Mumbai's Padmini cabbies: 'Till death do us part'
A month ago we ran a post on how the iconic Premier Padmini black and yellow Mumbai cab is being phased out of service, and how local graphic designers are claiming the rattling taxis as works of vintage design.
How very arty of us.
The 200,000-odd cabbies who drive these vehicles, however, aren't finding things so cool, as 'The Wall Street Journal' reports.
"They are resisting those who would offer a nicer ride in shinier new cars -- with strikes, court cases and violence," the article says.
One driver of a new cab says "he can't pick up customers at many taxi stands, where long lines of the old cabs wait for customers. Because he is afraid of another scuffle, he lets old cabs go in front of him at the gas station."
"In some neighborhoods, they won't even let us stop," the driver says. "We can't do anything because they outnumber us."
"We have trusted this Padmini like a second wife for the last 40 years," Anthony Quadros, a second-generation driver and head of a taxi drivers unions is quoted as saying. "You still love your wife even though she gets old."
Here's one marriage, at least, in which the younger model doesn't have the advantage. But, jokes aside, read the full article, if only to find out the real reason you can never get a Meru cab last minute. You won't believe how many passengers they have to turn down each day.
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