The inspiring story of Pataabi Raman, a 74-year-old Bangalore Autorickshaw driver who used to be an English lecturer.
Recently, a woman named, Nikita Iyer, a professional working in Bangalore, took to LinkedIn to share a story of a 74-year-old auto-rickshaw driver, who used to be an English lecturer. In her LinkedIn post, she mentioned how she was on her way to work, but was left stranded on the middle of the highway by her Uber auto. While she was worried about arriving late at the office, another local autorickshaw driver stopped and asked her where she wanted to go.
After she told him that she was running late for the office which was located at the other end of the city, the autorickshaw driver responded in proper English, “Please come in Ma’am, you can pay what you want.” As per NDTV, the next 45-minutes of her auto ride gave her a memory of a lifetime!
The autorickshaw driver was a 74-year-old man named Pataabi Raman. He used to be a lecturer in English back in the day in Mumbai and used to work in a private educational institute in Powai. Since it was a private institute, his salary was less and he didn’t receive any pension.
Pataabi Raman has an MA and an M.Ed degree. But, unfortunately, he was unable to find work in Karnataka because of his caste. And, that’s the reason why he decided to go to Mumbai. As luck would have it, he found a job in the city of dreams.
After he retired, he came back to Bangalore. It was then he started driving an autorickshaw and has been doing so for the past 14 years as he earns a decent living.
“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 a pension. By driving a rickshaw I get at least 700-1500/- a day which is enough for me and my girlfriend,” he said.
By “girlfriend”, he meant his wife and he has a reason why he calls her so.
“She is my wife but I call her my girlfriend because you must always treat them as equal. 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.”
Inspired by his story, Nikita wrote, “Not one complaint about life. Not one regret. So much to learn from these hidden heroes.” Here’s the complete story that Nikita shared on LinkedIn:
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At IFORHER, we salute Mr. Prataabi Raman and many such incredible heroes from the streets of India!