collect the money from her place. I asked her if i can collect it in the morning. She said she stays alone and that she will be busy with work and asked me to collect right away. Sir, We cab drivers are already infamous in many ways. I kind of got scared. She had to pay me 600. I deleted her number and told Tirupati Balaji in my mind - Please consider that 600 Rs as my donations to you.

Sir, this staying alone, partying, all is good! But kids must not be alone. They should be with families. A caring family at home will constantly remind them their life's worth."

We were all silent as he spoke. Indeed, he had a point. We have so many problems na? we hate our jobs, our managers, traffic, food, basically everything. We have issues with everyone around. we fail to communicate. We hate people. We are too busy to understand others. Everything looks complicated. How many of us have already visited a doctor or a psychiatrist for stress management? I know many who have. I too sometimes wonder if I need one? Seriously, we earn so much, and still cry. While there are people who.. well.. 

Getting married these days looks like a project by itself. Looking alternatives for career is like an almost impossible thing. How healthy are we? Do we sleep enough?

Running in gym, managing weight, planning future, fixing bugs, driving in traffic - that’s us?

Chickpet was almost half a km now. He was almost done with his stories.

I said as I got down from the cab –all fine Sir, But you got to give them some credits!!. U make your living only because they gave you an app!! see the app on your phone? They did it. they worked hard, took all stress, fixed bugs. You should give some credits.. no?

Thoooo.. this app??? This gets stuck more than it works.. damn these IT people :/ said my driver. 

Unfortunately it got stuck just then. He had to restart device before he gave us the bill :/ what a timing. /*felt it like a punch on my face, really*/