Here i am !! Sweating in a black taxi

Well let me take you to the start !!  Where it all begin.

It was a chilled out day in Mumbai ,morning was refreshing. I was on my first visit to the bolly city. My presence here was to motivate my nephew,but I ended up being motivated. Let's get there a little later.

So the fresh morning had a fresh plan, to visit mata temple at virar. The plan sucked to the core as we ended up visiting just the foothills and not the temple. That journey was filled with so much dust and sweat though.

Little later we were back all set to go back to the base. Remember this point,we had a taxi booked from taxi4sure.com. The taxi was confirmed and we ready to roll. At 5:00 pm , 30 mins before the arrival, we were informed that no taxis were available. Let me again tell you, it was virar 60 km away from airport and 80 km away from railway station.

The air was filled with frantic phone calls to and fro, with taxi guys and with no success. All they do is apologize for their mistake, least understanding the inconvenience they have caused. When asked if they are ready to take the responsibility if I miss the train or flight ? They couldn't even say yes. Well that ended the conversation. Now the alternate way of travel was being sought and discussed. A decision was made to travel by local train, considering a lot of variables. We had other options at hand but none were chosen considering the number of people we were.

A sedan would have done the job and travel a lot less intimidating , but considering other family who accompanied us we chose the worst travel route. Although to miss them while entering the torturous 2 hours of the day.

Everything was crammed, packed. Loads of luggage, and some equipment, actually loads of equipment. Roller skates etc. The kid among us had to carry 2 backpacks one on the back and other front.

And at that very moment the kid had a chance to lay his butt on some part of the seat only to be made stand by demeaning adults. So it started at virar and met a lot of interesting people , mostly to understand if we are on right track, literally the railway track.

There were varied opinions on where we should be getting down. One guy said it was dadar and other churchgate. Most of the guys were helpful and few even reserving their seats for us to be seated after they reached their destination.

Out of the varied information we received, we kept cross checking with google maps. Always such a saviour. We sticked on to the first laid plan thats chruchgate and to cst.

The mystery was unfolding, then another sms saved the day. A message that my flight is rescheduled.  Ahhhhh what a relief. For the first time i was happy about the delayed flight and it was when i needed the most. A sigh of relief, for i could accompany my sister and kid to the station and travel back to the airport.

After few tense moments and various scenarios running in our head, on what next. We were assured that if all goes well we will reach the destination on time. And the journey progressed, with some empty seats to sit for a while. On reaching the station we got down and rushed towards the taxi stand, but just as we made it, a guy misguided us into the lane where there were lot of taxis but none with drivers. Yes with all the luggage we rushed towards the other side to find a taxi and found a black taxi. On seeing us, he requested more bucks for the luggage, so complied to it. The taxi was so filthy and sticky.On top of everything we were going through, there was a moment of pause to make a decision on whether we should enter the cab. Such was its state.  But again, we had no choice, but to travel in it. Well the first stop was CST and was pretty near to the Churchgate station. I dropped them off and continued my journey towards the airport.

There was plenty of time to reach the airport, but plenty of ambiguation, on which airport to go. So the first thing i asked the driver if he knew the domestic, which he calls as Santa Cruz. while the other Chatrapathi Internation airport, was called andheri airport. He was right on which airport i had to catch the flight, but again as he was referring to places,it didnt resolve my confusion. I called up the Guys at airport to confirm and also a friend. Finally i knew which airport i was going to. Then driver surprised me with element of traffic. Every other second he kept on mentioning the traffic problems, with time passing, his cribbing didnt help a bit. So i resolved myself into starting this blog,slowly drifting into earlier moments of the same day. 

I forgot to mention about the beach ride we had the same day. We had this 4 wheel drive atv quad bike rides on beach, so i started drifting into those fun moments we had, thus returning myself into normalcy.

Finally we reached the airport and he looped twice to reach the departures, such was his brilliance.

After getting down, he started demanding more money as an addition to the luggage cost he demanded before the start of the ride. I was about to thank him for making it on time, but pretty pissed of with his behaviour. I gave the right amount and continued towards entering the airport.

From then on it was smooth, till i reached bangalore.  Then unfortunately a crazy idea hits me and with a lot of hope, i travelled to the bus station to take a ride to my home and at 2 am in the morning. As written on the website, if the service was for 24/7, i would have had a good journey, but it wasnt. And there was one last bus and it was travelling to some place near to my place, but not close enough to walk. i took the bus ,just hoping to see what would happen. Fortunately, the bus guy stopped at an auto stand. Further i took the auto down to my place. It was pretty cold in bangalore and i was literally freezing. 

Out of all this mayhem, i decided to track where the auto wala is taking me. So had my google maps on and tracked the distance and route. The auto clocked 20 kms while google maps shows 12 kms for the same route. I was not in a position to have an argument with him, but atleast i wanted to see if he feels guilty.

A weird argument started and he keeps saying that both are computers and both are correct. On asking how, he said he don't know how both works, but both are correct. He actually wanted twice the meter charge as it was too late. I would have happily given the demanded money, if he was ethical. So i decided to leave the shitty person to his fate and payed him and moved on. These happened in a single day.

First it was the big league taxiforsure, which caused the problem. He either have to have service like call on demand, like UBER or something like meru owning few cars,to provide service through them when booked earlier or in advance. Instead he wanted the best of the both without owing a fleet, thus cancelling the rides, just few minuted before the journey, incase there are no cars available at that point of time. Coming to taxi guys, they operate 3 services in one go. They are registered to UBER,OLA and taxiforsure. Which ever has the best ride, they choose to go with it. Thus further degrading the service or new model chosen by these service providers.

Second the other taxi guys 2 tier and 3 tier like black taxis etc always try to fool the customers,by taking longer routes,tampering the meter and demanding extra money for stuff which should be accommodated like luggage. 

Third the great autos, they already charge a bomb and on top of it tamper the meter and also demand much more than what it actually is.

Fourth these bus services, run by govt or private are never on time or as detailed on the website. There is always a miscommunication.We cant really rely on them.

In all of them there is no possible way a normal citizen can travel in these services without a occurrence of discomfort, frustration and on top of this, safety, especially for women. 

When and where can we expect the change to start ? i believe its all in the mindset. The mindset to extort money from others. The care a shit attitude towards fellow human beings.

No one is perfect, but a little care and love towards fellow humans around us will bring the much needed change we all expect.  A classic example on this is what we see on roads everyday. Nobody cares a shit about traffic rules or the people going on the other side of the road. Everybody just swarms around blocking the routes. Care a little for the fellow passenger and let them pass, it makes us feel better and relieved from all the traffic frustration we accumulate. 

Peace !! 

#troubleDiaries