#MyCabbieTale: Here's How An Uber Driver Taught Me To Appreciate Small Things In Life
ItimesUpdated on Jul 05, 2016, 18:03 IST
Travelling a distance of almost 23 kilometers in a city like Mumbai, which never sleeps, is a he task in itself. While it's just a matter of one and a half hours of travel, but with Mumbai traffic, it takes almost double the time and when the monsoons hit us, no need to even imagine our plight, for you might not understand unless you experience it. So after trying to book a cab since an hour, I finally got through this gentleman who was a little far away from my location. What took me by surprise was the way he spoke to me over the phone. I was pretty irated with the way others cancelled my bookings and spoke to him a bit rudely, but little did he care about my tone and was very soft spoken.
The moment I asked him where he was, and he told me his location was a little far away, I was prepared to give him a mouthful, but then he immediately said that he will come as soon as he can to pick me up. So after waiting for 15 minutes, he arrived and greeted me with a smile that made me just forget about my temper, "Good Evening, Ma'am. Sorry that I'm late but there was a massive jam nearby". He got off the car realising that I have a lot of baggage with me and opened the door like a complete gentleman.
Since I was already drained out, I just planned on dozing off in the cab, but then Akbar started to get all chatty. I wasn't really in a mood to hear about the things he was saying, but then the way he spoke about the little pleasures and happiness in his life made me curious to know more about him. He hails from a small little town in the interiors of TamilNadu but was born and brought up in Pune. He told me how he misses his native for he has never been there but still feels connected the moment someone speaks in Tamil. He realised my mother tongue while I spoke to my father-in-law over the phone. He is survived by his wife with whom he had a love marriage which went through a lot of ups and downs but he never let go off of her as he knew that she was 'The One' for him.
He further told me on how he and his wife have been planning to start a family but he thinks that his earnings are not sufficient and he doesn't want his child to have a hard life. What inspired me the most was the way he was just content with the smallest of things that he has. He repeatedly kept saying, "I never wanted a big house or a car or lots of money. I just wanted to keep my parents and Swapna (His wife) happy. I wake up in the morning and see them and that's all I need to keep going."
To him the cab journey must've been just another drop, but whatever simple things Akbar spoke about made me think about how simple life is and how we can find happiness in the most obvious things. Why do we keep seeking for true happiness when we are always surrounded by it all the time? Thank you Akbar, to have made me realise that true satisfaction comes from within and not from what's materialistic!