Buddha in the traffic ~ second chances
AI Generated image Speaking the local language helps when you hail rides in Bengaluru — drivers open up faster, and the conversation goes somewhere real. Pre-covid, the city was running at full tilt, everyone impatient, and the drivers were earning just a little more than they would the following year when everything ground to a halt. It was one of those rare rides where the driver called ahead to confirm I'd pay digitally. Of course, I said — that's always my preference, with cash tips on the side. The car pulled up and out stepped a brash young man, barely in his twenties. I asked about the payment preference and he didn't hesitate. As a teenager, he'd stumbled into offline gambling and made decent money for a while — five hundred, seven hundred rupees a day — until the whole thing caved in on him. Six figures in debt, loan sharks at the door. His mother, a tough woman raising him alone, walked straight into that mess and faced the sharks herself. She negotiated, s...
