Roaming with bike taxiwalas

It is a boon, of course. Living in the city of Hyderabad which has rapidly seen the vehicular population reach unbearable levels in the last two decades since I decided to relocate to it, like me, everyone would wish that they have someone driving them around, instead of being at the wheel, experiencing various levels of road rage.

Of course, there was a time, when the Pearl City was devoid of this exasperating pile-up of multiple vehicles. Till the late 1980s, it was still manageable to travel around, with the roads being narrower and less crowded, on hired cycles and cycle rickshaws, something which is impossible to even fantasise about today.

With the law and order authorities and green warriors consistently espousing the need to cut air pollution, promoting the travelling by public transport and pooling private vehicles to cut their numbers on the clogged roads, the paramount need to save ourselves from this menace was never felt so acutely.

That's how I felt when I read about the launch of half a dozen road taxi service providers, who ostensibly made intra-city travelling simpler by having private two-wheeler owners take you to your destinations at an optimal cost.

I took some time to warm up to this idea, given that I had begun perversely enjoying the chaos that I encountered every time I left home for work and vice versa.

I deluded myself into thinking that, middle-aged that I was, I needed to keep up with the existing traffic to keep myself fit for the road, as and when I decided to move around.

One fine day, as my vintage scooter packed up and my car was out of my reach, owing to the busy schedules of the family which was putting it to good use, I decided to hail a bike taxiwala.

The app was downloaded on my smartphone and the process was easy enough for tech-illiterates for me to put it into use.

Since then, over the past six months, I have had the occasion to avail of their services, nearly a dozen times. Being a talkative type, I had the chance to speak to them as they took me to various places where I wanted to go in the shortest possible time.

They were gearless scooter drivers, fuel efficient 125 cc types and a Bullet owner, who had a gleaming and clean vehicle, which he said was his first major purchase in his adult life.

I came to know about why they were exposing themselves to the maddening traffic and rising air exhaust pollution, nearly six hours a day, besides holding on to their self-employed livelihoods and day jobs.

For some, it was, pocket money and many others, who were 30 and above, a sure shot supplementary income. One among them even said, he hated his earlier job which paid him nearly 50 per cent more than what he was making driving around, yet, was hooked to it, as he could switch on and off from hitting the road, whenever he wanted.

The best was when I got one young fellow, who dropped me at my office and looked at the building longingly as I was paying him. When I asked him why, he said that he was a fellow employee working at the field till four months ago.

As I expressed surprise, he sized me up and said: 'Uncle, you too can join people like us. You will know, what city driving is all about'. I preferred to stay quiet and see him move away and merge into the traffic.