A Unique Uber Ride to Remember for Life!!

Humanity starts with YOU!!!

Uber! A name which doesn’t require any recognition. The company has revolutionized the taxi business in multiple countries across the world and provided opportunities of good income to more drivers than we can imagine.

I have been addicted to Uber, from the time it entered the Indian market, a few years back. I am their frequent customer since I don’t like driving in the Mumbai city traffic.

I have had thousands of ride over the years with Uber, but none as memorable as this one ride during the lockdown in Sept of 2020. It’s a special one for me, one that I will remember all my life and for some good reason.

It was a Saturday weekend and my wife had planned to go to my in-laws place along with my 1 year old. We had just shifted our in-laws to a nearby location as they required medical attention and their original place was hard to access during the lockdown restrictions.

My mother in-laws was desperate to see her grand child and had requested my wife to bring him along. My wife wanted me to join her for the visit and since it was a holiday, I had agreed.

The real reason for my wife’s request was that, she knew our little bundle of joy generally remains calm in my lap and goes to sleep during travel and for some unknown reason, is at his mischievous best, when he is alone with his mother. Since my city was still on a high risk, due to the growing number of Covid infections, she didn’t want our son to roam around the cab, touching every surface he can see.

My Uber Ride Begins

I booked a Uber at around 12pm so that we can reach the destination during lunch time. The cab came on time for the pickup and my wife ensured that she sprays the disinfectant in every possible corner of the passenger seat, before we boarded and started the ride. The driver asked me, whether I was paying through digital wallet or in cash, to which I told him that I always pay through my wallet as I don’t carry much cash. We started our journey and I was busy with my kid, showing him birds and trees around, and few minutes in the ride, he slept in my lap.

After my kid slept, I started scrolling through my phone, to keep myself busy and the ride ended in about 30 mins.

We got down and joined our family members at my in-laws place and proceeded to have our lunch. We had planned to return within a hour as I had some work on hand. However, as my wife got busy with her family, and I had to excuse myself and return alone as she would be there for a few more hours.

The Ride Back Home | My most cherished experience

I again booked my Uber ride and to my surprise, it was the same driver again. As if destiny has something instored for me. He came on time and was a bit surprise to see me again.

I got in, the disinfectant smell was still strong. I asked him jovially, whether he was waiting for me. He said, he was having his lunch and hence was in the same locality and by coincidence, I was the one whose ride flashed first, when he switched on the app.

He again asked me if the payment would be in cash and I again said that it was through the wallet. However, this time he requested if the mode can be changed to cash. I said a stern ‘No’ and told him that I can’t change the mode and I don’t even have cash. He didn’t say anything and started the ride.

I went back to my phone, trying to scroll through some of my social media pages. Generally, I always like chatting with drivers and listening to their experiences. It keeps the journey joyful and you don’t get bored, waiting in the city traffic, as you get to hear some interesting stories from these drivers. I have discussed almost every possible topic with drivers all these years. But this time, I was silent.

The reason was my past OLA ride (OLA is a competitor for Uber in Indian market) 2 weeks back. I was overcharged for showing humility and that had left a sour taste in my mouth. The car had a puncher midway through my ride and I waited for the driver to replace the tyre rather than ending the ride and moving with another cab. This led to additional wait time being added in my bill and the driver told me to adjust it with OLA support which due to some technical glitch on their app, never got resolved and refunded. This made me feel looted and was one of the reasons for selecting Uber, even though the OLA ride was much cheaper for the same journey.

So coming back to this ride, I was sitting quietly. The traffic was slow moving on the highway due some construction work.

Suddenly the driver’s phone rang. Since he had connected it to his car’s bluetooth, I was able to hear the conversation. There was a lady at the other end who had called up for some pending payment. I could hear the driver requesting and begging for some time. I thought this may be a usual conversation on some financial obligations and went back to my phone.

But suddenly a sentence struck my attention. The lady on the call shouted, “If you don’t pay today, your daughter will not be able to attend classes from Monday. We have given you enough time, now no more extension”. I lifted my head from the phone. The driver realized that I had overheard the conversation and quickly inserted the headphone to continue with the call, which ended after few minutes.

