Adios!

So, this is how it ends!

Adios.

As it turns out, all the clichés ever are true!

Life sucks and then you die!

Fin.

A Ride to Remember

I started today with a rather grumpy mood. I felt restless and angry as I set foot outside the home to leave for office. It is not unusual in any sense - I have had such bad starts to bad days quite often. So, what was different today? Nothing. Just another day of not wanting to go to office.

But then something changed. Like every day of running late for office, I decided to take a cab to work. As if that'd have helped! And like every other day, Uber decided to be a bitch with its surge pricing! Half-heartedly, I still chose Uber Pool over the Metro ride, which would have undoubtedly made me reach in time. But I am glad I did!

That uber ride is why I decided to come online today and write a blog post after ages. 

What was unusual about this ride was that the first time in the million year long history of my Uber-ing to work and other places, this was the first time I got a female driver. It wasn't surprising in an "Oh! I didn't know Uber had female drivers also!" way but like I said, unusual. Even though there is nothing misplaced about a female driving an Uber, but it did cheer me up for some reason. This was a 23-24 year old girl Pooja who lightened my mood. Pooja was everything that any of my usual Uber drivers are - grumpy about Pool rides, unhappy with Uber incentives, and of course not cheerful about driving in Jamia. This is going to be another rides that I am gonna write a blog post about, I thought to myself.

Pooja doesn't have a sad story behind choosing to be an Uber driver. She doesn't have an alcoholic father who spends all his money in drinking, or an angry young brother who beats up his wife and mother. Her father runs a small shop in some village of Delhi. Her brother studies in college, while she chose to earn for the heck of it. She is every bit of a common person as anyone who walks around this cosmopolitan city that is Delhi. She drives because this is what she thinks she is best at. She can't imagine herself doing an office job as in her words "I will never reach office on time" and wouldn't like her salary being deducted for a half day. She complains about Uber pool rides because we all know how fucked up their system is! She is as normal as it gets. But if you check out her reviews (or comments or whatever) on her Uber profile, you'll find people praising her for being a woman and a driver along with it. People think it is very brave of her to be doing this. I am not sure if it's brave or a 'new' but it definitely is refreshing. Pooja is as good a driver as you need to be a good Uber driver, and she is rather good at it. She puts all those "women can't drive" remarks to rest! 

During an hour long ride (thanks to all the fucked up ways that Uber pool works), she told me how she thinks relatives are assholes because they take advantage of you and won't return your car even after a week! She showed her anger on Uber because they make you drive around the entire city of Delhi with their fucked up algorithms that decide the route and pick-ups in an Uber pool ride. There was nothing new about these complaints coming from an uber driver, because I have listened to them many many times before. It was however refreshing to have a high spirited girl drive you around the city and setting a new normal.