Shuttle driver #17 - A driver who moved a dump truck!

This tale is pretty much a very old one. I have traveled in office shuttle many a time after I started working. So one such tale is this probably from early 2008, may be Jan or Feb. I used to travel to Sarjapur using office shuttle.

This vehicle was a Swaraj Mazda a 22 seater probably a bigger one. Once what happened was while passing through ISRO layout, there was another vehicle blocking the road and hence we had no option but to come to a halt. Our driver did honk two times, but the other driver was nowhere to be seen.

It was a truck which was blocking the way and the owner of the truck was working hands on in the neighboring empty plot of land. So can you take a guess what was the vehicle and what was the driver doing and how we finally got to move?

The truck blocking our way was a dump truck used to collect trash and the driver was hands on digging into pile of trash adjacent to an empty plot. He signaled our driver to wait for few minutes before he would move his vehicle. Since it was early morning he was expecting our driver to wait. But our driver instead chose to move the dump truck himself. He argued that he had the licence to drive a truck and had driven a truck before.

I agree to this logic of having licence and thinking about moving a truck. But how many of us would do it, that is move a garbage dump truck, given the fact that we have a valid licence. He moved the truck few meters and cleared the road and came back looking like a man who had achieved something! (no hint of sarcasm please).

This is one such cab tale from a while ago!

And by the way, was I judgmental? Never mind!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #16 - A driver who used to drive an ambulance

I have not written about cab driver series for quite some time, the reason being, we are having a steady driver for over 6 months. Well the reason for having steady driver is, nobody is ready to ply towards Kengeri from marathahalli. Current driver stays at Bidadi so its easy for him to drop us and head home.

The biggest irony is, we have had a steady cab for 6+ months, but there is unsteadiness at workplace. Few people have been deboarded and many people have left or leaving. Its sad to see so much of turmoil at workplace, and believe me its going to continue into the new year.

The current driver drives a Toyota Etios sedan. Previously he tells us he has driven an Ambulance (Maruti Omni). His driving style is the most disastrous of all (till date) and its more or less a pain to sit in the cab.

But we save 20 odd minutes each side owing to this reckless driving. But listening to so much of honking experiencing this much of braking leads to nothing but absolute frustration.

Why haven't I told him to drive carefully? Well, I had a fight with the cab driver, supervisor and few other people, and ever since then, I just shut my mouth in the cab and sit!

Reason for fight, I generally come late out of office usually 8 15pm and one day it just led to a heated argument and I just gave it back to my director,

that's it. So nothing special to write about this driver,

Cheers,

Motivation for writing about cab/shuttle drivers and about tales from travel

I have been writing about cab drivers and tales from travel, wonder what motivated me to write about it. I am not sure, I have really opened up about that, if not, I guess time is ripe to let it out before I forget and it takes months together.

Reasons include -

• Increasing number of posts.
• Getting the number up with burst of short posts which take lesser effort than long story telling, well, that is my motto.
• Interesting encounters
• There are tonnes of interesting encounters which I had in the last couple of years owing to travel, writing would end up in a book for that matter.
• Getting to know myself
• Writing opens up more info about oneself than anything else. 
• Experienced hands.
• Meeting different people, not only gets their culture going, but also lets out their experience speak. People who are driving vehicles for large part of a decade, the problems they have encountered, what makes them click, its all part of learning curve.
• To write about uncommon things
• Who could have imagined, writing about travel/tale experiences would lead to recollecting and reminiscing so many funny and awesome incidents.
• Its not everyday that I tend to notice intricacies involved in other activities, like travelling.
• Sometimes, we are so much head over heels about our jobs or profession that, we fail to notice, other people too, what value add they bring to our ecosystem. Like the guide for our treks, porters, helpers, these people come in handy when it requires the most.
• I think, meeting them, interacting with them, opens up a whole new box of knowledge which ceases to exist within books.
• Experience is a great teacher and believe me, their experience just shows.
• Reading books and gaining a degree is one side, braving a real storm is another!
• Met drivers who were themselves ace mechanics.
• Met drivers who drove from Bangalore to Bihar/Assam/Kolkota on trucks/car/pickup.
• To add later

As of now can recollect these points, but sure shall add more,

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #15 - A driver who previously drove a truck, 10 wheeler

As I try to do multiple tasks at the minute, I recollect having a wonderful shuttle driver recently. Once in a while we do have shuttle drivers who have driven exceptional vehicles. From an ambulance to a, soda bottle carrying 6 wheeler, and now a proper 10 wheeled truck.

