A Ride to Remember

I called my cab driver, but he wasn’t answering. Just as I was starting to get anxious, a different cab pulled up in front of me. The driver rolled down the window and asked me to hop in. I quickly realized that the cab driver had been changed, and I had just missed the notification from my old cab driver. The new driver apologized, explaining that the previous driver got stuck in traffic and couldn’t make it. He reassured me, saying, “Don’t worry, today the roads are clear, and no one else is heading our way, so we should reach on time.”

It usually took around forty-five minutes to get from Delhi to Gurgaon, and since I had just moved to Delhi and started a new job in Gurgaon, I was still getting used to the commute. It was my first week at the new office, and everything felt so fresh and unfamiliar. I decided to take a quick power nap to make the most of the ride. I closed my eyes and drifted off.

Suddenly, I felt the car speed up drastically. I opened my eyes and noticed that the cab was racing down the road, almost as if we were being chased. Alarmed, I asked the driver what was going on. He explained that as he passed another car on the road, the other driver got offended and started chasing us. I told him to drive faster to get away, but he seemed more focused on keeping his composure than on my frantic pleas.

The other car eventually overtook us and blocked our way. The driver got out, visibly furious, and started yelling at my cab driver, demanding that he step out of the car. The situation quickly escalated as the angry driver began physically assaulting my cab driver. It was a shocking scene—something I had never witnessed before. I was scared, unsure of what to do, and my heart raced as the man turned his attention to me, angrily ordering me to step out of the car too.

I refused, quickly showing him my office badge, hoping it would somehow diffuse the situation. I tried to explain that I had nothing to do with what had happened, but he started yelling at me as well. Thankfully, a few passersby noticed the commotion and intervened, urging the aggressive driver to back off and move along.

It was a bewildering experience, one that left me shaken. As I sat back in the cab, trying to calm down, I couldn’t help but think about how different this city was from anything I had known before. In that moment, I truly understood why they created the “Delhi Belly” song—it was a wild, chaotic ride, and I was right in the thick of it.