Last night, my colleagues and I hired a driver named Mohammed to take us to do a bit of shopping and out to Angeethi, a restaurant specializing in tasty Punjabi food in Banjara Hills, which is on the other side of Hyderabad from where we are staying. Mohammed has been a driver for the firm for at least the past five years, so he has gotten to know numerous ex-pats and people like myself who are in India on short-term visits.
On our way home from dinner, he quickly drove past the cab office in order to pick up something he wanted to show us. It was a business card album and it was chock-full of cards he’s received from all the people he’s driven. Mohammed also showed us photos he’s had taken of himself with some of these people too. He was really proud of his album and the connections he’s made. He had gotten to know some of these people quite well over the course of driving them back and forth to the office each day. (My favorite anecdote was his description of the female partner who sometimes would “self-drive” to work. It’s somewhat incomprehensible to the male drivers that women would actually want to drive themselves anywhere.)
We were tickled by this, of course, but it made me realize that the ways in which we connect to each other and establish relationships is less important than the fact that it happens and how we benefit somehow from these connections. He got to know three more employees of a company he is proud to serve, and we received excellent service from a driver whom we will recommend to others (and call upon again for ourselves on subsequent visits.) We’re shaking hands and sharing something that creates an impression, whether it’s with a business card or via a Tweet. I regret that I didn’t have any business cards with me to give him, but at least I’m in the photo.
