[SANSI]

Last Sunday when I was sitting in my car near Ulsoor lake Bangalore, ready to start the car, a seller boy with his friend came to me with a bunch of stickers in his hand and requested me to buy some. I bought one packet from him for my son. But he was insisting me to buy some more from me saying that he needs to buy his food with this earnings. I am not sure whether he was right. But I won't be wrong if I buy a lunch for him. So I asked him to get inside the car. After getting in, the boy told aahh!! I have never been in a car so far. And he commented on the song playing in my audio system that it is his favorite star's and he is die-hard fan of that hero. I smiled at him and drove. Stopped at a shop, ordered some eatables for him, his friend, for us and was eating talking to them. He told he stopped his studies since he need to earn for his food and came to Bangalore from his native Salem to do this work.

After few days I was driving from my house to office and it was drizzling. The road was full of potholes and mud mixed with rain water. On the side of the road two school going kids showed their hand for lift at the biker who was going in front of me and they dropped their hand after the biker passed without minding them. To my surprise they didn't show hand to me for lift. It felt like our cars has crossed the line of empathy. I stopped at them and asked where they want to go. The government school was on my way to office which is 3kms from where I picked them up. On the way I asked in my little known Kannada, how do they commute usually. They said they walk. The elder one was studying 3rd standard and his brother was studying 1st Standard.

[Pancham]

Originally Posted by SANSI

Last Sunday when I was sitting in my car near Ulsoor lake Bangalore, ready to start the car, a seller boy with his friend came to me with a bunch of stickers in his hand and requested me to buy some. I bought one packet from him for my son. But he was insisting me to buy some more from me saying that he needs to buy his food with this earnings. I am not sure whether he was right. But I won't be wrong if I buy a lunch for him. So I asked him to get inside the car. After getting in, the boy told aahh!! I have never been in a car so far. And he commented on the song playing in my audio system that it is his favorite star's and he is die-hard fan of that hero. I smiled at him and drove. Stopped at a shop, ordered some eatables for him, his friend, for us and was eating talking to them. He told he stopped his studies since he need to earn for his food and came to Bangalore from his native Salem to do this work.

After few days I was driving from my house to office and it was drizzling. The road was full of potholes and mud mixed with rain water. On the side of the road two school going kids showed their hand for lift at the biker who was going in front of me and they dropped their hand after the biker passed without minding them. To my surprise they didn't show hand to me for lift. It felt like our cars has crossed the line of empathy. I stopped at them and asked where they want to go. The government school was on my way to office which is 3kms from where I picked them up. On the way I asked in my little known Kannada, how do they commute usually. They said they walk. The elder one was studying 3rd standard and his brother was studying 1st Standard.

Very nice gesture but I dont think guys from Delhi or any other metro would even dare to do what you did. With the increasing number of crimes (eg. punture gang of Delhi) which involve children as well I dont think it is safe to give any person a ride. :(

[gaurav_diavolo]

I gave lift to friend's friend who urgently had to go to her local relatives from their PG, she sensed that I was a good guy and gave me this chance......she was my girlfriend for 3 years ))

[highway_star]

Story #1

I was riding from Mumbai to Pune on my bike. On the way, a local asked for a lift for a short distance. While entering Lonavala, a couple of traffic cops stopped us and asked for the bike's papers. While taking out the papers I realized that I did not have a copy of my current insurance policy. By that time the guy had started chatting with the cops, and they let me go without checking all the documents.


Story #2

I was going home from office on my bike in the evening. At Andheri, I saw a man dressed in a suit asking for a lift. He said that his car had broken down and he needed to reach a hotel urgently for a function. I gave him a ride.

On the way, he told me that he was a producer of Bhojpuri films. He was going to attend a party to celebrate 100 days of the Bhojpuri movie "Gorki Patarki Re". He invited me to attend the party, and I went. The Bhojpuri film fraternity was there, and there was even a TV channel covering the event. Clips from the movie were being played on a projector. The hero and heroine made their entrance, and gave interviews.

I was quite amused to see all the fanfare around these people of whom I had never heard. I suppose there are sections of society among whom these people are famous. It was a fun glimpse into a different world.

