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Driver picks up passenger despite 42-minute wait during Gurugram rains: ‘Madam cancel mat karna’
The passenger said it took her a four-and-a-half-hour commute to travel just six kilometres during rainfall in Gurugram.
A woman’s gruelling four-and-a-half-hour commute to travel just six kilometres during rainfall in Gurgaon has resonated deeply across social media. Describing her journey through flooded streets as feeling like a video game, she highlighted how the chaos was tempered by unexpected acts of kindness.
Mandakini Singh, Head of Marketing at Nat Habit, wrote on LinkedIn that it took her “4 hours 32 minutes to reach home from office.” She wasn't travelling from Gurugram to Delhi, but to another location within the city itself.
She recalled how being stuck during the rainfall felt like being in a video game. “Felt like one of the characters of a video game ( with Mario sound in background ), how to get the most points, reach destination 1, change strategy, reach destination 2, take more ammunition and skills and then finally home!”
She continued, “While infrastructure, high tax payment and governance is a discussion for some other day… This was the day for humanity!!”
The first instance was a woman and her daughter giving out buns and chai to people just 600 meters away from Singh’s office. She then saw kind-hearted people using their two-wheelers to help people cross waterlogged streets.
That’s not all, Singh explained how the situation was around her. “Heard songs - Haryanvi , Bhojpuri and Punjabi, saw chain smokers butting out their whole expensive lot— saw men and women calling their well placed family members - bahut traffic hai bahut traffic… haan safe hai… pahunch jayenge… time lagega… tum jaldi nikalo.”
Amid the chaos, she also heard her Rapido rider tell his mom he would stay in Gurgaon, as he wouldn’t get any passengers on his return home.
“Between shared camaraderie and collective panic… reached home… did not feel like an evening — felt like an important chapter… which though had not planned but was bittersweet in a strange human way!!!”
As a concluding note, she added a few lines about the resilience of her Rapido driver, who asked her not to cancel and reached her despite the app showing 42 minutes wait time.
How did social media react?
An individual wrote, “Honestly, isn’t this just the new normal in Gurugram? Every rain, every single time, so many people complain about the same thing, but nothing has changed. After spending 10 years of my career there, moving to Noida was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Another expressed, “When walking is faster than taking any vehicle, something is fundamentally broken.” A third posted, “One big like for the driver who took the pain to call and ensure that he will not abandon the passenger.”
A fourth commented, “You unlocked the ultimate Gurgaon monsoon achievement! Your Rapido driver deserves a medal and a 6-star rating for not cancelling. Glad you survived the 6km waterpark!”