So, this driver, was a temporary one, probably for an evening's drop. He was around 5 ft and looking very slim. He started out with the vehicle in a very rough way. I mean it crossed potholes rather hurriedly. I was quick to assume that the driver had poor visibility and thought he was in a haste.

Then, since the vehicle as pretty new, we asked the driver about its ownership details. He told us it was his own self vehicle, and a week old, thats it. So we asked him what was he driving before and what made him buy a new vehicle.

Considering, he was so slightly built, I some how got a feeling, he was probably driving a 6 wheeler, but the real surprise came when he said, he owned a 10 wheeler Leyland truck on partnership with one more person and had run into loss. His family feared accidents would happen while driving a truck and hence scaled him down to a Tata Indica.

Its not very often we get a driver who responds to our question and has previously driven a truck. So the conversation began with a small hint that the driver was eating betel nut and gutka / zarda whatever. It somehow turns out people from North Karnataka eat pan masala gutkha while drivers from South Karnataka smoke cigarettes. The pattern is consisent.

Over here too, it matched, the driver was from Raichur and had been in Bangalore for over 15 years. For the good part of 6 years, he had owned and driven a truck and prior to that, he had joined as helper for a MAN Truck. I wonder, MAN Truck existed in India 6 years back? Need to check on that.

So we asked where all he had been his truck and about his bad experiences while visiting other places. He had been to Bihar, Assam from Karnataka and had carried loads of potatoes, onions, groundnuts and few other things for that matter.

Regarding bad experiences, he told he was robbed of his stepney in Mumbai once and nothing else. He also insisted he carried less money and had only a ATM card with money, so he felt very secure.

We also spoke about Tata trucks versus Leyland trucks. I was under the impression Leyland was in huge demand and performed better. But he corrected me saying, Tata trucks were better off pulling heavy loads when compared to Leyland. I'm sure its individual perception, but still, TATA has a loyal customer in him, even though he owned a Leyland truck.

There goes one more driver intro, almost 5 months have passed since I have written about the driver series, the reason being we had consistent Toyota Innova cab till March.

Cheers,

PS - Now back to some reading!

Shuttle driver #14 - Driver who drove the same car for 11 years and still counting!

Finally the jinx was broken. We had a good Toyota Innova cab doing duty for the last 5 months and now all of a sudden due to cost cutting, we have moved back to Non AC cabs, like Indica Sumo.

The Kengeri route shuttle ever so remains so skeptical, that, we wonder each day, whether it will be a 4 seater or an 8 seater.

Each day a new cab, yesterday was no difference. We had a cab and finally talking to the driver, we came to know, he was driving for the past 25 years!

Starting from truck/bus/Tempo traveller, now to a 4 seater cab. The thing he said was he was the single owner/driver for the vehicle, which he had since 2005.

Yes 11 years, driving a single vehicle. I asked him, did you not get bored driving the same vehicle, wanting to move to a higher capacity vehicle.

He replied saying, he also owned a Tempo traveller, which he would drive once he got bored, next weekend he had a tour Kerala side!

So asked him about vehicle engine repairs in the last 11 years, for which he said, engine was re-bored, with piston changes, engine head, camshaft changes after 5 Lakh kilometers. The car had done, more than 8 lakh kilometers in the last 11 years.

The driver told, whatever he had earned today,was because of this vehicle. His savings in the last few years were all attributed to this vehicle. The way he said was very emotional indeed!

By the way, I forgot to mention which vehicle was he driving. Do I need to? It was a Tata Indica of course!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #13 - Driver who drove us down a memory lane!

So, now that we have a regular cab/shuttle fixed on our route, we are no more worrying about daily changing drivers and vehicles!

