Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Meet Pradeep the driver with an "er"

As we go about peeling an Onion our eyes become moist and the tear glands give way for it to flow, the more you peel it we will actually know whether it has a sweet heart or a rotten core.

Today morning happen to meet Pradeep an Uber driver whose personal transformation is like peeling layers of onions. He has taken life as a pathway of progress. He has delved in a problem one layer at a time only to conceal an important something. He has progressed inwards in understanding from surface issues to deeper truths.

29 year old Pradeep is a Bachelor of Education. (B.Ed.) degree holder who secured 82.5% having studied History, Economy and Kannada while studying for the Arts Stream. He struggled for two years to get a teachers job only to be told that he has to grease the palms of officials for getting in to a rural Government school around 100+ kms from Bengaluru. Since he belongs to the Gowda Saraswat community -open category he is a victim of our reservation system.

He did try his hands in few private schools only to be offered a paltry salary of Rs 8K as he was not having the requisite teaching experience. He was asking me how and where will they gain experience if they don't lay hands on their 1st job.

He is unable to find a life partner as wannabe brides doesn't want their husbands to be drivers, as driving as a profession is still a taboo to a large section of society.

His friends suggested him to become an Uber driver, which he is now for the past 1.5 years and is happy with his life. He was speaking about the incentives he earns, the various schemes brought out by Uber for drivers etc in chaste English and how he manages work life balance with no boss round as he can work flexi hours.

He was well adept to the pluses and minuses of both the profession and was happy to rattle it. I was literally stunned by his clarity of thoughts and understanding of one self.

The guy is extremely good looking, talented, soft spoken, well mannered and was very decently dressed, he closed our 30 minutes long conversation by saying so what if I could not become a teacher their is "er" even in a driver and that's why he drives an Ub"er".