[Gandhi]

This is from our last trip to Chikamaglur. Me and my wife had visited Mulayanagiri peak and from there we were heading towards Baba Budangiri. The time was around 6pm and the atmosphere was very very foggy with very less visibility.

On our way, we saw a checkpost and a group of boys waving their hands at us. I thought it was some security checking, so I promptly stopped my car. The group of boys were there waiting for a lift. They were trekking to Baba Budangiri but had lost their way and were not able to reach their TT driver who was already on the peak.

They asked us to give lift to 2 of them. Both me and my wife were very confused as there were no human souls around at that time. They started giving more information about them that they all work for Intel in Bangalore and are all good guys. They had been trying to get a lift from past 1 and half hours.

We finally decided to give lift to 2 of them and started the journey ahead. When we reached at the top, they saw their driver sipping hot tea at the local stall. The joyous expression on their faces were priceless.

[mayankk]

When I was learning to drive, I used a stretch of service lane that started from near the AIIMS crossing(flyover didnt exist) and ended at south extension. In the middle was my home.
One fine day, I was doing the same thing, and a couple of girls were asking for a lift, and I stopped and asked, "till where?". they said, "Just a bit further."
So I drove ahead and reached the turning point for my home, and stopped the car, and said, "this is as far as I go.Thanks."
Incredulous looks directed at me, "jackass" looks at each other, and 2 high velocity impacts of car doors with the frames later, they got off in a huff.
Could be because my house was just 100-150 meters from where I picked them up?

[ghodlur]

This happened with me last year Dec when I was travelling from Thane to Pune when one of my acquaintances came to know I am travelling and asked me if I could drop him at Turbhe. I agreed since it was on my way. Few meters before Turbhe the guy changed his mind and asked to be dropped at Belapur Cidco circle. I again agreed. Again the same thing repeated and he asked to be finally dropped at Panvel. I suspected if that guy was planning to come along to Pune but luckily for me he did get down at Panvel. All along the route he kept talking about the fare I did help him to save and I was like.

Never ever did I give that chap a lift again.

[Bigzero]

A couple of years back I was driving to Hyderabad from Pune . I was alone in my car, and I had just completed the Solapur Byepass when two young guys showed their hand for a lift. If you had passed through this route, this is the place after the bypass merges where you can see people waiting for buses.

I dont know why I stopped , but I did, and asked them where they wanted to go."Hyderabad" they said.

I looked at them for a couple of seconds, thought I will go with my instinct , and asked them to hop in. the time was around 11.30 am or so.

Both of them looked pleased as punch, and it looked like it was their first time in an "AC car" for a fairly long trip - 300 kms.

I asked them why they are going to hyderabad, and they told me that they run a small repair shop ( forgot whether it was bicycle repair or two-wheeler repair ) and they make occasional trips to Hyderabad to buy spare parts. I asked them why not go to Pune, they said things were cheaper in Hyderabad.

We drove on, they were appreciating the music playing ( some 70s Hindi songs were going on at that time ). I was alert and somehow didnt want to rule out the possibility of some hanky-panky. But I knew that I could not do much as I had already let them into the car.

Somewhere around Humnabad, I pulled up for lunch at a place called Noor Dhaba. They too hadnt had lunch, so they joined me.

We sat at a table and ordered veg thalis. Decent thalis, they were. We had a tea too after that.

Time to pay, and they flatly refused to let me pay. They physically pushed my hand away, and paid the waiter, tips and all.

Back to the car, and after a while both of them were snoring away to glory.

We reached Hyderabad soon, and they told me that they have to go to Secunderabad, which is where I needed to go too. So I dropped them near Paradise flyover. They thanked me profusely and told me that they saved a good one hour or so thanks to me.

[Geo_Ipe]

Have given a lift to an unknown person only once.
Somewhere in the backroads of Kerala, where I regularly travel, I was waiting at a railway crossing, windows up, ac and music on. Suddenly there was a knock on the passenger window. An elderly man (in his 80's) was knocking with his walking stick. I rolled the window down and he said he'd missed his bus (there are only 2 buses plying that route), and that he needed to get to the main junction. I dint have the heart to refuse him!
While getting off, he held both my hands and thanked me. Felt good!!

