The Cab Driver

“Kahan le chaley sahib?” the cab driver said, with his feeble eyes peeping through the frames of his powered glasses. “Hiranandani” I said doubting his skills on his ‘Fiat’ similar to his age and bearing. Well this isn’t just another story, but here is a 70 yrs old cab driver with typical Islamic beard hanging on his wrinkled face. He drove out of the airport, peeping through his bifocal lenses into the racetrack of Mumbai.

I couldn’t help and went ahead askind his age. ‘70’ he said, with sadness in his voice fighting his way through Mumbai cops with typical side caps. The Old man hailed from Allahabad. Moved to Mumbai in 1960s and been driving taxi since then. He has a son for whom he built a house, bought a car and gave him everything in life. ‘But the sad part was that he turned out to be a useless one’ he said with a sigh, his son roams around with local “taporis”(goons), spends time gambling in bars. This left him with no option but to sit on the driving wheels to fetch for himself at this age. “Lucky are those who have kids to look after them in their old age.” He wished he cold be one.

He kept on narrating the stories of Mumbai’s emergence, changes in the systems and roads. The development of High-rises and people moving away from each other. He feels tired to drive in the narrow roads with heavy traffic but he has no choice. He kept narrating me about the roads and for him every Sedan was “Impala”. While comparing the cars on the road he had serious concern for his car. “Fiat sahib will be asked to move away from Mumbai roads, where will I go and what will I do?” He said in despair.

“God has given you mouth, so won’t he give you grain?” I uttered to comfort him. It astonished him seeing my age and brought smile to his face. He agreed and gave in his humble surrender to the mercy of ‘Allah’. He dropped me to the destination and I tipped him for his service. I thanked him to which said that it was his duty to drop his traveler to the destination and I was his responsibility till the end. So much of dedication and belief in his voice reached my heart.

Well just another day but it left me with lots of questions. Standing still amidst the smoke left behind with my luggage, left me thinking what was wrong with generation which is upwardly mobile. Today everyone is forgetting that they have people who have given their yesterdays for our today are being forgotten to fight their own destiny. “If the young only knew; if the old only could”-

There is no support from govt whatsoever for growing numbers of old people in India. Though there are few NGOs , corporate initiatives for the cause but it alone cannot suffice the mammoth population of India. The Government should come up with substantial help for them. Schemes like old age pensions and benefits should deliver with success. We can’t solely blame govt to take initiative but it should come within us. Least we can do is try and take care of our own people and ageing elders around.

May be the coming generation will have something to learn , because remember its our turn tomorrow.

“The youth is not there to stay…remember tomorrow is your day.”