Open letters are the in thing in our country right now, with Kangana Ranaut and Saif Ali Khan publishing open letters against each other. I wanted to stay in fashion too so I decided to write an open letter. After a lot of debate in my head, i finally decided to address my open letter to the gentleman or should I say not so gentleman, who shared a cab with me and two others, on one of my rides back home from work. This is how it goes:
Dear Mr. Promoter of Body Mass,
It would have been such a blessing to our world (and to all of us who use the Ola share for our daily commute to work n back) had you worked on your ‘shared cab’ ethics as much as you have on your body. But don’t you worry, since you are unaware of shared cab ethics, let me enlighten you:
1. Remember you’ve opted for a shared cab so that means you need a certain amount of patience. It is not the driver’s fault that you had to wait for a few minutes for a fellow passenger. So stop yelling at the driver.
2. If you can’t share what you are eating, then do not eat in the cab, because all of us are starving by the end of the day and longing to get home for dinner. It’s unethical to eat in a cab you are sharing with others.
3. Don’t sit like you’ve bought the whole car. Make some room for the next passenger that gets in. Remember, you’ve only booked a single seat so avoid occupying two, by stretching your legs too much. You can do all the stretching once you are home.
4. Remember, you’re not alone, so do not speak loudly on the phone. All of us look for some peace and quiet by the end of the day and the last thing we need to listen to, is personal details about your love story or your work, colleagues and office gossip. Keep the volume low!
5. Stop fighting over who has to get dropped first, shared cabs have their rules and regulations, which the driver has to follow. So stop being a bully because the driver knows his job.
While the shared cabs have made commuting much easier for us, it’s sometimes idiotic people like you who make the ride an ordeal. Kindly follow these basic ethics unless you want to be thrown out of the car next time!