Our routine driver took a day off and instead sent across one of his friend. His vehicle was none other than the legendary Toyota Qualis. The production of Toyota Qualis stopped around 2004 or early 2005 which is almost a decade back.

So whenever we encounter a Qualis as one of our shuttles all of our cab mates get very curious and start asking questions to the driver.

The questions range from how many kilometers has the vehicle done, is the engine opened for repair once or is it still sealed, how many times the clutch plate has been replaced, how many drivers/owners etc etc.

So this appeared to be the second case where the qualis was driven by a single owner since purchase. Yes please, I was surprised when he said that. But appears to be true.

Here goes the answers to the questions what we generally pose.

- Single owner
- Date of purchase - December 2004.
- Original kilometers - 7,37,000 - yes 7 lakhs 37 thousands.

What was the icing on the cake was, that the driver told that, he used to do pickup/drop for Symphony Services located at Cessna business park in the year 2005. Well, back then foundations of other buildings were being laid was I guess, this was the only operational unit out there.

Back then there were no flyovers and underpasses and only congestion could have been KR Puram or Kundalahalli Bridge. On a very good day, Marathahalli to 4th block Jayanagar took 45 minutes only.

It was all retro rewind with this driver! Since he is a replacement driver he will off after couple of days.

Cheers,

PS  - I am still surprised on how a person could drive a same vehicle for 10 years without an upgrade. may be he has other vehicles back home!

Shuttle driver #12 - Driver who didn't need a rear-view mirror

In the cab driver series of posts, I can recollect one more driver, something was very strange about him and his vehicle as well.

He used to drive a Toyota Innova, which had done more than 1.5 lakh kilometers, but was in almost mint condition, almost zero rattling. But one weird thing was, his vehicle had no rear view mirrors none to the left, none to the right. I can never imagine driving a vehicle without rear view mirrors. I can probably do that, with Maruti 800 or Alto, but anything which is sizably bigger needs a rearview mirror, especially the one on the left, because that is where the 2 wheelers overtake us from!

But this guy was so comfortable driving without rear-view mirrors, it came as a surprise to us, not as a shock. One advantage of not having rear view mirrors on Innova is that, you drive it so closely in traffic. You can just drive it like a car, penetrate through smaller sections without much hassle.

With a couple of rear view mirrors I am sure, it slows you down, because on smaller roads, the judgement needs to be perfect, so generally, you dont take chances, either you slow down or completely halt. But without rear-view mirrors, man, you can drive it so close!

I learnt that, but seriously, it comes with a cost, of course!

Sadly, he lasted probably 3 days, may be 6 trips, thats it! He was more of a tourist driver than a office pickup/drop!

Cheers,
PS - Regarding driving without rear-view mirrors, well thats limited to Maruti 800/Alto, which I have driven not more than 10 kilometers. So my experience without rear-view mirrrors is almost nil.

Shuttle driver #11 - Driver who formally retired

We were on the lookout for shuttles as well as drivers. On one such occasion, we came across a driver, who was ready to drive us to office. Loads of things happened during this period. He became one of our good friends, but in the end, he formally retired from professional driving, instead choosing other business!

Few things which happened were -

1. He drove a red colored vehicle. Normally we never see a taxi which is red colored. But this one was, he told it was his lucky color, even the seat covers were red!

2. He once told about an incident, when he had driven an ambulance all the way from Bangalore to Nagalapuram (AP) and then to Hassan. The way he told the story of what had happened, it just sent chills down our spine. I cannot even think of writing what happened and about his experience when driving the ambulance and for what purpose.

3. He also told about one occasion, where he had gone to a high profile wedding and I cannot write about that one too over here!

But his stay was also quite short as he chose to do business instead of driving vehicle. As a result, we ended up losing contact with him!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #10 - Driver from Madikeri

We had one such driver, who belonged to Madikeri. He too came on for a short duration. He was willing to continue for longer duration.and gotten attached very much to all of the cab mates, but unfortunately, owing to his health condition, he was advised a month's rest and there after we never got to hear about him.

I hope he is fine these days. Few things happened during his tenure as a cab driver too. Regarding his family, he told they owned some acres in Madikeri. His father had served in the armed forces and retired, while his brother was still in the army.

