"Office madhun nighaaloy, gaadi chalavtoy..."

 "Office madhun nighaaloy, gaadi chalavtoy..."

..said the Uber driver over the call to someone in Marathi. ["I've left from office, driving right now"].

On 17th of the last month I was trying to book a cab to visit a few friends. As usual, the first cabbie called and asked my destination and cancelled the trip. Luckily, the next cabbie did not cancel. I had read in the news then that OLA and UBER now show the destination to the drivers so that they need not call to ask for it and then cancel if they do not want to go there.

As soon as I sat in the cab, I asked the driver if the feature was enabled for them as I was surprised at the prior cancelation. "Sir its only enabled for drivers with a good rating. I could see your destination, maybe the prior cabbie could not" he guessed.

I could see the cabbie was well dressed and looked well educated. Around half way thru the journey, he got a call. It was probably from his wife or mother and I heard him say what I quoted above. I was a bit intrigued. "Do you also work somewhere?" I enquired. "Yes sir, I work at a chemical firm. Throughout the pandemic I went to work daily. In my profile one cannot work from home. We supply chemicals to many government firms too. I had taken this car on a loan and given it to a cab driver for some extra income but then the driver was taking too much money and was causing damages to the car so eventually I let him go. Then the pandemic struck & the car was lying idle and had to be used. So instead of going to work on my bike, I started taking this car and started taking passengers via OLA/UBER on my way to work and back. A year back my wife lost her job. We have a kid whose education is to be planned and we already have some liabilities. So I started driving the car as a cab 2 hours before office and 2 hours after office on weekdays and then I drive a bit on weekends. It's better than getting up late in the morning or going home and wasting time watching TV. This way my car gets used and I am able to pay off my liabilities and save for my kid's education as well." he said.

At that moment, this scene and line (shown in the image) from a show ( Fargo S02E10 ) I had seen exactly 6 years back on Dec 18th 2015 came flashing to my mind like an outcome of a successful =vlookup() function. The lines on the image have nothing to do with my viewpoint about men v/s women, so please do not read too much into the word "men". It's just a line that had stayed with me since I heard it and it's so apt for so many men and women out there. While some of us may be trying to cater to our needs from the upper half of Maslow's hierarchy, most people around us are probably still struggling to cater to their basic family needs and yet trying their best to move up the pyramid graciously.... and am sure they all see it as a privilege and not a burden.

Click Here to read this on Linkedin.