If the elites in India and abroad are anything to go by, the Uber/Ola drivers know the pulse of the nation like no other. Because somehow, they have inadvertently given such profound political analysis in just 20-minute cab rides to the economists, journalists, and propagandists that one would think the eminent personalities are passing off conversations they have with the voices in their heads as conversations with cab drivers.

One of the first proponents of the phenomena was Cornell University Economics Professor Kaushik Basu (which is why we are humbly naming the syndrome after him).

Here are some examples:

Basu, in October 2021, very conveniently managed to get a Sikh taxi driver in New York who was very well-versed in the new farm laws that were introduced by the government back then. He even refused money for the detour he took so he can finish the speech-giving gyaan to the former Chief Economist of World Bank.

His cab drivers often take detours because I’m quite certain Basu is a delight to talk to.

Earlier in February this year, he got a Bangladeshi taxi driver who was all praises for former Indian PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, also an economist who kept India in policy paralysis for a decade during his tenure as PM.

He’s also very humble when it comes to about the trivia he has gathered over the years.

Taking a leaf out of this, many other prominent people have since met taxi drivers who echo exactly the same anti-Modi thought that they have been tweeting about.

Here is the leftist propaganda site Founding Editor Siddharth Varadarajan having an insightful conversation with a waiter in Paris over a covid vaccination certificate.

Varadarajan claimed that while at a cafe in Paris, a waiter asked him for his vaccination certificate. According to Varadarajan, the waiter ‘disapprovingly’ compared the picture on the vaccination certificate with Varadarajan and exclaimed how it was Varadarajan himself. Varadarajan then said how it was ‘Dear Leader’ (PM Modi) on the certificate and the waiter then wondered why it did not have Varadarajan’s picture instead.

Essentially, Varadarajan, who is an American citizen, was asked to provide his vaccine certificate in a cafe in Paris and he was able to show how he was fully (or partially) vaccinated in India. But of course, we are to believe the waiter discussed ‘Modi pic’ on the certificate with him instead. Of course, netizens had then pointed out flaws in his well-crafted anecdote which led many to believe he had spun a fiction from a place where the sun does not shine.

But then it seems everyone at The Wire is well-versed with conjuring up fantastic fiction.

The Wire columnist one Ismat Ara on Sunday took to Twitter to say how a Good Samaritan tea stall owner came to her rescue like a knight in shining armour.

Ara claimed that when she stopped at a tea stall, she realized she got her periods and asked the shopkeeper if he had any sanitary pads. The shopkeeper, Manaf, since Ara was sure to tell us his name, stopped all his work, asked her to sit at the stall (not sure of what happened to exist customers who might have come for tea) and he quickly got on his bike to get her some napkins. He did it because she was like his sister.

I have a lot of questions about this. I am not saying Ara is making up the incident, but I am curious. Was it a tea stall where sanitary napkins are displayed (like some tea stalls display Kurkure and Maggi)? If I ran into such an emergency I am likely to go to the medical store and not the tea stall. What inspired her to ask Manaf about sanitary napkins? I have even more questions but then I would be accused of being a gender traitor. So let me stay quiet before I go even more unhinged.

But at least we got one learning. That when it comes to saving the dignity of women, chaiwallahs are the ones who are the ones to rise to the occasion.

Alhamdulillah.

References:

opindia.com - Nirwa Mehta