Friday, September 29, 2017

Musa Qadri - Being Good, Rickshaw Driver, Mumbai

In search of the divine, we lose ourselves, when all we need to do is look within!

I was scheduled for a meeting in Bandra,and since I was unsure of parking there I decided to take a rickshaw. I tried hailing one and got rejected by over 10 of them. The sun was beating down and making me anxious as I looked at my watch. A rickshaw driver turned into my building to drop off a passenger. I called out to him, 'Bhaiya, Bandra?' He nodded indicating that he would return shortly and disappeared into one of the wings of my building. Meanwhile, I continued to try my luck to hail down a rickshaw, but to no avail. I covered my head with my dupatta to save myself from the sun and just then a rickshaw stopped on the opposite side of the road and the driver stuck his head out and looked at me, 'Bandra?' Before he could respond, I heard some desperate honking behind me and I see that it was the same rickshaw driver that had gone in to drop off the passenger.
'Madam, I rushed to get to you.'
'Achcha,' I smiled and sat in, 'Pali Naka, Bandra.'
At Star Bazaar on Link Road, he suddenly stopped, and said that he had just seen his brother and had to say something important to him - he said he'd take 2 minutes. I got irritated as I didn't want to get late so I said, 'Jaldi kariye bhaiya.'
I checked my message feed and browsed around, and then after over 5 mins I looked around for the driver - he was chatting a good distance away, with a man on a bike. I half leaned out and screamed, 'Bhaiya!! Late ho haha hai, hum doosra rickshaw le lete hain.'
He frantically waved his hand at me, hurriedly finished his dialogue that seemed kind of apologetic from a distance and scurried back to take his seat and get on his way, 'Sorry Madam. Boss tha mera.'
We had barely gone some distance when my phone rang out.
'Hello Priya, sorry but we will have to reschedule. Can you make it tomorrow?'
'Oh ... okay sure. Same time?'
'Yes same time, same place.'
I hung up feeling disheartened and then called out to the driver, 'Bhaiya sorry, wapas le lo.'
The driver started laughing - 'Arreyyy Madam, kya hua?'
'Cancel ho gaya meeting.'
'Madamji lagta hai uppar waale ki yahi ichcha thi ki hum dono na jayein. You were not getting a rickshaw and my boss didn't want me to go to Bandra and then you got a call to cancel. Jo hua achcha hi hua.'
We both laughed out aloud and he then said some amazing truths about life and more shared in the video below - Musa Qadri - Huge respect for your spirit and intelligence  #ilovemumbai #rickshawdriver #incredibleindia #beinggood #goodnessstories 
Do check out the video too!


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