Manu Malik, a female app based cab service driver pushing time to its limits
By Mayank Pratap Singh
I was getting ready for the office on lazy Sunday. As usual I was late and booked the Cab from mobile app and called up the driver and told the address. I Hung up, but a voice which was not so cab driver type stuck my ears. In no time the cab was at the door step and a message flashed on the app that the cab has arrived. I was getting out of my flat when my 4 year old daughter asked, where is my good bye kiss. I bowed down on knees to the greedy demand of my daughter which she gets every day when I head to my office. I got down from the flat and when I boarded my cab which was waiting at the building enterance. To my astonishment, a female was driving the cab and asked in the melodious voice, shall we start sir. I said yes, still the muggling over my thought which stopped my voice to come out my mouth. By any how the hmmm sound came out and she started the drive. I was still in dissonance to how to talk the lady driver. I usually talk to the driver whenever I drive along the way. But this time it was tough as i was not expecting a Lady driver.
"Mannu, Mannu Malik", said the lady, in her late 20's, in feeble voice when I asked her name after a ride for about 10 minutes. And then she started talking about her journey to cab driver. She told that she have been driving since 9 months and she is very happy in this job. Driving a Cab owned by her, she tells that she bought this white sedan with help of her friend. Lost her father in recent days, Mannu has taken loan in her friends name and driving the cab to make money her mother.
She tells that the cab she bought was first driven by a driver but seeing the loss in the business she decided to pull herself in business of driving, "with 16k as car EMI, driver fees of 20 k and other commercial taxes it was not feasible to hire a driver." "Also the driver were not working properly and but hit the car and she had to pay for the maintenance dearly, " complained Mannu, who hails from Nadia District in West Bengal just at the border of Bangladesh.
Mannu lives in Indirapuram with her friends hiring a flat. She tells that its not easy to be cab driver in the society and field which is male dominated. Sharing her experience with the fellow passengers she says, "Most of the clients are good some are very irritating". "I forgive the annoying passengers assuming they must have left the house fighting, else they had bad day on work." she tells with a grinning smile floating on her face. "Usually boys are very helpful, the few girl passengers create problems and they bitch too much."
Many a girls she found on road are her friends who are driving the app based cab services. She tells that mostly ofthem are hailing from Gurugram and but quite a few she had encounter in Noida and Indirapuram. Earlier she had only old age people, girls, women and children as her clients but she is driving happily with young age customers as well. She tells, "the customers with high rating are provided to her and other women drivers like her by the company."
With growing business of the app based services and in the fields dominated by men, Mannu Malik, a female driver is slowly yet strongly pushing their limits to get their space and successfully doing their jobs. A mindset is changing where a girl is driving the time to zenith.
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