Indian Samurai इंडियन सामुराई

On a hot Sunday, I hop up in a taxi. All beat-up.

Seeing the driver, old and wizened, hardly able to stretch his stiffened fingers out to hold the wheel, I feel a wave of emotion/compassion/pity overwhelming me. What kind of bitch of a life makes a grandpa older than India drive such a piece of garbage??

I take a photo to share this later – it has become a weird habit to take a picture of people I meet… 

When we arrive, the meter says 7.2 km. From what I remember, it should be around 120 rupees.  Just to be sure, I ask him for the fare. And here, grandpa, with no innhibition, tells me 180 rupees. Whaaaat ?? But no, it’s 120!! Ok, he agrees on 175 rupees. He is definitely playing me… If he takes it like this, I want to see the meter card. He doesn’t have one. But to get rid of me, he now agrees on 155 rupees. I’m now on my way out to ask the next cab for the card. Grandpa is ok for 125 rupees. So can he explain where the 180 rupees come from?? Oh grandpa!!

I get out of the taxi pretty much upset.

But maybe grandpa needs this extra money to feed his 50 grand-grand children??? Pffff…

A couple of months after my arrival in India, I had to take a cab from Mumbai airport to Pune. I was a bit wary of rip-offs but I still got into a taxi that agreed to take me to Pune for 1 500 rupees (an almost decent price).

The same taxi dropped me right outside the airport premises, to another taxi. In a dark lane. This story did not sound too good.

The driver asked me to give him the money and I handled 3 notes of 500 rupees to him. He told me I had done a mistake and given 100 rs notes. Since these notes are very similar and it was very dark, I took 2 notes back and gave 2 new notes of 500.

And he was bald enough to tell me I had done the same mistake again!! I understood he had f… me and turned furious. He did not insist and took me safely to Pune.

Raaaaaaaaaa! That was my first and so far only big rip-off and it taught me to be cautious (not too expensive a lesson at the end…)