CHENNAI: Seated in cab aggregator Ola’s office at Ekkaduthangal, we eagerly wait to meet one of their ‘hero cab drivers’. Thirty minutes later, a grey sedan enters the venue, a sari-clad driver parks the car effortlessly, and greets us with a wide smile. “I had an outstation round trip today, from Chennai to Tindivanam and back. I just dropped my customer off,!” she says looking seemingly untired, despite a 11-hour journey, which started in the wee hours.
Meet Jayalakshmi B (35), an Ola cab driver who finds joy behind the wheel. “I don’t get tired; I enjoy driving more than anything. It started as a skill that I wanted to learn, but now it has become my identity. It helps me take care of my family and their needs,” she says.
Jaya’s husband works in the cine industry as a makeup artist and the pay is dicey. “It mostly depends on the projects he gets. Currently I shoulder the expenses of the family. I take as many rides as possible,” says Jaya, who has been associated with Ola for the past five years.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
“We are a family of four and it was difficult to travel in a two-wheeler. I wanted to drive a car and also buy one,” she says. In 2011, after taking driving lessons, she joined as a parking valet with Hotel Savera, and went on to join Ola’s women fleet.
MOTHER OF NIGHT RIDES
With male driver’s swarming the cab industry, Jaya is one of the few women cab drivers in the city, with a competitive edge who takes equal number of outstation trips and night rides. “When Ola introduced outstation trips, I was so excited and I signed up for it. I have travelled to all the states in the south. My longest ride was to Kozhikode,” she shares. Jaya receives the outstation request an hour before the ride. She has never been late. “The requests come at 12 am, 4 am or even 2 am. It doesn’t matter...when you book a ride, I will be there!” She also takes local night ride requests and says she feels good about making women customers feel secure.
RECLAIMING THE ROAD
We hop into her cab and she drives us to her house in Choolaimedu, managing the traffic, quite literally ‘like a boss’. Does she feel safe riding with strangers? “They feel very safe with me. I have never let inhibitions get the better of me and I haven’t had any bad experience so far. Even male drivers I meet, question me in a tone of amusement than dominance. A lot of them share their experiences with me and that makes me a better driver every day,” she says. As she pulls into the parking space of her home, she turns around and tells us that she has seldom come across abuse or troublemakers.
As we enter her abode painted in pale white, with a few racks holding old photographs of the family, Jaya’s daughter Pavithra, and her dogs, Max and Sweetie gleam as they see her. “My daughter wants to become a scientist and my son is in class 11. I want to secure their future. I want them to do what they love and be independent from a young age,” she says.
As a 12-year-old, Jaya moved from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, to Chennai to live with her aunt. “My mother is a fruit vendor and she raised me with a lot of restrictions and conditioning. I wasn’t really independent nor did I interact with people until I got married and started working,” she says. She aspires to travel around the country in her car and teach more women to drive. Before she drops us back, she walks us to a small temple near her house, where she prays before every ride.
“The only thing I miss is time with my family. Rides are unpredictable. I have travelled for one whole week, with occasional phone calls to check on my family. I don’t answer calls while driving so, I tend to miss their calls.”“We miss her when she’s not around. But, she makes us proud everyday and I can’t to wait to learn more from her,” says Pavithra.