{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthe-night-shift-728418e7.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fthe-taxi-driver-cHBHRv1y","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"The Taxi Driver","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/a705c0db-4e60-4f64-8656-f5bcb0162c43/569d8545-314e-46ab-ba31-728571343113/the-taxi-driver.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"For women, leaving home after dusk implies an automatic invitation to danger and societal censure. Some people have even justified sexual assault and rape on the premise that women out late at night should expect aggression.\n\nAmidst this, four women — a cab driver, a bouncer at a popular club, a bar dancer, and a home guard constable guarding the women’s compartment in the local trains — have been defying societal constraints and patriarchal mindsets each night when they go to work. These four Mumbai women work through the night, breaking boundaries that society has traditionally set on women’s mobility, morality, and sexuality.\n\nHere are their stories.\n\nThis episode follows Nisha, a cab driver who gives as good as she gets from the male drivers who outnumber her.\n\nNISHA, THE TAXI DRIVER\nVoice Over\nAudio Montage 1\nEnglish News Anchor speaks\nMale politician: I believe that if my sister or daughter goes out in the night on New\nYear’s Eve with men other than her father or husband, then I can’t expect her to be\ntreated with respect by people.\nMale politician: Every one has a ‘Lakshman Rekha’ drawn around them. If anyone\ncrosses that Rekha, then they are bound to land in danger.\nVoice Over\nNisha: You know people have that fear sometimes. Hence, they keep saying that I\nshould not drive in the night. But, the problem is, I love driving in the night! It is a\nbreeze to drive in the night, no cops to worry about, no traffic lights; you can zip\nacross the city.\nVoice Over\nNisha: I used to work in a security firm earlier. Once, I met a lady cab driver who was\ndropping a passenger off at my workplace. Till that day, I had no idea that there\nwere women cab drivers. I always felt driving was not for women. I took down the\ndetails about the cab agency and went to my supervisor and convinced him to give\nme only night shifts for two months because I wanted to learn something new. He\nagreed so I started learning how to drive, without even mentioning this to my\nmother.\nVoice Over\nNisha: When I finally got my license, I told my mother. But she would not agree to\nlet me drive. She would just not budge. I even got a few lady drivers and friends to\ncome and convince her. We had to work really hard at convincing her. Finally she\nagreed and allowed me to take up the driver’s job.\nBut then, my mother’s brother started creating problems. He would incessantly\ncriticise my mother for allowing me to drive. He said our family does not allow\nwomen to drive. My mother tried reasoning with him, but I felt like I had to step in. I\ntold him that this is my life, this is my problem. I told him I won’t do anything to give\nmy mother a bad name. So there will be no problem.\nKunal: But was that just this uncle or did other members of your family oppose your\ndecision as well?\nNisha: All the male members of the family. (Laughs) Because I was the only woman\nin the family to drive. Their daughters and sisters were all wearing the veil, so they\nwanted me to do the same.\nVoice Over\nNisha: My father used to be driver. He died in a car accident, while driving. From\nthat day, my mother has been so scared of vehicles that she still does not allow my\nbrother to buy a bike.\nKunal: So your mother’s objection stemmed from this fear, primarily?\nNisha: It was this fear, yes. But now she is not scared. In fact, she rides in my car\nwith me a lot. She has conquered her fear. But she still worries about the night, so\nshe keeps telling me to not drive in the night. But I love driving in the night!\nVoice Over\nAmbient conversation with Nisha and her colleagues.\nVoice Over\nNisha and her colleagues: At the counter for prepaid taxis, they ask passengers if\nthey are okay with a woman driver. This has to stop. This must end. They should not\nbe asking such questions. Do they ask people if they are okay with a male driver?\nBecause of such questions when customers come to us, especially men, they look at\nus in a cheap way and ask what are the extra ‘facilities’ we are giving them?\nSome passengers also come and question us about why the people at the counter\nask such questions. They say, “Are you any different from male drivers?” In fact,\nmany of them even say that world over, things are changing for women, but is India\nstill so regressive that it thinks women can’t drive? They ask us this. Mostly, visitors\nfrom other countries ask such questions. In fact, they are shocked at this\ndiscrimination.\nWhen a solo male passenger is given this choice, he starts having bad thoughts\nabout us.\nVoice Over\nNisha: You know how people would earlier say that women can’t drive and only\nmen can be good drivers? Even now, 99 per cent of the customers feel this way.\nThey get scared, especially the women passengers. When they see that we are\ngoing to drive them, they refuse. Just because they can’t drive, they think other\nwomen also can’t drive well.\nVoice Over\nKunal: So, you are always waiting in this food court?\nNisha: Yes, till we get a fare.\nKunal: But isn’t there a waiting room or a designated place for drivers to rest and\nwait or use restrooms?\nNisha: Leave alone a waiting room, we would be thankful even if we just get some\nrespect around here. (Her friend laughs)\nLook, these tables belong to the food court. If they have customers, they evict us.\nThen, we sit there (points in one direction), but if we chat or laugh there, the airport\nofficials come and tell us to leave. Then, there (points in another direction), where\nthe security stands, if we sit there then the Taj Hotel’s security comes to evict us.\nKunal: So, where are you supposed to sit?\nNisha: We are not supposed to sit. They say, you stand and wait if you want or\nleave. Or occupy a quiet corner somewhere. If you don’t, they call the cops to throw\nus out.