The vagaries of Meru Cabs - or radio cabs in general (in Mumbai ONLY)

When radio cabs (the likes of Meru, Mega, Easy) were launched a few years ago, it promised a brand new revolution - the revolution of clean taxis, courteous drivers who were on time where you wanted them to come, honest billing - in general a hassle free ride of course for a slightly greater charge.
These radio cabs were dreaded by the normal black and yellow taxis - there were stray incidents of violence and the like, proving the adage that if people are abusing you, you must be doing something good!
Then - the slide started. Was it the rising demand encouraged by efficient services not being met due to an old licensing procedure of the state? Was it the unionization of the driving pool? Was it the general hubris that sets in when the going is good?
It could be any of them - whats more puzzling is that I have heard cases of all the companies failing to pick up the customer after confirming a booking. It's as if all of them sat together and decided "OK, time to screw the customer!".

OR MORE SINISTER MOTIVES - The black and white cabbies have infiltrated the radio cab ranks and are deliberately under(non) - performing to bring them a bad name. Sounds good for a spy movie, but not for this blog :)

I absolutely have no issues if a cab company tells me when I call that they do not have cabs available. But what irks and angers me is when I am given the details of the driver only to find that he doesn't turn up; or if the company unilaterally cancels the request a little while before the alloted time!

The ultimate height (or nadir) in this case was a couple of weeks back when I had booked a cab to go somewhere. As usual, things were confirmed and we had planned our schedule accordingly. 15 minutes before pickup I start calling the driver and there was no response. I finally had to give up after 1/2 an hour and find alternate means of traveling. Luckily, this is Bombay and there was no problem finding an alternative!

Sometime in the afternoon the driver called me and said that he was extremely sorry, he had gone to sleep; please don't complain etc.

Sure dude, I won't complain, but reject the pick-up broadcast if you are really tired; atleast someone who could have come will certainly benefit.

But again, some things will never change!

It takes all sorts to make a world

They say that ‘Variety is the spice of life’. For a bus commuter, the sheer variety of people that he/she encounters during the bus journey is a statistical delight. One can classify, reclassify, declassify, “classifield”ify ;-) and what not!! From my experience there are the following classes, but mind you, these will only grow GRow and GROW as I travel more MOre and MORE!!!

The Morning Commuters:

The suit-wallahs/tie-wallahs – These are the biggies in some firm who might have given up commuting by their car in the interest of the environment/to avoid congesting the city etc

The like-me officewallahs – These guys like me would be at the starting stage of their careers and are commuting by BRTS since it is a cool concept and more so since daily commute by cabs is costly and much more uncomfortable.

The picture-perfect babes – Is it just me or has the professional world really changed so much? Why is it that women in their professional attire look so perfect? They certainly are a sight for sleepy eyes J {contrast with guys who at best look decent/ordinary)

The old uncles

The aunties

College kids

 The Evening Commuters:

All of the above who are tired!!! But still, the women look nearly picture perfect :-)

Today the concept of variety took an entirely different hue. The 19:10 BRTS 1 from Backbay Depot had a malfunctioning AC and hence its destination was curtailed upto its depot – Anik, which is roughly midway between Backbay and Thane. At every stop, the conductor stood at the door and announced the revised route and informed about the malfunctioning AC. This led to different reactions:

The people who wanted to get home soon and did not want to wait – ‘Haan theek hai!!! Darwaza khol ke rakhenge na? To baraabar”

The people who were willing to brave the heat but were taken aback when told about the new destination – “Thane tak nahin jaayegi? Whats this??”: these guys instantly got off

People who were pissed off with both the destination and the AC – “Tum logon ne hamaari gadi cheen lee hai!! Gaadi kyun nahin rok te AC kharaab huwa to?”. yeah right, the AC has deliberately been rigged so that you guys can't go home on time. Grow up man!!! AC is a machine and machines fail once a while.

And then, on the nearly empty bus, as I read P Sainath’s ‘Everybody Loves a Good Drought’ I came across this gem: “Ah well, their philosophical looks seemed to say as we part, it takes all sorts to make a world”. As Kurt Angle would say, ‘Its true, its true”.

Comments on candle light vigils/government bashing/sloganeering

The past week has gone by in a haze. Mumbai was brutally attacked by armed terrorists and it took the combined might of the Mumbai police, the Navy commandos called 'Marcos' and the NSG more than 48 hours to quell the troublemakers and sanitize the occupied areas. 

The incident has claimed the posts of the Union and the Maharashtra home ministers with the Maharashtra CM too expected to be shown the door in a few days time at the most. Civil society has been outraged and important people have spoken out in anger.

If one were to make a few observations about the incident they would be as follows:

1. This should have been a problem handled by the Mumbai police themselves. This is a recurring problem - that of depending on central forces to bail out the situation everytime. Even the Konanakunte incident (that of the Sivarasan vs Karnataka police) fame needed the arrival of an STF team from Nagpur.

2. OK, the central forces were called in, but the time that the NSG took to step in was inordinately long. 

3. The media clearly went overboard in reporting even details which should have been kept confidential. The media should be cordoned off in a separate enclosure to prevent sensationalism.

4. The citizens voiced their anger, held candle light protests, wrote blogs etc. All fine, but practically speaking, what can we do?

1. Can we ask for information about security apparatus through RTI? It is most certainly going to be turned down with security concerns being voiced... and rightly so.. if we can glean info, so can the sensational media and terrorists
2. Can we get trained for dealing with such scenarios? Thats a possibility... We should look at establishing some sort of training to be given to citizens to deal with emergencies.. not to panic/ try to take out the offender if the chance arises etc. Some sort of a semi-defense training which is compulsory for all.
3. To do (2) we would need a national database complete with social security numbers. How about preparing one?
4. Please equip our forces, right from the beat cop. Else we would be running around in circles!!!
5. Vote in elections and make sure you vote based on rational and logical thought process.
   

Small steps, but need to be taken :-)