I could hear him murmuring something to himself. I could see the stress on his face and tried to start a conversation with him to understand the issue.

He said, the call was from his daughter’s school. They wanted him to pay the pending fees. He continued, “the government has told every school to stop pestering parents for fees, but these people don’t listen”. I told him to complain, if that is the case. He said, “what’s the point, they will still tell me to pay in future, at a short notice and in addition will trouble my poor kid”.

I guess he was just waiting for me to start the conversation as he continued with his rant in a frustrated tone, “I am an idiot, my wife had told me to put my kid in a municipal school where all our poor kids go, but it was me who wanted my kid to go to a private school, for a better future. I thought I would earn enough with this car, to give my girl a happy life. But I didn’t know that things would take such a bad turn. Firstly, the commissions and incentives were cut by the company, bringing the earning to less than half and now this lockdown completely shut our income. The school also wants us to get a laptop for online classes. Sir, how do people like us arrange for such expensive gadgets. I am still taking the risk to be on road and putting my life at stake but there is hardly any business.”

“I thought I would earn enough for atleast paying the fees, but after paying for the car installments and other loans, there is hardly anything left. That’s why, I have been requesting passengers to give me cash, as the payment from the company takes 2 days. But all rides today have been on wallet”.

Listening to him, my heart sank. I got deeply engrossed in my thoughts and suddenly realized that we had arrived at my home. While getting down, I thanked him for the ride and asked him the name of his daughter’s school. He gave me the name and then suddenly realized that my intentions could be different. So he asked me not to complaint about it to anyone, else his kid would suffer. I assured him that I won’t tell anyone about it and it was just out of curiosity that I had asked for the name.

The Uber Ride Ends, but Not the Story

I sat in my room watching television but my mind was still thinking about the ride and the driver’s conversation. I searched for the school on google maps and found that it was just 2 kms from my house. My wife was still not back and had messaged that she will be taking some more time to leave.

I decided to go to this school and took my bike. In had the name of the driver, as it is available in the ride history. So, I reached the school premises and went to the admin section. I asked the clerk over the counter for information on a kid, whose parent’s name I gave her. She bluntly refused to give any information as I was a stranger. I tried explaining her the reason for my visit, but she was not ready to budge.

Luckily for me, an elderly lady (who I later came to know, was a teacher) overheard our conversation. She came to me and understood the whole incident. She than turned to the clerk and told her to co-operate with me. I asked the clerk, if she can tell me the pending fees. The clerk checked the records on the computer and told me that the man had to pay INR 1200 ($ 16) for the entire quarter.

I pulled out the cash from my pocket and told her to clear the dues. The clerk gave a look at the teacher, who nodded to her in affirmation. She accepted the cash and gave me the receipt. As I was about to leave, the teacher called me and told me that she knew the kid and that the girl was a bright student. She thanked me for what I had done and hoped that there are more people like me. Before leaving I told her to do me a favor, I gave her my number and requested her to call me if such a situation arises for the kid in future. She agreed and gave me her number in return.

I was back home and my wife and kid had arrived. She asked me where I was and I narrated her the entire incident. She was in tears and gave me a hug and appreciated my action. But there was still something which was hurting me from inside. The job was not yet completed. While I had paid the fees, I knew that the girl still wanted a laptop or a tablet for online classes. Now, that was a big investment which would have gone above my budget.

Eureka! A brainwave struck me just in time. I recollected that my niece had brought a new I-pad for herself and was giving her Samsung Galaxy tab to my kid, for which I had refused, as I didn’t want him to get onto to gadgets, at such a young age. I immediately told my wife to call her up and inquire about the same. Luckily for me, it was still with her, in some corner, lying unused. I asked her whether I could borrow it and she agreed after I told her the whole story.

Now, I had to call up the driver to handover the tab to him. But I didn’t have his number because Uber connects you to the driver using the board number. I remembered that I had the teacher’s number. I messaged her to call up whenever she was free and received a call from her at 7pm.

I requested her if the father can be called to school on Monday. After sometime, she called me back to come to school at 1pm on Monday.

I looked at my calendar and adjusted my meetings. My wife wanted to join me, so both of us went to the school on Monday.