[ant_vas]

It was in back 2006, i was just a year old in Bangalore and didn't know much of the roads. Used to always commute from BTM to Domlur via IRR. One day had to go to bangalore city station to drop my brother at 5.30 AM. I decided go to office instead of home, took the road to MG road and from there asked went towards garuda mall after asking for directions. Reached India garage junction and was not sure which road to take as there were no sign boards like they have these days. I asked a pedestrian which was the way to HAL airport and he said i can go left but as its airport road it will have a lot of traffic or go straight which will have less traffic even though it was only around 6-6.30 AM. He offered to show the straight route with less traffic as he was going that side.

Only after he got down in viveknagar and asked me to go straight, i realized that i have reached NGV and i have been taken for a free ride

second incident was when i missed my train to chennai (coz of indian railways useless announcements and confusing names of trains), i decided to drive down as i had to be there in the morning for a training. As i have never driven to chennai before, at the toll after vellore there were few people asking for lift, i stopped to ask them if they were going to tidel park then i can drop them. The guy said he going half way and will help me with the route so i asked him to get in. all of sudden i see some 3-4 people trying to get in the car i said no more than 2. one guy was a engineering student studying in a college on the outskirts of chennai. the other guy came with me till poonamalai and told me about the route. I some how managed to cross the chennai traffic and reached tidel park a good 30 mins late.

[akshay4587]

Went through a strange experience around 12 years ago,My friend had got a new M800 and we went for a short drive,to be stopped by a guy asking for lift,we stopped and asked,he said,some Xyz place,which was around, the place we were heading to,suddenly this guy tries to open the driver side door,and says I will drive.We politely asked him to buzz off and drove on.

[carwatcher]

I once gave a lift from Panaji to Porvorim to two gentlemen 4 years ago. While talking to them, we all came to know that their sister stays in Mumbai in the flat just above our office. We realised soon that its a small world.

[deathwalkr]

Interesting anecdotes!

On my way back from Kochi, i reached Trivandrum at around 11PM and was on my way home when i saw a lost soul trudging along through this desolate road. Stopped to give him a lift. Just a youngish chap with a backpack and he seems very thankful as he gets in.

2minutes later he strangely looks at me and asks "dont you know who i am?"

I glance at him and tell him i have no idea who he is.

He looks at me as if i am an alien and asks "dont you watch tv?"

I say no not much why?

He says "i'm one of the dancers in Idea Star Singer" [A reality tv show]

i was like "good for you" and was happy to see him off

[snkjr]

Bhopal - I was riding a scooty. The city was new to me, especially the area I was in. Had some business at one of the bus terminals and was returning when I spotted a guy from afar with a satchel on his back trying to get a lift. I must have seen a dozen people pass by him. It was around noon in the summer, so I stopped and asked him to get on. He asked me to drop him off someplace, but I was not familiar with the place names, only the roads as I used Google Maps to chart out my route. All along the way he couldn't stop thanking me, saying he was trying to hitch a ride for a long time but no one stopped. I said as long as he doesn't stab in the back (literally) I have nothing to lose by offering him a ride. He was really grateful and didn't stop thanking me all the while he was riding pillion. I later found out that the auto-wallas were on strike that day.

Raipur - I was riding a scooty - a different one. For some reason instead of taking the overbridge, I decided to take the road under the bridge hence bumping along the unmanned railway crossing. The area was a muddy mess because of the rains. I saw a guy wave me down for a lift. I stopped and picked him up - huge mistake. This particular guy was drunk and he smelled awful. He said I was very kind and a very good man! However I couldn't stop to ask him to get down as there were puddles of muddy water everywhere. I rode along and stopped at a fuel pump up ahead and asked him to get off and go on as I had to return back after refueling. He obliged. I refueled and went along and saw the guy up ahead trying to wave me down again. When I didn't stop he hurled abuses at me. I smiled and rode on.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by SANSI

To my surprise they didn't show hand to me for lift. It felt like our cars has crossed the line of empathy. I stopped at them and asked where they want to go. The government school was on my way to office which is 3kms from where I picked them up. On the way I asked in my little known Kannada, how do they commute usually. They said they walk. The elder one was studying 3rd standard and his brother was studying 1st Standard.

Kids would have been asked not to ask for a lift with cars (as it is not considered to be safe to get in to cars of strangers).