There is a good chance that every person in Mumbai has a heartwarming story to share about the city and its people. The city of dreams has hope, resilience, and love hidden in every corner and a story recently shared by comedian Aditi Mittal proves so.
Aditi took to Twitter to narrate how she overheard her cab driver talking to his wife on the phone who said that their 3-year-old son was missing.
Yesterday something ridiculous happened. I was on my way to an open mic in an Ola cab. The cab driver was on his phone, and I was about to ask him to get off the phone, when I eves dropped on his conversation.
— Toolkit for Hot Takes (@awryaditi) September 20, 2021
He was calling people, asking “tum log ne mere bacche ko dekha kya? Woh tum log ke saath hai kya?” I could hear the response of “nahi” in call after call.
I asked him where he lived, and if he wanted to go home and look for his kid instead of wasting his time ferrying me.— Toolkit for Hot Takes (@awryaditi) September 20, 2021
Despite his son going missing for an hour, the driver continued doing his job and controlled his emotions.
His 3 year old son had been gone for an hour by then. I couldn’t fathom how he was still so controlled by then, I would have been hysterical. He insisted that he would drop me to the destination since he needed the fare. I offered to pay the full fare.
— Toolkit for Hot Takes (@awryaditi) September 20, 2021
Aditi decides to let the driver go and takes a rickshaw for the rest of her journey. She also pays him the full fare.
I was only 20 mins into my hour long journey, but I managed to catch a rickshaw for the rest of it, so I was fine, but I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I had heard him talk to his wife on the phone & she had been crying so hard, I could hear her in the backseat from his phone.
— Toolkit for Hot Takes (@awryaditi) September 20, 2021
However, later she gets a call from the man who revealed that they found their son, who had wandered off with the Ganpati procession!
1.5 hours later, as I’m heading back home from the open mic, I get a call. It’s the drivers wife. They found her son, apparently this three year old criminal had seen a ganpati pandal and had wandered off with the procession, dancing and eating while his parents panicked.
— Toolkit for Hot Takes (@awryaditi) September 20, 2021
The man was kind enough to show up the next day with a box full of modaks, as he too heard Aditi say to a friend she wanted to have them on the phone.
This morning at 8:00, I get a call from the driver. He’s standing at the place where he had picked me up yesterday.
“Meri biwi ne aapke liye kuch bheja hai.”
I get handed a box full of nariyal modaks.— Toolkit for Hot Takes (@awryaditi) September 20, 2021
“Jab aap phone pe baat kar rahe the, toh maine aapko kisi se naariyal modak maangte hue suna tha, toh maine mrs ko bola ki aapke liye bana de.”
(I was indeed begging a friend on the phone to send me her mom’s handmade nariyal modaks at the start of the ride)— Toolkit for Hot Takes (@awryaditi) September 20, 2021
People online were left touched by this incredible story. Many expressed how humanity is something that sets the city apart from any other place.
Mumbai, is a City that has a heart…Humanity still exists in this city. People care irrespective of Religion, caste or wealth. And that’s the real secret to prosperity of people who live in this city.
— BimalR (@TravelSpace9) September 20, 2021
Once upon a time , I used to live in Mumbai. Have had a couple of such heart warming experiences and it happens only in Mumbai. no other city in India comes anywhere close .
— Channamalla Reddy (@CMReddy2) September 20, 2021
What a beautiful note to share. Restores your faith in the small gestures. Everywhere in the world, the poor are always more principled. They uphold humanity by their frail arms. They are God’s own, being tested at every turn of their lives and yet face adversities with a smile
— Arif Ayyub (@arifayyub) September 20, 2021
“East or west my India is the best”..I had been living in USA for last 37 yrs but when I read this kind of story I want to come back home but it’s little too late …my beautiful India…
— Sandip bhatt (@ghano51) September 20, 2021
This was just Mumbai’s Spirit and it infects Everyone who stays here! I too am Blessed to be staying here – as it’s locally said proudly in Marathi “Me Mumbaikar!”
Kudos to your Big Heart as well!— 🇮🇳 Hitesh D Gajaria (@gajaria) September 20, 2021
Such stories make our day brighter!