How good or bad your road journey has been can depend to a large extent on the kind of driver you had for that journey. This is especially true when you are going for a long road journey of more than 4 hours and involves travel outside the city. These are the times when one hires a cab or arranges for a private car to take you to your destination.
Over the last so many years across different parts of the country, I have travelled in hired cars – sometimes alone, sometimes with family and sometimes with friends and while each person present in the car can make your journey a pleasant or bitter one, the driver of such a car is equally important. Let me put down a few kinds of drivers that I have come across these journeys to make my point more clearly.
‘Tum toh thehre pardesi’ driver: Had come across this driver almost 10 years back when my family and I had gone for a holiday to Himachal Pradesh and we had hired a Sumo. This is the time when audio cassettes still ruled the roost in these cabs and Altaf Raja had just come out with his album ‘Tum toh thehre pardesi’. The driver just had one cassette and we had to hear this song and all the other songs of Altaf Raja atleast 3 – 4 times. There are a number of such drivers who will have their favourite music but that is not what you would want to hear.
Tip: Carry lot of music of your choice.
‘I have a story to tell’ driver: Have come across these kinds of drivers quite often. Either they will initiate a discussion with you or once you have done a small chat with them, they will just start off, sharing everything from their life history, their family details, career graph to anecdotes. He will also act as your guide if you are visiting some places for the first time. Such drivers can be great fun when you want to while away your time during the journey but can sometimes be painful if you are really not enjoying what they are saying or are simply not interested.
Tip: Make a few phone calls on the phone when travelling alone or start talking about something with your co-passenger when you want him to shut up.
‘Moody’ driver: This is the worst kind of driver to have when you are doing a long journey. This guy will not smile, will answer to your questions in mono-syllables, will show his irritation when you want to stop for a break or want to be out till late.
Tip: Specify to the travel agent to send you a jovial guy and in case you are not lucky, just bear him and do not try to argue with him…. He has to bring you back and his mood becoming worse is just not good for you and your journey ahead.
‘Speed thrills’ driver: This driver can bring your food back into your mouth, especially when he is speeding at top most speed on dangerous hair bend curves on the Ghats. I guess not only do they get the thrill from their speed but also enjoy the scared faces of their passengers.
Tip: Warn him that you or someone else suffers from motion sickness and will throw up in the car if he speeds like this and see the toning down effect on Schumacher.
‘Drive slow on the highways but double your speed in the city on your return’ driver: He is the concerned driver who will not go beyond 80 km on freeways to maintain the average of his car. You can tell him to speed up or force him to go faster but he will not budge. You accept this speed as his nature and live with it. The same driver suddenly forgets all about averages and becomes a transformed man as soon as he enters the city roads on your return trip. Maybe it is the hurry to reach home, but makes you feel that he will cover up all the lost time by driving like this in the city.
Tip: Enjoy the drive as there is nothing much that you can do about this.
‘Honking is my birth right’ driver: These kind of drivers take the sign behind trucks ‘OK. Horn Please’ literally and follow it to the maximum at every opportunity. They will honk to the car in front on the red signal also, they will honk to every truck, bus and tractor in front, they will honk to the cow and the dog as well as the person walking on the left side of the road. Just to maintain their habit, they will even honk when there is nothing in front.. just in case.
Tip: Put in your earplugs and enjoy the music from your personal collection or be firm and tell him at the start that all this honking is giving a headache to you and he needs to stop.
‘You need to buy me tea after every one hour’ driver: This driver feels that the family will enjoy their holiday better if I stop at every dhaba for a cup of tea and anyways I need my tea. He will expect you to also want to have tea at every stop and will want you to pay for his tea everywhere.
Tip: Before getting into the car after your second tea, tell him that your share of tea is over for the day now so lets go ahead without stopping. He will sulk a bit but will get the message.
‘The music, speed and places will be of your choice…. I just need my Gutkha’ driver: This kind of a driver can be a pleasure. Most of the times his mouth will be filled with Gutkha, which he will keep refilling from time to time. He is perfectly alright to stop the car when you want, play the music you want and go to the places you like. Will speak when spoken to and when not chewing Gutkha. Will drive at a consistent pace. Will not want to stop for tea every now and then.
Tip: No tip needed when you have such a driver.
There must have been a number of other driver personalities that I would have come across but these are the ones that I could remember, who played a critical role in building a certain experience for my journey.
