It’s wonderful that Bengalureans make the right noises about all the wrong moves planned by the state government. What’s not so great is that citizens are forced to speak up about the same matters time and again, with the authorities just putting in place some ad-hoc mechanism to dim the din. The issue of curbs on cab-sharing is once again rearing its head, and my voice will be one among those joining the chorus in favour of car-pooling.
While safety measures are a valid concern, my experience of depending on app-based cab services twice every working day over the past three years has been quite a smooth affair. Well, the few instances when I was forced to book a shared ride could have been smoother though. The pain when you are the first rider to be picked from Koramangala and dropped to your destination in Yelahanka a good three hours later, after picking up – and dropping – five co-riders on the way, is indescribable.
It’s worse if one of them happens to be ‘let-me-show-them-what-a-top-honcho-I-am’ type, and spends the next 30 minutes balancing the laptop on, where else, but the lap, and shouting loud instructions on the phone to a junior colleague about, what else, but a presentation due the next morning. The ‘I-have-a-flight-to-catch-tomorrow’ comes later, but not before the hurried exit in front of a builder floors apartment in a tiny bylane from where taking a U-turn becomes a 5-minute ordeal for the driver.
No, those (I feel the management schools probably make several of them in each batch) haven’t comprised the worst episodes. There are the ‘let’s-show-them-how-much-in-love-we-are’ couples too, and, of course, there are the ‘we-have-to-plan-the-weekend-party-now-or-never’ youngsters. Once, I even had to endure a touchy-feely five-year-old who insisted on finding for herself how drenched I got while boarding the cab in the midst of a heavy downpour. Worse, I also had to endure the mother who insisted on proudly telling the co-passengers all about the three after-school hobby classes that her daughter attends, and how comfortable she is while speaking English. That’s when the little one started singing nursery rhymes.
I wish the Tumakuru-based advocate who moved the high court last week, filing a PIL seeking direction to the government to regulate the nuisance created by passengers who play music and videos on smartphones, had thought about it a few years earlier. He has my full support.
Thankfully, however, not all shared cab rides have led to unpleasant experiences. I owe my knowledge about various locations and landmarks in the city, which don’t fall on my daily route, to the detours that the apps mark for the cabs. I have also overheard conversations that have added to my awareness about subjects I may never need to turn to, such as the opportunities for Indian medical aspirants in Armenia. And have met some adorable people on the way.
Like the elderly couple who started chitchat in Kannada, and when that elicited some one-word responses from me, went on to talk in chaste Hindi about their long stint in the film industry in Mumbai. Inside stories about Dev Anand, Asha Parekh and Reena Roy followed, and I didn’t want the ride to end. It did, and as I deboarded the cab, they wished me luck, and gave their blessings to my family.