Pathao rides

Pathao rides

What is often not noticed is that if you are willing to talk ‍and in good mood, Pathao/ Uber rides can be really a good opportunity to strike a discussion with apparent strangers (of course drivers) without much rapport. Each ride can give you a very interesting story if you are willing to take that extra effort. I am still reeling from the story I heard from the young man who gave us a ride yesterday. The young man from my last trip was probably in his late 20s, seemed to be coming from a middle-class background driving a somewhat expensive car. He seemed willing to talk, was quite quick to inform us that this was his second day as a Pathao driver. He worked in a corporate house but due to a recent lay of, lost his job and was now trying to earn some cash by driving his car. He tells me that the owner of the company he worked for is now listed as a loan defaulter. The owner in recent years has taken a loan from banks and according to him, the bank officials taught them unfair means when it comes to taking loan etc.

I noticed his accent, a gentle soft urban voice of today’s youth, polite calling me bhiya and my partner apu all the way. I hear exactly this voice when meeting the young, urban Dhakaites. I come to know later on that he hasn’t studied at the university due to some bad habit he didn’t want to disclose. But he has studied till college. He straightforwardly tells me that the job he got was something he got through his father’s connection but haven’t been able to continue due to the recent layoff. He repeatedly kept telling me that the owner of the company for which he worked now has all the connection with some big ministers (names are withdrawn).

However, what struck me is that Ratul (not his real name) being in his late 20s sounded very frustrated with what was happening in the country. He told me that from the morning till afternoon he had to bribe police for a fault with his car window. While I understood the fault my estimate is that he could have been easily given a chance. He was given a chance at the expense of bribe! The point he was trying to make is that he was not officially given a ticket but the police were pretending as if that is the case while transaction of money took place under broad daylight. He sounded utterly frustrated, repeatedly mentioning that he has lost 1200 hundred taka for no good reason and it is not that the government will get this money. He was mostly sharing his frustration with us, saying nothing is right in this country. He sounded a bit cinematic, at times reminding me of the youth shown in the Hindi blockbuster movies.

I tried to give him some advice on how to handle police on the road and how one can avoid any bribe related transaction but while saying so, I was also thinking that at his age I was also vulnerable to police and their frantic attitudes. I remember that at his age I was twice pushed to a police van for no good reason! However, not wanting to spend a single taka and my conviction that I haven’t done any wrong saved me that day and I eventually ended up not having my first journey to the police station.

Our conversation ended with Ratul telling us that he soon plans to go to Europe for a better life. He has also set up plans accordingly. Firstly, he will travel to Jordan and then to Europe. This made me sad. I remind him of the difficulty but he seems adamant and determined. So I reckon he too will join the bandwagon of people who will soon leave the country. In fact, Ratul’s story is a pretext to a more serious issue we are facing in the coming days. I fact it has already started, a middle-class flight if you like. 

I can tell from my own experience that most of my friends who were well taught in one of the best engineering universities in Bangladesh ended up working in a Western country. What does this tell about Bangladesh’s plan with the skilled labour? Is not this true that we would have preferred to have one of our best planners working in this country instead of a distant land?      

Ratul is honing his skills as a driver but his intention is to make a living in a foreign land. I see a lot of my colleagues/ friends who despite having a good earning in this country deciding to leave the country and the reasons are not very diversified. It is either children’s education or political violence or excessive traffic jams on the road. The issue is most often related to bad governance and this includes most of the government’s service sector.