Ganpati time in Mumbai, Aditi Mittal's Story Of How A Mumbai Cab Driver Found His Son

Aditi Mittal Story Of How A Mumbai Cab Driver found his son. Aditi Mittal in a Twitter thread today shared her experience of boarding a cab in Mumbai for an open mic session. Here is what transpired during the ride and afterwards. It's surely Monday Motivation!

Comedian Mittal was heading for an open mic session and when she entered the cab she found the driver on the phone talking to someone. She decided to ask him to hang up before they start the ride. However, she sensed the urgency in the man's voice and caught what was bothering him. The man had been looking for this three-year-old son who had gone missing for the last one hour.

A three-year-old being missing for an hour will always get your heart in your mouth but mind you this is the festive season going on in Mumbai, even if the rivalry is hugely marred by the pandemic. The driver-father was frantically making calls and asking people, "tum log ne mere bacche ko dekha kya? Woh tum log ke saath hai kya?"

The comedian notes that she could hear the response of "nahi" in call after call he made. And this even prompted her to ask him where he lived, and if he wanted to go home and look for his kid instead of wasting his time ferrying her.

"He insisted that he would drop me to the destination since he needed the fare. I offered to pay the full fare," Mittal wrote. However, 20 minutes into the ride she decided to catch a rickshaw and went on to her destination revealing the cab driver. A part of her still wondering how the parents will be able to find the kid, the mother's sobs that she overheard were bothering her.

1.5 Hours Later

When Mittal was getting home from the open mic session she got a call. It was the driver's wife informing her they found their son. The three-year-old had seen a Ganpati pandal and had wandered off with the procession, dancing and eating while his parents panicked. What a relief!

The story doesn't end here. This morning the driver met her from the point he had picked her earlier. And handed a box full of nariyal modaks. He told her he had overheard Mittal telling a friend on the phone to send  her mom's handmade nariyal modaks at the start of the ride.

The author ends her post saying, "Ganpati time in Mumbai is ridiculous."  But we would say these little gestures make you believe that all is not lost with this world.

You can read her post

Yesterday something ridiculous happened. I was on my way to an open mic in an Ola cab. The cab driver was on his phone, and I was about to ask him to get off the phone, when I eves dropped on his conversation.

Yesterday something ridiculous happened. I was on my way to an open mic in an Ola cab. The cab driver was on his phone, and I was about to ask him to get off the phone, when I eves dropped on his conversation.

— Toolkit for Hot Takes (@awryaditi) September 20, 2021

Aditi Mittal is a well-known comedian, writer, actor based in Mumbai.