\nVoice Over\nBackground conversation plays out between a passenger, a male cabbie and Nisha\nand her friend.\nNisha: When we get a big ride, let us say worth Rs 500 or more, from the airport\ncounter, even before the passengers can come to our cabs, the male drivers\nintercept them mid-way. Then, they try and convince passengers that women\ndrivers are neither safe nor reliable. They say we are not ‘good’ women. It happens\nright here, in front of us.\nOnce they plant the seed of doubt in the minds of passengers, the passengers feel\nlike it is a risk to sit in our cars. This is all because the male drivers feel so jealous\nthat us, women, are getting such big-ticket rides and they aren’t. That’s why they try\nso hard to mislead the passengers that the passengers go back to the airport and\ncancel their rides with us.\nIf you want, you can try this yourself and you’ll see that you will want to cancel our\ncab too.\nKunal: Do people actually cancel your cabs?\nNisha: Lots of them do!\nNisha’s friend: Then our supervisor often pleads with them and tells them that we\nare safe and very reliable drivers. But, once there is doubt in their minds, it is very\ndifficult for us to change their mindset. Even if you ferry them for free, they won’t\ncome.\nVoice Over\nNisha’s friend: Yes. We even tried offering free rides to passengers! (Laughs). We\nagreed to pay them if they didn’t like our driving.\nVoice Over\nNisha: Much before Ola and Uber entered the market, there used to be Meru and\nTab Cabs and the like. They used to compete with us fiercely.\nKunal: But, amidst the competition, did they ever behave badly with you?\nNisha: Yes, plenty of times. Whenever they saw one of our cars going, they would\ndeliberately overtake our cars and cut through very rashly. Then, they would often\nabuse us while we would be driving past. They wouldn’t even care that one\nshouldn’t abuse a woman.\nBut, that’s where we drew the line. Whenever they would abuse, we would lose it.\nWhy should we listen to their abuses? We are here, trying to earn a living by driving\na car. We aren’t committing a crime that we must bear their abuses. We can’t bear a\nman abusing us. So, if a male driver abuses us, we stop his car in the middle of the\nroad and thrash them. We make it a point that we thrash him in a way that he\nremembers it for life. That is the one rule we follow — we will not bear someone\nabusing us.\nKunal: So, how does this work? If a lady driver has such an altercation, what happens\nnext?\nNisha: The issue is resolved right there and then. If she has the confidence, she will\nthrash the driver herself. If she doesn’t, she will call us and then we all gather there\nto teach him a lesson.\nWhat do we do? If we must survive in their field, we must become like them. They\nwon’t let us survive if they think we are docile and delicate. That’s the problem.\nKunal: Do you feel like you have to project a sense of, what is conventionally\nconsidered, masculine traits to them?\nNisha: Absolutely. We are not scared anymore. In fact, even the cops say that we\nare fearless, and we don’t fear anyone anymore. (laughs)\nVoice Over\nNisha: This guy, he would always travel in our cabs. This one time, he came out of\nthe airport and he was drunk. As soon as he sat in the cab, he started asking me\nabout my family. Generally, when passengers ask us such details, we are happy to\ntell them. While we were talking, he asked me something very inappropriate. He\nsaid, I’ll do this and that. I told him one thing straight: I have a very big weapon with\nme at this point, one that you can’t imagine. I have the steering wheel with me. I\ndon’t care, I’ll crash into a wall or something and I will surely die but I will ensure\nyou die, too. I am not scared of dying.\nIt’s only then that he backed off and apologised. He’s never taken lady-driven cabs\nafter that.\nKunal: Do you think being in this profession has changed you?\nNisha: Immensely. Earlier, I was not allowed to step out without a burkha. But, now,\nI am so carefree. The other thing is, I did not know what it was to abuse. But, now,\nabuses, rough talking, I can do it all so easily. That’s why I say, this profession is\ngood but also bad. It can transform people but it can also ruin them in some ways.\nEarlier, I used to be so shy that I would never talk to anyone apart from my close\nones. But now, I can talk to anyone who comes my way. Now, I can’t stop talking!\nSometimes, I still can’t wrap my head around just how much I have changed in these\nlast few years!\nVoice Over\nNisha: Look, earlier, I used to have really long hair and now, I have a boy cut. I faced\na lot of flak from the male members of the family for this. They blamed my mother\nfor my transformation and criticised her a lot. But my mother told them that this is\nher life and she gets to decide what she wants to do. My mother doesn’t tell us how\nwe must live or who we must pay heed to. She tells my brother and me to live our\nlives the way we want to, but just ensure that the family’s reputation is never\ntarnished. If my mother backs me, I don’t care about anyone else in the world.\nVoice Over\nNisha: I told my maternal uncle that if you truly care for us, then you should have\nsupported us when we really needed it.\nWhen I wanted to get married, none of these uncles supported us. I didn’t have a\nfather so we needed their support. But, they didn’t support my mother. So, I\ncouldn’t get married. That’s when I decided that I will never marry.\nWhen we really needed it, they didn’t help us. They didn’t support my mother.\nNow, when I am living on my own terms, we don’t need their backing. They lost the\nright to interfere in my life when they decided to not back me when I needed them\nto. That’s why, I don’t care about them anymore. My mother doesn’t have a\nproblem with the way I am living my life.\nVoice Over\nNisha: Yes, this profession has created these problems for me. Before I came into\nthis, I used to only wear long-sleeved dresses with my head covered at all times. I\nled a very different life then.\nKunal: And you once mentioned what your name meant.\nNisha: Yes, my name is Hayatunnisha. Hayaat is Life and Nisha means in the Night.\n(Laughs)\nThis transcript has been lightly edited for clarity."}