Raj Kumar Singh - Being Good, Rickshaw Driver, Mumbai

While getting off a rickshaw saddled with a few heavy bags last afternoon, I heard a sound of something dropping and so turned to look back into the rickshaw. I checked the seat, the floor and around the rickshaw. Not finding anything and wanting to relieve myself of the weight I was carrying, I hurriedly rushed into my building. It was then that I realised, that it was the sound of my phone that I had heard being dropped. 

I ran, calling out to the receding rickshaw but to my dismay he was far gone despite my enthusiastic sprint. I didn't take the rickshaw number and obviously didn't know the driver's name. I reached home all huffed up and dolefully narrated the incident to my son. We quickly tried calling my phone but it rang for a few minutes and after that a pre-recorded message from the service provider said that the phone was switched off or unavailable! My battery was at 1% before I had got off the rickshaw - so clearly the battery had died out. 

"Don't worry Mama, it happens! Maybe he will call back if he finds it." I rolled my eyes and called my service provider to inform them of the loss so that there could be no misuse of the card. I also took out a spare phone and got a new SIM put into it, which would get activated the next morning as there were some technical errors in the backend. 

So here I was phone-less and going about my evening, when at about 7.45pm my husband rushed into the room saying, "Priya your phone has been found by a rickshaw driver called Raj Kumar Singh, in Bhayendar. Call him back on your own phone number immediately." 

I jumped with joy and promptly dialled the number - it was the same driver that had dropped me off. "Madam, aapka mobile hamaari gaadi ke kone mein mila. Dukaan par aana pada ussey charge karne ke liye kyonki battery mar gayi thi. Lekin ab main Bhayendar main hoon toh aap kal tak wait kar sakte hain, kya? Main aapke paas lekar aaoonga." 

He was unfamiliar with an #iPhone and so had to go to a store to charge it. He then called a random number in my contact list who in-turn gave him my father's number - Papa then called my husband. And sure enough next morning at about 11.15 am he coordinated the address details till Andheri and came by to my building to drop off my phone in perfect condition. 

Three cheers to MH.47.C.2076 and Mr. Raj Kumar Singh for #beinggood <3 #rickshaw #mumbaipublictransport#beinggood #peoplearegood #goodnessstory Priya Sharma Shaikh Being Good

Do check out the video too - 

While getting off a rickshaw saddled with a few heavy bags last afternoon, I heard a sound of something dropping and so turned to look back into the rickshaw. I checked the seat, the floor and around the rickshaw. Not finding anything and wanting to relieve myself of the weight I was carrying, I hurriedly rushed into my building. It was then that I realised, that it was the sound of my phone that I had heard being dropped. 

I ran, calling out to the receding rickshaw but to my dismay he was far gone despite my enthusiastic sprint. I didn't take the rickshaw number and obviously didn't know the driver's name. I reached home all huffed up and dolefully narrated the incident to my son. We quickly tried calling my phone but it rang for a few minutes and after that a pre-recorded message from the service provider said that the phone was switched off or unavailable! My battery was at 1% before I had got off the rickshaw - so clearly the battery had died out. 

"Don't worry Mama, it happens! Maybe he will call back if he finds it." I rolled my eyes and called my service provider to inform them of the loss so that there could be no misuse of the card. I also took out a spare phone and got a new SIM put into it, which would get activated the next morning as there were some technical errors in the backend. 

So here I was phone-less and going about my evening, when at about 7.45pm my husband rushed into the room saying, "Priya your phone has been found by a rickshaw driver called Raj Kumar Singh, in Bhayendar. Call him back on your own phone number immediately." 

I jumped with joy and promptly dialled the number - it was the same driver that had dropped me off. "Madam, aapka mobile hamaari gaadi ke kone mein mila. Dukaan par aana pada ussey charge karne ke liye kyonki battery mar gayi thi. Lekin ab main Bhayendar main hoon toh aap kal tak wait kar sakte hain, kya? Main aapke paas lekar aaoonga." 

He was unfamiliar with an #iPhone and so had to go to a store to charge it. He then called a random number in my contact list who in-turn gave him my father's number - Papa then called my husband. And sure enough next morning at about 11.15 am he coordinated the address details till Andheri and came by to my building to drop off my phone in perfect condition. 

Three cheers to MH.47.C.2076 and Mr. Raj Kumar Singh for #beinggood <3 #rickshaw #mumbaipublictransport#beinggood #peoplearegood #goodnessstory Priya Sharma Shaikh Being Good Do check out the video!

