seekho

The last post I spoke of how there are a multitude of learnings to be had one one is exposed to as many situations as possible. Take the case of the taxi guy I take when I am in Delhi. Delhi is a notorious city. I distrust every Delhi’ite I meet on the road. Every person is a seen with suspicion for a tourist. In the past I have tried avoiding delhi altogether in my travels. Then I chanced upon one man. Ashok. He runs a private taxi service. He has one Indica. I got him through my office in Delhi. Whenever I am in Delhi I contact him. He is busy most of the time but he ensures that some or the other trusted taxi is at my landing point ready to pick me. Typically in Delhi you would have quite a few hours in between your trains. This is the time to be visiting the monuments that make Delhi the capital of India. The last time he arranged for a taxi to take us around and we got to see Humayun’s tomb and Qutub Minar. This time I had to switch stations between Nizamuddin and Old Delhi. He got me a trusted guy. Since we had 4 hours to kill we took the taxi to Connaught place (now rajiv circle) left the luggage in the car, did some shopping, browsing and eating before proceeding towards our station.
On the way back the train was supposed to come in at 4 am. I called him the day before. This time he said he would be there to pick me. In the morning the train was about an hour late. But on the dot at 4 am, I get a call. It’s him. He is waiting ready at the station. We figure the meeting point at the station. When we do alight and catch him the first thing he asks me is if I am with my family. Then he asks me what time is my connecting train. It’s an 8 am. He doesn’t say anything. We exit old Delhi station and he takes us outside. He shows us Chandini chowk and the various points in Old Delhi. I assumed that was the route, but he suddenly did a u turn and I realized the dam thing was a guided tour. He then went on to Lutyen’s Delhi to show us the parliament etc etc. He asked us if we wanted to have some tea. When we nodded to took us to this special Garhwali guy who is supposedly cleaner. He got special chai made with kum cheeni. He even paid for the chai saying that he is taking us for tea and not the other way around. Then took us further around and onto India gate. “ab time hai saab, gaadi mein ghumon. Station pe kya baithna” why go to the station and wait there. Roam around in the car rather than wait at the station, was his logic. We then roamed around India gate and then he decided that it was time to leave as we wanted to grab a bite at the station restaurant.
All this he did on his own. I had not discussed money or anything with him. I knew the drop was around 400 bucks. All he had to do was drop us off at the station in 15 minutes flat and pocket 400 bucks, but he decided to take us around and show us the place knowing we were wearing our tourist hats. He also had bottled water and biscuits in the car. I looked at jasmine and proudly told her – now you know why I call only this guy, and why I don’t take a dam prepaid taxi.
Needless to add I gave him 500 rupees which meant a 100 buck (25%) tip. I think he expected it.
Ashok is a simple a Himachali man who has understood service. Its common sense. When will we MBA’s see this and get embarrassed.
For those traveling to Delhi and want to use his trusted taxi service here is his cell number – 9971257823. He said he is upgrading to an Indigo in a month’s time.