Day 1 : Cab drive from home to airport : 6-28-2025 : Saturday

It was 5:20 am, when Paku and I got the luggage and went down the lift to the main gate to board a big black Mercedes E Class. It looked like a limousine, due to its blue led lined interiors. Got into the car. It was very spacious, with the back AC vents with all LED based controls. The music system was from Paramount. And the AC vents were on the walls, and near feet as well. The best part was that it had reading lights as well. It was still dark, and I was thinking of reading my book..

I bade good bye to Paku, and got settled in the car, as it swiftly and eloquently glided through the potholed broken Bangalore roads. It was interesting that the potholes were making their presence still felt, through the world class suspension. The engine of the car was fairly quiet, compared to other IC engines, I had driven till then.

The chauffer’s name was Mohd. Jamil Siddique (name changed for privacy). He was calmly driving the Merc. He was in a black suite, well shaved and groomed. I started to strike a conversation with Mr. Siddique. It was a pleasure talking to him and learnt a lot about his adventurous life.

He is basically from Bangalore, and his dad use to drive taxis. From early in his life he started driving. Through some contacts of his family and friends he went to Muscat and then to Dubai and used to work as an office boy in one of the international schools there. There, two teachers, Mr. Wasim and Mr. Ahmed taught him English. That made his English so eloquent and impeccable. He came back to India after about 5 years there, when his visa expired. In India, he started to drive for a Japanese family who was the MD of Toyota. And then he started driving after few years to an executive from Ireland for IKEA. He continued to drive for them for few years and then joined Avis.

It was during the COVID days when he actually had to drive a lot, when he was with Avis. During the COVID days when we used to be shy away inside our homes, Mr. Siddique had to travel all over the city and out, for his clients. I asked him, that it might be too risky an affair for him. He said, it was all precautions taken. The car was well disinfected, and he was enclosed in the driver compartment fully separated from passenger. He then said, it was little sad to see many dead bodies every day. But he had to continue to work and not shy away. He had to pay for the education of his two daughters one in 3rd standard now, and the other in 10th. The elder daughter has topped in her class with 96% in 9th. He was saying his elder daughter is brilliant. And the younger daughter has this uncanny talent to draw all the cartoon characters that she sees in TV.

Mr Siddique was saying that he is used to having celebrities from Bollywood, Sandalwood, politicians and bug businessmen as his clients taking them to and fro to airport. He works for his agency now known as BlackLane. That is tied up with Emirates, and they offer chauffer service for business class passengers. He was saying there are good people as well as bad, very bad. I asked are the politicians bad? No, he said. He found politicians very good people. They honoured him, and gave him respect, and spoke to him kindly. He said people like bollywood stars and kids of politicians are at times very very bad. They were very rude, and would not at all respect him, and look down upon him. I asked him what was the worst experience of his life with them. He said, bad in the sense, what they did was bad. At the back seat, couples doing bad things. He said, he felt very embarrassed. He would ask them to stop, but the would not. His strong sense of morality was something that was refreshing to me.

One thing that striked me about him was that he would listen to what I would ask, he would think, pause and and talk. There was lots of pause in his conversation. What came out of him was well articulated words, which were coherent and polished. And another thing that was fascinating was that he would drive as a second nature, like a fish swimming in the ocean. His hand was like part of the steering wheel, and it would just glide through, as he turns towards me, talks, thinks, pauses, and at the same time negotiates the traffic seamlessly with ease.

I shared with him my life, and i confessed that it was relative quite bland and boring. He said, education is the most important thing, Sir. And he was so happy that his two daughters liked to study, and were doing good at them.

I asked him, what you do in your leisure. He spontaneously said, “I sleep”. That day morning, he had someone to drop at 2am to airport. and then he drove back and came to my home at around 3am. And was there waiting for me till 5:30. He had not slept the whole night, and he was all fresh, alert and active. He confessed that he would sleep, but his younger daughter who is 8 yrs now, is too naughty and will not allow him to sleep, and will play with him during the day.

Siddique would work two days for morning shift, and 3 days for night shift, in a week. Morning drives are tough due to traffic. But, night drives are easy he said, as there will be free flowing traffic. He loved his job, and he was happy.

Talking to him, I said, is not it that “Job Roles are defined by the people who are playing them, and not the people are defined by their job roles!”. He smiled and said, “absolutely”. Looking at him, no one would say that he was an office boy, and then spent his whole life being a driver. He had strong relationships built with many rich and famous, and they respected him for what he does.

He was sharing that his wife has started working as a tailor to be able to support the family for the education of his daughters. He was sharing that he has seen Bangalore grow and transform from what it was and what it is. He was has seen Bangalore changing. There was lots of composure and pensiveness in his presence. The most impressive thing in him was the pauses he would give, the intent listening he would have, and then how forcefully and authentically he would answer.

Another interesting thing in him was that he never had driven for Ubers and Ola. He always maintained his niche-ness and drove only executives, Avis, and later now Black Lane for Emirates.

He was sharing that once he took a family of doctors. They were also entrepreneurs and had their own medical college and hospital at Bijapur. After talking to him in the ride to airport, at the end of the ride the woman who was the owner of the business offered him a job to be her driver for INR 40,000. But their home was 40 Kms from his home, and he had to ride a two wheeler to and fro. That would not be possible he said and he declined the offer with respect. He was clear with his priorities. He cannot spend so much time commuting. He wanted to make time for his family, and his well being and rest.

He still rides a two wheeler for his own, while driving a Merc E Class at work. It is interesting how he would live two lives in one.

Few life lessons I learnt from Mr. Siddique -

  1. You define your role. Role does not define you.
  2. Kindness is more important that righteousness.
  3. Maintain your niche-ness
  4. Life might give your lemons. You can always make lemonades our of them.
  5. Know your priorities. And be sincere to them.
  6. Sometimes a strong sense of morality makes things simpler in life. A sense of black and white. Right and wrong. (Although I derive pleasure in diving into the shades of grey)
  7. Never forget from where you have come, no matter where you go.