Now and Then: A Tale of Gratitude

Then: 14, June 2014

Six years ago, I had shared the story of a Cab Driver Called Barkat Ali. It was June of 2014 and we were returning from our summer holidays in the North East. We had gone to visit Nagaland, Assam, and Meghalaya.

 We took a Meru Cab from Airport for New Delhi station, in between we stopped at my sister-in-law’s place in South Delhi to pick up our extra luggage and moved to the station. As usual, I always chat up with the cab drivers. His name was Barkat Ali and he hailed from Bihar. It was his first week in Delhi with a new Meru Cab (Toyota Etios). He told me that he had worked in Saudi Arabia and recently came back to India. He was a very smart chap and spoke very respectfully.

 He dropped us at the new Delhi Railway station and we moved to the newly inaugurated IRCTC: The lounge and started resting.

Suddenly after, one hour we received a call. The other person asked for my name and I confirmed. The call was from Shillong. The person from the other side was the receptionist of the hotel we had stayed barely for few hours as due to the bandh called by the insurgents, we had to rush back to Guwahati the same evening. He mentioned that our cab driver had called and apparently we had left our camera in his car. We were confused, how come the cab driver called the hotel and not us, and who is this cab driver as we had multiple cab drivers during our 10-day trip.

 I checked my phone and found the number of the cab driver who took us from Guwahati to Shillong. I spoke to him and checked if we had left our camera in his car and had he made the call to the hotel in Shillong. He replied in negative to both. 

Perplexed, I again called the hotel reception and asked if he could share the number of the cab driver who called them. Apparently it was a landline and hence they could not find out that number for me. However, the receptionist told me that he has shared my personal phone number to the driver who had called.

 Well we became very anxious as we had two cameras in that bag, one brand new Nikon DSLR and one old digital camera which I had given to Rudraksh. After 15 minutes, we received a call from a number and the person was Barkat Ali, who found our camera while he was driving back to his home. He did not have my numbers and it was virtually impossible for him to find me at the New Delhi Railway Station. However, he checked my camera bag and found the bill receipt of the hotel in Shillong. He called them and convinced them to share my number. Barkat, assured me that my camera is in safe hands and he will come back to the station once he finishes his dinner.

 After 20 minutes, Barkat came back with our camera. I could not thank him enough and tried to give him some money for my gratitude! 

He refused and said, 

“ ?? , ?????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? , ?? ????? ????? ??? ??? ???  ”

 "Sir, I have everything by the grace of God, just pray for me".

I was overwhelmed by his honestly and was filled with gratitude. I saved his number and wrote a FB post that night. I shared his number with my friends and asked them to use his services, in case they need a cab from the airport. My post became viral and was shared 16 times back then. A few of my friends, noted his number and did call him up for his services.

Time passed and we lost touch. Though I had his number saved on my mobile.

Every Eid, I wish certain people without fail.

I have a group on my mobile whom I always wish during Eid.

Barkat is one of them.

 Now: 25th May 2020

 So today, first thing in the morning, I send many Eid Mubarak Wishes to my friends.

After a while, I received a reply from Barkat Ali’s number. The reply was courteous, the person thanked me and wished me Eid Mubarak but also asked, who was I??

Well, I was not sure if it was still Barkat, still, I told him about the story of him returning the camera, and how grateful I had always been. I hoped it was the same guy.

I did not get any reply, though. I felt a little stupid though.

After 15 minutes, suddenly I received a call from a number which looked like a number from UAE. I have many friends and old students in UAE and when the other person asked for a Professor Uniyal, I assumed it to be one of my students only.

Then the person told me, “Sir, this is Barkat. Barkat Ali from Dubai”

Well I was so pleasantly surprised and excited to hear his voice. He apologized that due to a change of phones and formatting, my number got deleted from his phone (what a gentleman!!)

I told him, that I had kept his phone and his number kind of survived, despite changing phones and places.

So then he told me about his life after we met in 2014.

He got married in 2015, has two kids now, daughter Myra and Son, Ameen.

He came to Dubai in 2018, and since then has been working in  Dubai Taxi and is very happy. His family stays in his village in Bihar and is doing well.

A lot had changed in my life since then too.

In 2014 I was in IIM Kashipur since then I had moved to LBSNAA, Mussorie to Dehradun and now at FLAME, Pune.

He asked about my kids, and I told him that the little boy he met 6 years ago is now a teenager.

I promised him that I will meet him when I visit Dubai again.

To that promise of mine, we both said “Insha’Allah”.

#EidMubaraqEveryone