- Once his mother had came all the way from Madikeri, his mother had brought some herbs from the forest and cooked Sambar out of it. He had brought this sambar for us to taste. It was the first time in the history or since my childhood a driver had fed his home cooked food. It always used to be vice versa.
- Most of the time, we had shuttles/vehicles confirmed but drivers used to abscond. But this time, the driver was very much willing to continue, but there came a day, when the vehicle which was assigned to our route was put up for sale. The travel company itself was selling its vehicles off. But even before this sell off happened, the driver just retired due to health reasons.

Sad ending to a budding friendship, never mind.

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #9 - Driver with a criminal backdrop!

Well, this one's sure gonna take time. Probably, I will be snoozing by the time I finish this post.

Yes, its true, sometimes, we cross roads with people who have had criminal records. It was one such case, and its almost 1 year to this day, we had met that driver. There were multiple things which happened during this period and multiple hidden stuffs came out of the closet.

This driver was a married man. infact he had fell in love with a relative of his and married her. But things took a different turn, when his wife asked him to leave his mother and stay separately along with his kid. But this chap, who was more attached to his mother, decided to leave his wife at her father's place and was staying with his mother instead. [May be for sometime, not sure]

One on such occasion, when things got worse, he felt like committing suicide it seems. But he did not do so, instead he went and told his wife about his worry, when she too told him that, she was contemplating suicide. I was shell shocked to hear this. But in the end, its by God's grace, who put some sense into their fried brains that they did not take any wrong decision.

The criminal backdrop with this driver was that, he was questioned by the police for being a notorious rowdy, which I felt a little strange, because, this person never lost his cool and was pretty much smooth going. He told, when he was questioned, it had a deep mental and psychological effect on his mother, which he regretted badly.

But the biggest disaster happened on one such day while returning from office. I myself had a very tough month of October 2014. Things took a different turn for me during that month, inspite of that,I was somehow chugging along. One one such night drive, a drunk two wheeler driver all of a sudden came head on with our office shuttle. The driver sensed this and took a immediate left, because of which the two wheeler brushed the vehicle driver side mirror so hard and fell off. The mirror broke and since I ducked a piece of it came and hit on top of my head. It was not a major impact. but the drunk driver of the two wheeler, was on the ground, with people surrounding him. He was mildly hurt and managed to go away. And regarding the cost of the broken mirror, well it came on the driver!

I wish I could have given a bit more description, but believe me, there are incidences about which I prefer not to write at all. But all in all, one more encounter.

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #8 - Driver who used 'Ittar' instead of car perfume!

Its true, we had one such driver. He drove the office shuttle for approximate two days only. But the strange thing with respect to him was that, instead of the car perfume which everyone normally uses, he had refilled the bottle with Ittar.

I was always of the opinion tha Ittar was expensive. But there seem to be various flavors which are available at different prices(I am assuming). But filling up almost 250 ml ittar for usage within the car felt a bit too much.

This driver hated to do local pickups and drops, instead preferred out of town assignments. The day he first arrived, he had driven all the night from Pondicherry and had come with almost no sleep.

But after 2 days he simply vanished, with us looking for new drivers yet again..

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #7 - Driver who busted a radiator!

Well, don't pop your eyes out. The radiator did not split up into two halves, instead just the coolant spilled out on the road, leaving us with an overheated engine!

This particular driver came to our route, just for a single day and that too for an evening drop. He brought his own vehicle with was a Tata Indica pretty old one 2006 model or so.

So if you are wondering, what story is associated with this driver, then here it goes.

- Apparently, everything went fine till HSR layout signal just before silk board junction. But then all of a sudden, there was smoke coming from under the hood/bonnet and there it goes all the radiator fluid aka coolant spilled out on to the road. The car refused to start.

On further examination the driver figured out that, a connection to the cooling fan was lost and as a result, the engine overheated due to the fan not functional. I wonder, what caused the radiator fluid to leak out. Looked like the water pump had failed to circulate the coolant.

