Puja Vaish did not see any trouble coming when she decided to head out for work on the 29th of August, 2017. It was raining heavily in Mumbai but then that was nothing new for a typical Mumbaikar. But today things would be slightly different. The rain plummeted the streets of Mumbai leading the coastal city to a standstill and Puja who had taken a cab to her work was stuck like the rest of the city.
In the aftermath of the heavy rain crisis that was witnessed by the people of Mumbai, many acts of kindness began to surface as people opened their houses to let stranded people in, as slum-dwellers took to the streets to help people with snacks and water and people stepped up to rescue dogs and other stray animals. Puja’s story is also one such heartwarming incident with her cab driver Sikander Khan. The Ola cab driver ensured that his passenger had had food, was safe and was comfortable during the entire 10 hours during which they were stranded in Parel on Hindmata flyover.
Puja writes:
I just want to express gratitude and request you to reward my cab driver from this morning in whatever way you can. His name is Sikander Khan and he was exemplary in his humanity and his help during the flood situation in Mumbai today. We were stranded in the worst affected low lying area – Parel on Hindmata flyover for over 10 hours since 10 am. In this span of time, he gave me his umbrella when I decided to leave the cab and walk, and when I didn’t get anywhere due to the chest deep water, he called me to come back and sit in the cab. He assured me he would get me home safe once the flood receded and the traffic would move no matter how long it would take. Around afternoon, we had no food and he disappeared for an hour and came back completely drenched with a hot pizza, refused to let me pay anything for it. When it started getting dark by 8pm and I was panicking to get out and reach a hotel nearby (I didn’t want to spend the night stranded in a cab on the flyover), he left his cab, and held my hand as I literally swam to a hotel which was a kilometre away but it took us half an hour to reach. He refused to take any money, but finally accepted when I insisted. God bless this man, he would have had to wade back through the flood to get to his cab and is probably still stranded in the same spot. Hurray to Ola and hurray to the driver. Please reward/honour him in anyway you can!
He helped to get her a hot pizza when they had been stranded for too long without food, ensured that she had a safe place to spend the night, even if it meant abandoning his cab on the street and walked her to a hotel with an umbrella, all this while refusing to take any extra money for all his kind deeds. Which was when on August 30, Puja decided to show her gratitude by sharing the incident on Ola Cabs’ Facebook page full of kind words for the gentleman who helped her during the flood-like situation
You can read her full post here:
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Puja’s post has since then received over 15,000 likes and 1,000 shares and gone viral on Facebook. Ola Cabs has decided to honor and felicitate Khan for the exceptional display of courage and humanity. We need more humans like you Mr Khan.
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