He makes his clan proud

He makes his clan proud

Rick driver returns bag with laptop, passport to its rightful owner

Sunitha Rao R. Bangalore



So you were told by the autorickshaw driver that your destination is one he cannot ride to? That he would need to charge extra? Here is one experience to make you revise your opinion of the city's auto drivers.
CM Reddy, a manager with Wipro Technologies, was on his way to the United States of America on a work-related assignment. He was to take a flight on Saturday night. Just as he was about to board, airport authorities asked him to produce his passport and other travel documents. He searched his bags only to discovered that he had lost some very precious documents —his academic records, his passport, even his laptop. "I was in quite a state. There was no way I could get on that flight. I had nothing to prove that I was eligible to travel, and then I did not have my laptop either."
Reddy cancelled his trip, and though he attempted to think where he might have left his documents and his laptop, he just could not seem to recall.
That was when he got a call on his mobile phone from a number he did not recognise.
On Saturday night, while he was still wondering what to do, auto driver Sathish Aradhya called to inform him that he had left his laptop and documents in his auto that he had hired at JP Nagar that day.
Finally, on Sunday morning, Reddy got back all the documents and the laptop, and his trip to the US finally happened, though just a little delayed as he had to take a flight on Sunday night.
"It gives me a lot of satisfaction to bring some joy to my passengers," says Aradhya, an auto driver from Laggere.
This is the third time this year that Aradhya has had an opportunity to return things to the rightful owners who had forgotten them in his auto. "Six months ago, a lady left her vanity bag in the auto. The identification card that her company had issued her was in the bag, and I got to know her firm's address. It was not hard for me to locate the firm and return that bag," says Aradhya.
On another occasion, Aradhya found a bag unclaimed at Rajaji Nagar flyover. The bag contained the photocopy of a driver's licence, which had an address on it. I went in search of the owner and managed to find him," says Aradhya, who has been working as an auto driver since 1992.
"I have studied only till the SSLC. When I saw Reddy's marks card and other records, I just felt there was a huge need to return the documents. It is a pity to lose such documents. Fortunately, this time, I found Reddy's phone number and it became an easy task for me to locate him. Had I not been able to find him, I might have taken all those things to the police," says Aradhya.