So what did this driver of us do, he was a guy around 20 years of age. He used all his skill-set and took a piece of wire and directed the circuit straight from the battery to the fan bypassing the thermostat. ( I assume that's how the circuit ideally goes, with the thermostat notifying the engine temperature causing the fan to run and the coolant to be circulated).

He went to a nearby vendor and brought a bucket full of water and filled the radiator and started the engine. The fan by now had started running on battery power, no needed to start the engine and go by the thermostat to get it running. But the sad part is the water pump refused to work. So we were left with couple of fans to cool the engine down, with thermostat working correctly. So whenever the engine temperature went above a mandated range we would stop and allow the engine to cool down instead of blowing the engine. We stopped a couple of times, but we could get home.

Well, if you are thinking what makes this driver make an entry to this series, let me be bit more frank with you.

- There is a popular website, team-bhp.com where all the so called motor enthusiasts gather to discuss about automobiles. I too had tried to register for that website, back in the year 2009, but I was turned down badly, because, I could not write a proper essay on why I wanted to join the automobile enthusiast website.

 I was miffed for a couple of days, then I went back to the local mechanic near my house and discussed with him on vehicle I was about to buy. Finally I settled with Tata Indica Vista Tdi. But I never registered for that website team-bhp.com again. I was pretty confident that, when I could speak to a local mechanic on car related matter who was a hands on guy, why would I want or wish to register amidst only a bunch of enthusiasts who would themselves turn to a mechanic for their repairs. It was waste of time even writing an essay.

Today, after seeing this 20 year old cab driver making repairs hands on, my stand on that automobile website team-bhp.com stands vindicated. I pride the time where I go about talking to people on the field like drivers, mechanics, instead of a bunch of enthusiasts who know all about theory of vehicles, but need a mechanic to do their repairs, (these guys also know to write an essay too).

And regarding the driver and his car, he was from a village near Tumkur who had come to Bangalore to work hard and earn a living. The car he owned had costed him just Rs 80,000 out of which Rs 40,000 he had paid from his pockets and Rs 40,000 he was on loan, which he was confident of clearing off quickly. (It was a used car of course).

This brings me to the point where in I mention something about Tata Indica and Tata's as such. My current shuttle driver calls Tata Indica as poor man's almond. After reading the above driver's situation, don't you think its 200% true.

Tata Indica has always been a working man's car. That's the primary reason I chose Indica Vista. I had worked hard to save money and I wanted it to put it in a meaningful car. I don't mind if you call it a taxi or whatever, it suits me and I love it, to the core and even if I end up buying a used Toyota Innova, I promise, I have no intentions to sell my Tata car, because I am so much emotionally attached to it.

I would be more than happy if you call me a poor man, since I drive a Tata Indica Vista myself. How I long to write a lengthy post on Tata's. What would India be without the Tata's.

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #6 - Driver who retired from the profession, did he really?

I should rather call him driver #1, since he was the shuttle driver, when I joined this current organization in the month of June 2013. He belonged to a place called Hariseve, on the way to Hassan, and apparently till date, he has been (close to) the longest serving single driver for our route!

There were few weird things about him too.

- This cab was the most dirtiest till date, it was a Tata Sumo manually steered, with almost zero maintenance, full of dust inside, poor suspension, poor state of the vehicle. I wonder, who could look after a cab so badly.

- He turned out to be a relative of the cab owner or rather travels owner.

- After doing duty for close to 2-3 months he was about to retire, trying out in a different profession, though he was just 30 years.

- During his tenure, one of the lady at our office left her gold jewels in the rest room making us go back to office at around 9 15 pm and thus we ended up returning home at around 11 PM. The same lady commented that I had a bad attitude, when I came to the cab late by 15 minutes on two different occasions. What a hypocrite!

- One day during his time, the traffic was held up so badly at Gowdanpalya Padmanabhanagar that, he was on his way to Kengeri for the first pickup at around 10 10 AM, while my pickup at Arehallli was at 9 40PM. So instead of waiting on the road for not sure how long, I hopped on to the cab to go in the other direction of office towards Kengeri and then come back! It was one of a kind day!

