Taxi driver from Twin City - A Taxi EYEVIEW
When Asif Hussain Shah was a student of grade 7, he packed his schoolbag and decided to quit studies. Now this 40-year-old cab driver has written an interesting book comprising short stories of his experiences while driving his cab on the roads of Rawalpindi.

“I thought that what I used to study in school doesn’t match what we do in our practical life,” Asif said about his decision to quit school in Quetta as a young student.

However his family members and friends forced Asif to resume his studies and with a heavy heart he got back to school. But Asif could study only till 12th grade before he finally called it a day and entered into practical life.

He got expertise in making water-boring machines and when he got married in Rawalpindi he made up his mind to live in this city in the year 1993. For one year, he remained glued with his work as a water-boring machine maker.

“It was good, but I am a man who believes in hard work,” Asif said.

One day he finally decided it’s better to drive a cab in the city. Unlike other cab drivers, Asif believes that ‘time is money’ and perhaps that’s the reason he prefers to ask a passenger how much he or she could spend on their travel.

“I don’t like spending my time in having a cup of tea in a roadside restaurant and smoke cigarettes, like most cab drivers in this city do,” he said.

Giving example, Asif said that he prefers to drop a passenger from Raja Bazaar to Saddar for Rs40 instead of asking for Rs60 or Rs70.

“That’s what most cab drivers are doing, but for me time is money,” he said.

Last year, the idea of writing a book in Urdu sprung into Asif’s mind. He felt that he had met various passengers, with whom he had exchanged views on a number of topics during his 15 years of cab driving in the city.

“I thought why not write these short stories in simple Urdu and I started the project,” he said as he showed his 116-page book.

Maybe the name of the book could have been something else instead of ‘For Hire,’ but Asif said that soon his book would be translated into English and even in Arabic.

Among other incidents, there’s one chapter ‘Mind Your Language’ in the book in which a passenger got annoyed when Asif said he would charge ‘rupees one hundred and fifty’.

“How dare you speak in English, can’t you say it in Urdu,” the passenger said.

The digital version of the Urdu book could be seen on azupress.com and soon readers could have an access to all contents of Asif’s book.

“It’s the era of computers and that’s the main reason I’ve uploaded this book on a website so that more and more people could read it all over the world,” he said.

“Very soon, people would have access to all chapters of the book because I want it to be free of cost,” he added.

Highlighting the problems of cab drivers in Rawalpindi, Asif said that there’s no proper taxi-stands in the city.

“If there’s more and more cab stops, it would not only help commuters, but also generate money for the administration,” he suggested.

Despite becoming a writer, Asif said that he would never give up the profession of a cab driver, because whatever he is today is just because of this profession.