Drive

Halwai. Balram came from this caste family of sweet-makers, but he wanted to become a driver. So, after working at a tea shop with his brother, Kishan, he decided to learn to drive. For three hundred rupees from his granny Kunna, and a promise of sending money from his wages once hired, he learned. But the taxi driver told him:

"It's not enough to drive. You've got to become a driver."

And he did become a driver. For a family who was also from their town.

Not only did he do tasks as a driver. He massages their feet, bathes their dog, cleans the house, sweeps the floor, everything that he can do when he’s not driving.

I think half of Balram was spent being a driver. Although at about ten years old, when the school principal went to his class for inspection, he was told that he is a white tiger. That he is different from the rest. He can get a future if only he try. But we try, don’t we? Then we need opportunity. How many of us gets the opportunity? And when opportunity is there, how many of us see it? How many of us let it pass?

Balram’s life as a servant hasn’t change. I am past half of the book and still he was a driver. Although at the time of writing the narrative, he was already an entreprenuer.

I want to find out what drove him to become one… how he drove himself to become one. How he drove to get to that road that a miserly servant like him from a miserable village seldom have the rare opportunity to be on.