- One more thing I could remember with this driver was, his ability to shift gears without using the clutch, I was shell shocked, I had seen this done by bus drivers, but on a Tata Sumo, believe me, it was like the 8th wonder, though, I have never tried this on my vehicle.

- Also, the weird thing about this driver was, he used to drive in all the wrong gears, moving the vehicle from second gear, driving in 4th gear at speeds of 20kmph using the clutch.. It was a nightmare for the cab members as by doing this the pickup just went bad, making us all very impatient.

- This driver also told one very weird incident at his native village, where oxen (alpha male fully grown bull oxen) were sold for more than a lakh rupee and once, an oxen was killed by a predator and had eaten the kill to the half. He told the villagers had injected tranquilizer into the partially eaten dead animal and how the predator had been caught, when it came back to finish the oxen. Man, some people really have stories and experiences to share!

Never mind, it all got over one fine day and then started the never ending issue of finding a permanent driver for the Kengeri route, which to this day, persists!

Cheers,

PS - After that comment on my attitude by that lady, I stopped speaking to her afterwards. Not only that, I stopped speaking to any and every lady in my office. I have maintained this even to this day and speak to none. Only occasionally when I have to submit by expense bills to the HR or get a photocopy done, I speak to the concerned ladies.

Shuttle driver #5 - Driver who did not see a road divider in the dark!

Driver #5, is a very recent one infact, he was doing duty just few weeks back till date. He came as driver for our office cab for 4-5 days after which we got a new cab altogether. Couple of strange things happened during this 4-5 days as well.

To start with he was another guy who was 5 feet tall, fairly short and used to drive a Toyota Innova. Visibility to him was fairly poor, and one thing I observed was, he used both of his hands to drive the vehicle (I meant on the steering wheel). When he shifted gears, he quickly got back his left hand on the steering wheel (almost within a flash).

So whats so queer about this guy you may be wondering.

- While taking a right turn somewhere near Jayanagar 5th block, this driver, did not notice a road divider in the dark due to his visibility owing to his height and as a result, the front vehicles nearly missed coming in contact with the road divider, but when he swerved right, the vehicle hit the road divider and got stuck. Though the damage was minimal, it was stuck,with front wheel in the front of the divider and back wheel behind the divider. We retrieved the vehicle and continued.

- One more incident that happened during his stay was, at Kadirenhally, when there was a BBMP election promotion, people were asked to move quickly to make way for the people. Our cab stalled at this very place and few people managed to give it a push to a road side. We managed to start it, the fault was owing to a faulty electrical connection, owing me to write a post on " how to shame a toyota innova "

And this driver was from Kukke Subrahmanya and I asked him, if he had ever climbed Kumaraparvata. The answer was negative!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #4 - Driver who faced road rage!

This one particular driver came to our route, with a Tata Sumo, manual steering (non power assisted). He was a very slim build and used to be pretty confident on his driving skills. There were few highlights of this driver too.

- Once the vehicle got punctured at Channasandra and there was no spare wheel and the driver did not have money to get the tyre fixed too! He borrowed money from our colleague!

- Once while driving at Chikkalsandra, the vehicle ran out of fuel. The gas station was 1 kilometer backwards or either 3-4 kilometers forward. This driver jetted the fuel like people do it in a keroscene stove and started the vehicle, we managed to get it running and went back 1 kilometer to get a refuel done.

- Once this vehicle met with an accident at Channasandra and the travels guy refused to pay money to the other party resulting in a road rage, where in the resident of Channasandra threatened to pelt stones at this vehicle if it passes through the Channasandra road again!

- Above all, this driver let me drive the Tata Sumo, and I did drive it, without a right side rear view mirror, I drove with my left hand on the steering wheel and right hand perched on the door signaling outside, the moment I made it to uttarahalli curve, I could not manage the non power assisted steering with a single hand and had to use both of my hands though to make the turn!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #3 - Driver who charged extra for a blood donation detour

After the driver of the red Chevrolet Tavera absconded, our immediate replacement cab was another Chevrolet Tavera, this time a white one. So during this time, it happened so, we had to go for a blood donation drive to BGS Hospital Kengeri, for an immediate blood donation.

