Retired English professor from Mumbai turns auto driver in Bengaluru

Bengaluru auto driver. Pic/Nikita Iyer, Linkedin post

After hearing a 74-year-old autorickshaw driver speaking fluent English, Nikita Iyer, a Bengaluru resident was curious to know more about the driver. While she started the conversation with just one question, the 45 minutes long conversation opened up about his former professional life as an English professor.

After being encouraged by him, Iyer documented her conversation as a 'motivational story' on LinkedIn, which went viral online.

In her post, Nikita described, "This morning, on my way to work, stranded by an Uber auto driver in the middle of the highway, I must have had a worried expression on my face which made an old man driving a rickshaw stop and ask me where I wanted to go."

He said, "Please come in Ma'm, you can pay what you want" in impeccable English, she described.

Iyer was taken aback by his kind behaviour. He predicted my next question and asked me himself, "So you're going to ask me why I am driving an auto right?"

Narrating his life story, the auto driver, said, "Previously he was an English lecturer at a college in Mumbai because he did not get any jobs in Karnataka. The only question he was asked was, 'What is your caste?' and when he said his name was Mr. Pataabi Raman, they said, 'We will let you know.' Fed up, he moved to Mumbai to look for a job and was welcomed and given a job in the reputed Powai college where he worked for 20 years."

At 60, he retired and came back to Karnataka. He further explained to Iyer, "Teachers do not get paid well. The maximum you can earn is 10-15,000/- and since it was a private institution, I don't have pension. By driving a rickshaw I get at least 700-1500/- a day which is enough for me and my girlfriend. She is my wife but I call her my girlfriend because you must always treat them as equal."

In their conversation, he added, "The minute you say wife, husbands think she's a slave who must serve you but she is in no way inferior to me, in fact she is superior to me sometimes. She is 72 and takes care of the house while I work for 9-10 hours a day. We live in a 1 BHK in Kadugodi where my son helps pay the rent of 12,000/- but beyond that, we are not dependent on our children. They live their life and we live ours happily. Now I am the Raja of my road, I can take my auto out any time I want and work when I want."

His story of living an independent life along with his girlfriend inspired many people on LinkedIn. Iyer's post went viral with more than 76,500 likes, 1,900 comments and 2,635 shares.