Woes of a Taxi Driver

The driver of the cab I boarded last evening was a Muslim guy from Bihar. He had taken me home several times .Yesterday he was heading towards Sector V when he spotted me on the road and stopped to pick me up. I reminded him of his elder sister and thus he felt he was under an obligation to drive me to my destination whenever our paths crossed. As I got off from his cab in front of my apartment like every time ,yesterday also he said “if life remains we shall meet again” .I felt good when he said that .It was a loaded statement and I liked it.

All along my forty five minutes drive in the back seat of his yellow cab I had to listen to his many woes. The prominent amongst those were daily encounters with traffic policemen on duty on the roads of the city, bullying by passengers and the latest the mother of all woes, draconian rules of the new government. Taxi owners and drivers who had voted in huge numbers for the new government were now regretting the loss of communist governance. They were in no mood to compromise and were going to support the forthcoming trade strike called by the leftists in full strength. There was a feeling of betrayal and the general feeling was that the   present government was protecting the interests of the owners and not of the workers. The recent meeting with the transport minister did not leave the taxi unions in a win-win situation and they were sore.  He confided that amongst many other things that were bothering them they were also a bit anxious about attending mandatory classes for drivers being organised by the Kolkata police.

His next story was about how five young men all employees of IT companies had bullied him near Sector V ,  He was called a Bihari and asked to converse in Bangla  .They threatened to kick him out of the state . All this hatred was spilled over a dispute about his refusal to carry five people in his cab. According to the new rules a fine of Rs 3000/- would be levied against any driver carrying more than the stipulated number of passengers per vehicle at one point of time. Now this poor fellow had just stated the fact when the five men challenged him to show his printer enabled meter which was also a new rule. This led to a heated exchange of words when he lost his cool and retorted back that he would have all their legs cut off when they entered his state .Every Hindu male had to visit Gaya once in his lifetime so they were bound to come to his state. When he asked me for my views I had to tell him that both the parties had committed a crime by spewing hatred against fellow countrymen. I am not sure whether he liked what I said.

Acknowledgement (pic above)

http://www.fullstopindia.com/kolkata-taxis-to-get-makeover-new-color-new-rules