So all of our cab members decided to donate blood that day and after picking up everyone, instead of going to office, we took a detour to BGS Hospital Kengeri.

But we failed to convince our driver to take us to the hospital instead, he was quite relentless on going to the office only. Finally we had to pitch in with Rs 300 in order to convince the driver to take us to the hospital and made him wait for the entire 40 minutes duration while we completed the blood donation process.

While coming stopped at Kanti sweets Chikkalsandra and cabmates ate to their tummy full. Incidentally I was on diet that time was well, so had to fend myself with minimal dose of juice. That day was April 2014 and it still echoes in my head to this day, regarding what was the need for immediate blood donation.

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #2 - Lending money to a driver who absconds!

I faintly recollect only a single driver from my previous workplace, because rest all served for a day or two and also, few of them were brought on a per day basis, who were full timers with other companies.

This particular driver, came to our office duty with his own Red Chevrolet Tavera, it had clocked 1.5 lakh kilometers on the odometer and was pretty decent in maintenance. After doing duty for about a week the driver was unpaid, which resulted in the driver asking us Rs 500 towards diesel on one fine day. I gave the driver the money, since couple of others did not acknowledge.

To our surprise, the driver got the payment for his week's effort that very day and can you believe the first thing he did after that, was to abscond! Luckily, the transport team had with held, Rs 500 and gave it back to me, few days later though!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #1 - Who says short people cannot drive heavy vehicles!

Driver #1, is an interesting character, he was about 4 feet 5 inches only, and very slim build, yet he managed to drive a Tempo Traveller. He used to drive as if there was no tomorrow!

I wish I had a picture of him, there were few very strange or queer things about him. Eventually after driving for close to 6 months ( I guess) he just vanished. I hope he is doing good, I haven't met him, since I too changed organizations and this was the year 2012.

Few strange things were!
- He was about 4 feet 5 inches and when he sat on the driver's seat, he was literally invisible. His shoulder was literally invisible from the rear seat, meaning it would hide behind the back rest. He was that short!

- Once another driver asked whose the driver of our route shuttle, so we replied saying the short guy, to which the other driver said, oh that guy, the one who is going to marry a second time! We were shell shocked, we never asked him about his family, but this was altogether a big surprise! The other driver also said, he had signed divorce papers with his first wife and was ready to take a plunge the second time! He was also jealous, how did the short guy could manage to do it 2 times?

There is a saying in Kannada, "Kallranna nambudru kullranna nambabaradu" which roughly translates to, "Even if you end up trusting a thief, never end up trusting a short guy". It looked like this age old saying came true for the nth time as well.

- He always used to eat gutkha, and finally one fine day, there was a complaint against him by one particular senior employee, that he was drunk while driving regularly. Eating gutkha was to mask the bad alchohol smell! This probably led to him being taken out!

- One more one of a kind instance I can recollect was, he was the one and only driver, who slept off at the steering wheel at a traffic junction. JP Nagar Sarakki signal used to be heavily crowded during that year and at 6pm it was a nightmare crossing the same. It was one such day, while driving all the way from ITPL this guy took a nap at the signal. But somehow got up, because of the honking of the vehicles behind us! No damage done, since it happened at a stop position.

I wish to name him, but never mind, I can any day recollect his name, and after all, its only me who reads this blog post, so, it hardly matters, what I decide not to mention!

Cheers, 

Office shuttle (cab) driver series - Prologue

I may be out of my senses for posting this series on our office shuttle drivers. I have been travelling long distances since quite a few years, and many years of which I have used office shuttle including the current one.

So I have come across multiple drivers, operators, vehicles, loads of interesting encounters with strangers who later became friends and then lost them in this wild wild world. I sincerely hope and pray, many of them have found better future for themselves.

I think they are a quintessential part of Bangalore development, without whom, the so called skilled manpower of Bangalore would be of rendered useless to the APAC and Euro community of course! (Considering, we stay on one side of the town and to our surprise our workplace is exactly on the other side of the town).

Disclaimer - If you kinda got time to hang around reading all about strangers, its your choice after all.

Mind you, all of the information is accurate, and I aint making up any stories!

Cheers,