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 <3 #ilovemumbai #rickshawdriver #incredibleindia #beinggood #goodnessstories Do check out the video too!

All the people: Jerry, an angel out of nowhere!

As a child, my oldest memories go back to me testing a shiny new pen on the collared and squiggled pad at neighborhood library and writing neatly in an upward angle and in a front slant perfectly practiced cursive writing ... all the people. I don't know why but I did always write that phrase to test any new writing instrument. As I grew older I would think back and reflect at my wonder years and that phrase would always come to my mind ... I cant seem to trace back to the memory of why I wrote the phrase but I do know that from my youngest times all the people around me mattered ... I wanted them to like me ... and it mattered a lot to me that ALL THE PEOPLE liked me ... and so the bubbly smiley me never denied an onlooker (sometimes even a rank stranger) a smile, or a friend a warm smiley hiiiii! To this date people matter to me and now that I am older I would like to have the thought or the power or the money to make a difference to all the peoples lives...

Thru my life I would have met thousands of people that I have personally interacted with and liked so much ... family, friends, colleagues, business associates, strangers and it is amazing how some people remain close to your heart even though the interaction may have been the briefest as a part of them has remained with me and made me what I am today.

One such person was JERRY ... it was a dark, stormy night as I drove back from work in my good old Matiz feeling not unlike a sardine, packed in the typical end-of-day grotesque traffic snarl of Mumbai ... listening and singing along with mukesh' lilting songs on the stereo and just as I was at a high note, the car reached the top end of the incline on the Andheri flyover and I pumped the clutch n break for the nth time in the inching homeward journey, my car came to a sudden grinding halt!@#$% ... I turned the ignition several times but to no avail ... this cant be happening to me yaar!?! Desperate honking of the cars behind me deafened my ears ... HONK HONK ... %$#@^ HONK HONK ... cars drove past me as I desperately tried all my tactics to revive the engine but as luck would have it my car was stone dead!!! I pulled the hand brake and stepped out of the car into the rain and apologetically waved my hand to fellow sufferers cursing and shaking their heads at me as they sped off on their ways ... I thought hard about how to get out of the situation!? I really didn't know what to do ... I got back into the car and tried to get through to my husband who said that if I could push the car to the side somehow and just leave it there with the emergency lights on we could deal with it later ... it was impossible for me to push the car in this traffic with cars not leaving an inch of space for me to budge + I just didn't have the strength or the skill to manouever the car in the rain at the top of an incline ... Oh God help me please ... Knock knock on my window ... there was someone knocking for me to open ... as I brought the glass down a young boy about the age of 21-22 (I was closing 40 at this time), "Hi my name is Jerry ... I guess you need some help - please put your car in the neutral gear so I can push you to the side" ... There is a God!!! I mutely followed instructions and soon I was successfully pushed to the side of the road ... he then said, "if its okay with you will you let me try to start your car -- you sit in the passenger seat" a thought crossed, 'Should I trust him? Shut up woman ... you dont have a choice' so I moved over and he jumped in and tried his best ... no luck again! He then said, "Wait here I will organise some help for you". Before I could say 'thanks for trying to help' he was speeding down the maze of vehicles ... and I stood outside getting wet craning my neck over the traffic to keep sight of him ... as passersby looked my way ...'tsk tsk ... bechari ... kya hua Madam' ... some gave knowing smiles - but none of them stopped to help! 10 minutes passed and I gave up. I locked the car, took out the deck, car papers and slung my bag to trudge down the hill, 'I guess now that the car is parked on the side we can pick it up in the morning ... ' just then I saw my friend in need rushing up towards me ... he had a mechanic with him who opened the car and said, 'madam battery bilkul gayela hai aapka'. Meanwhile Jerry had disappeared again ... I then saw that a car was reversing up the drive ... it was Jerry! He had parked his car ahead when he saw me stranded and had run back to help me out. He then tied my car' bumper to his car and took the drivers seat while the mechanic drove his car as he towed us all the way down the hill to Juhu Galli. By this time my husband had also arrived. He negotiated with the mechanic and thanked Jerry profusely, But Jerry was not at the end of his angelic self. He then towed us all the way home. I was smitten by his sheer nicety - what a truly wonderful angel he was! I took his number and the next morning I thanked him again. 
Some months later my mobile got lost and with that I lost Jerry' number too; forever. But he has left a huge impression on my life and I often think of him and say a silent prayer that he is well and happy - it does matter to me still that he is well and happy. So saying cheers to your life Jerry and it is because of the people like you that this world is still a beautiful place.