Careful and Watch out ! but who to watch out for?. Review on General Tips on Travel Etiquettes

They say you gain experience with time and doing things. So all the time that elders have spent traveling, they got some experience which they dutifully passed on to us. One of the important lesson was to always carry lock-n-key and a chain to tie your luggage(remember air travel has not always been this cheap and also you can’t “simply fly” to all your destinations). But as every other good advise, I chose to overlook this one as well. In fact, I used to laugh at people who would undergo a rigorous and some time nasty exercise of accommodating their entire luggage under their berth and than would take out chain(s) to tie them all. The ordeal would not end here. Every time they have to take out some thing, they will unlock the stuff, take out the thing they want, would lock their suitcases and go thru the whole exercise of lock and chains again. Huh. how stupid! If I were to put it in Sarabhai Vs. Sarabhai fame Maya’s style, I would say, “how obnoxiously middle class”.

But life is life and it keeps throwing surprises at you. So here we are, myself, my wife and her 3 beautiful younger sisters and my brother-in-law in Nasik. We came to Nasik to attend wedding of my wife’s cousin who is getting married to a guy whose parents wanted us to travel to their city for the wedding. So about 50 of us traveled with about 150 articles to carry from Jhansi to Nasik(about 14 hours journey) amidst a lot of fun n frolic. I still pity those 16 people who, god knows for what sins they committed,  were accommodated in that coach where 48 berths were reserved for us.

Any ways, every body else except 6 of us were ready to board their train back from Nasik next day and we had to travel to Shirdi. I booked a cab which would first take us to Triyambkeshwar and than would drop us at Shirdi.

While the luggage was being kept in the cab a very agonizing thought came to my mind. By now this driver guy must know it is a “wedding party”,  if there was any doubt in his mind the kind of clothes we are wearing would have erased that. So now when we go to Triyambkeshwar and leave all luggage behind, wouldn’t it be a “shop at will” offer for this guy if he wish to? I quickly made a rough estimate and figured out even if he sells it in “chor bazaar” it would not be less than 1.5 to 2 lacs that this guy would make.

The worst news was that we were not carrying keys of the luggage that had built-in locks, forget about carrying an extra lock and key. I some how realized that very moment that all those laughs and sarcastic looks I have been giving to poor souls who would care for their stuff is going to come back to me. They are going to be the ones who would have a last laugh.  All those 45 minutes which we took to reach Triyambkeshwar from the hotel we were staying in, I kept thinking. Buying locks and using them now would be a very bad idea. Too derogatory for this man and also would leave out straight signals that we are carrying expensive items. One option was that I or my brother in law stay back while others go for darshan and upon their return this person shall go. But given the size of queue in this temple, this was ruled out the moment we reached Triyambkeshwar.

Driver asked us to go for darshan while he parks his cab some where. He left us with his mobile number on which we were supposed to call him once we are back. After about two hours when we came back from temple, cab was no where in sight. When my bro-in-law called on the cell# he gave, he heard “invalid number”. Now was the time for us to panic. Of course, I was panicked too but did not want to show. I noticed almost everyone is going thru the same emotions but no one wanted to accept.  A couple of females were a little realistic though and started discussing the probability of him fleeing away with our luggage. That too on fuel sponsored by us on our way to Triyambkeshwar. A couple of new shirts I haven’t ever wore yet. how bad it is to loose that expensive cargo I recently bought. How much pampering I needed from my wife to shell out that amount to buy my new sun glasses.  And what about my handy cam which has all the sweet memories since my child’s birth, that loss would be impeccable.

Just when I was about to call travel agent in Nasik who gave us this cab, I saw our cab coming. For some reason we did not really talk about his number being invalid. Just cursory looks at the back where we kept our luggage and off we were to Shirdi. Though a little skeptical but we forgot the incident and got indulged in all our fun again.

At about 9 in the evening we reached Shirdi and checked in a hotel. The first thing every one wanted to do was to open his/her luggage and check if everything is fine. Much to our relief, it was the way we kept it. Untouched. Relived, me and my bro-in-law decided to check out the hotel facilities. The moment lift opened, we saw our taxi driver coming out of it. First thing he said “Sir, aapne ek hazaar rupaye jyada de diye”.(Sir, you paid a thousand bucks extra). I said how is that possible. We were to pay you 2000 and that’s what we did. He said we gave him 2000 when he asked for a 1000 while getting his cab fueled and when we left him at the hotel we gave him another 1000 thinking we have given him a 1000 only earlier.

I kept repeatedly asking him if he was sure we gave him 2000 while taking fuel. He was adamant that we did as he was not carrying any money and now he has 2200 after paying 800 for fuel.

At this time I told him that his cell number is not correct, we realized he swapped last two digits. I verified and it worked now. I gave him my cell number and asked him to call me if there is a need. I could feel a burning sensation from ears to my neck, I was going red with a feeling of utter shame. This guy has taught us too many lessons in half a day. I did not know what to do so I asked him what is his plan next. He told us he would go and look for passengers to Nasik so that he could pocket some money. I asked him how much possibly could he make by doing this, he said 250 and I gave him 250. I am not really sure if I should have given him any money at all. I mean, how many of us would “go back” to return money?

So the moral of the story is

1. Take bare minimum precautionary steps when you travel. It doesn’t hurt and you feel safe. Every one can not be as lucky as we were.

   
   




2. Not everybody who “probably” earns lesser than you is going to steal your money given the first opportunity.

   
   




3. “Deepak” who drives  a maroon Chevrolet Tavera numbered MH-15 DRD 7511 is probably a person with higher morale and great ethical values than most of us.

   
   




4. You can contact Suyog Tours and Travels at 9822258664 if you are in Nasik and need a cab. Ask for Deepak only, if you need an honest and a good driver.

   
   

PS – This review is a tribute to honesty of Deepak, sorry to have wasted your 15 minutes if you did not like it.

PPS – I am fulfilling my promise to my wife of “quitting” once we reach Shirdi and have not smoked since 11 PM on 19th april. Wish me luck.