I could see from a distance that the man was talking to the teacher. His cute little girl was standing besides him, looking like an angel. As soon as the teacher saw me, she pointed her finger at me and told the man, “ye sahab the” (this is the man).

The man turned with a puzzled look and as soon as he saw my face, folded his hand in namaste position and I could see a tear in his eyes. He was continuously thanking me. All this while, he was wondering, who had paid the fees. And when he saw me, he was full of gratitude and emotions. He told me that he was not able to sleep for 2 nights due to this problem and never had imagined that someone would help him in such a situation. He told me, how relieved he was and promised to repay me as soon as he can. I refused to accept any money from him but he insisted that, he would have to pay, as he wanted to educate his daughter with his hard earned money and not by begging.

In my drive to help him, I guess, I had ignored his self respect and I didn’t want to demean it any further.

So I gave him a suggestion. I told him that my sis-in-law has to travel to office and back every day. In this lockdown, she finds it difficult to find a cab and it is also not safe to get a random vehicle everyday. If he can help her in pickup and drop, that would be great. Also, he can adjust the fare and slowly reduce the debt without any financial burden.

He immediately agreed and again thanked me. As we finished our conversation my wife called the small girl. The man introduced her to both me and my wife and told her to say thank-you to us.

The girl came near and my wife pulled out the tab from her bag and handed it to her. We could see a glitter and happiness in her eyes. But before accepting she looked at her father. The man refused and said that we already done a lot and he can’t expect more from us. Also, he will not be able to pay for such expensive things. I explained to him that, the tab was going to get scrapped, as it was not being used anymore and was of no value to the owner. It would be good that someone could use it rather than lying dead in a corner of the house.

He finally agreed to accept the tab and told the girl to take it. My wife had done a reset and installed all the required apps for school use. Also, we had put some games knowing it was a small kid who was going to use it.

Was it a mere coincidence?

So while my wife was explaining the girl, how to use the tab, I just went out for a cup of tea with this man. On our way, he told me, how helpless he was feeling and didn’t know what to do had I not come to the rescue.

By now I also had my emotions tingling inside me and I became a bit philosophical. I told him, this was not me who did it! It was on our destiny.

It cannot be so much of coincidence. I don’t think so!!

• I travelling alone when the plan was to be with family. Had I been with my kid, I wouldn’t have given much attention to the conversation.
• Getting the same driver again.
• The phone call which came in at the right time. Else, I would never realise the problem this guy was facing.

It all looks like, someone wrote the story and we were just acting it out.

So finally, my wife came out with the girl and we bid each other adiue.

Fast forward to today...

• The man still picks up and drops my sis-in-law to office and back and adjusts some part of the payment by charging less.
• My sis-in-law is happy that I helped her solve her travelling issue.
• I have never received a call from the teacher for pending fees. So I guess the man is able to pay it himself.

My learnings from this experience:

1. Self satisfaction and happiness. This experience made me realise what real happiness is. It helped me understand the true meaning of satisfaction. The value I gained from it was far more than the money paid by me. I got to know the true meaning of life and what is feels to touch someone else’s life. Its a heavenly experience which no money can buy.
2. Never create stereotypes, every person is different. I was being rude to this guy because I had made a perception for all drivers basis a previous bad experience. I didn’t realize that every person is different. But destiny had its own way of teaching me this lesson.
3. Don’t wait for opportunities, grab it when it strikes. We always try to plan and wait for the right time. Most of the friends I know, want to do good to the society but feel that they should wait more and save a sizable amount to donate. But a good deed need not always be pricey. A help can go a long way in changing someone’s life.
4. Karma is for real. Karma symbolizes the proverb, “As you sow, so shall you reap”. A good deed helps in strengthening your bonds with others and gains you respect. It ultimately results in the same good, coming back to you, when you are in need.

Conclusion

You don’t need to read big books or listen to great leaders or Gurus for gaining life lessons. I have been learning about life, more from real life experiences rather than anywhere else. My first meaningful learning was from a street vendor, an experience I shared in my first story “1 Hour Business Lesson from A Street Hawker” and this one is from a Uber driver.

Thank you for your valuable time. I hope, even you would have gained something from my experience.