A simple act of kindness by a Bengaluru Uber auto driver has caught the eye of others online, in which he went out of his way to help a woman whose scooty was broken down on the road.
The good news was noted by Chetna Saraf, a social media user who said she had seen the moment during a recent trip to Bengaluru. She and her friends were in an Uber car on their way to lunch when they saw her driver driving next to a woman riding a scooty.
At first, she was surprised to see the driver doing something odd; she started wondering why the woman's scooty had broken down, and the auto driver was trying to assist her to help her get the vehicle to a place where she could get help.
According to the report, the driver continued to help the woman for about 10 to 15 minutes. He kept driving his auto alongside the stranded scooty and using his foot and whatever other means he could to push the scooty forward.
As opposed to just passing by and leaving the woman to figure this out for herself, the driver stayed there with her until they got to the place to help her.
The incident had only been for a short time, but it left an impression on people who saw it. Chetna said she could only manage to capture a tiny portion of the incident because she was more concerned about what was happening in front of her and did not want to spend the whole time behind a camera.
She also explained that the video circulating online had been sped up, so viewers should not mistake the accelerated footage for the actual speed at which the woman or the vehicles were moving.
What made this one particularly touching was that the driver did intervene without expecting anything from it at all. With so many people moving to and from one place and back from another in a hurry, a little help from a stranger is very important.
Tanzeem has now been identified as the driver, and the person who wrote about the incident has appealed to Uber India and Uber to appreciate his efforts. The driver “deserves a raise,” the post said, and the driver’s kind gesture resonated with those who witnessed it.
And the incident also serves as a reminder that acts of kindness don’t always involve dramatic gestures. Sometimes it’s just helping someone push a broken-down vehicle, staying beside them on the road and making sure they reach a safe place.
Bengaluru is full of traffic, busy highways and constant motion. So an unexpected offer of assistance can be so powerful that it may have seemed even more precious for the woman whose scooty broke down; having someone stop and stay with her to help her until she could get help might have been useful and reassuring.
There’s a wider conversation about recognizing everyday heroes. Not every act of kindness is public, and for a lot of people there is nothing to know about others, and it is not made visible. Social media can do so to illuminate those moments in time and make others see more than just what they did.
When someone shared the video she thought was worth posting, she said, “I felt that this moment was worth posting because having a platform is also to honor people with a platform and to recognize people who deserve recognition as well."
As the story goes on, many viewers are hoping Tanzeem gets the message out to Uber teams. It doesn’t really matter if the driver gets any official reward for the experience; the appreciation he’s getting from the experience is evidence of the positive impact he had.
In a world where negative stories dominate social media, this Bengaluru incident is a nice reminder of humanity in action. A broken-down scooty was an opportunity for one stranger to help another, and Tanzeem, an Uber auto driver, stopped and helped.
It doesn’t necessarily take a great gesture to be a hero. All you have to do is see someone in need and not drive away.
