conversation with cab driver

I had a talk with my cab driver on the ride back to Mazgaon from Colaba.  (I was returning from meeting Azeem and some of his friends at Woodside Grille in Colaba-- more on that later).  The driver was young (about 20), Muslim, and had come to Bombay from a village in UP about a year and a half ago.  He hasn't been back since, although his whole family is there.  Asked why not, he said the travel just wastes time and money.  His dad has been ill for 16 years-- he has no memory of having had a healthy father who could earn a living.  His brother had moved to Bombay earlier, and he followed him out here to make some money.  He starts driving his cab around 5 or 6 in the evening, and continues until about 1 am or so.   And then in the morning, he's able to pick up a lot of fares to the airport from the Cuff Parade area.  He misses his family a lot, although he's made a good enough group of friends here in Bombay.  They are others from UP, many of them also cab drivers.

He doesn't like Bombay at all.  Its crowded, and he prefers greenery.  He is able to make a lot of money-- he earns about 400-500 rupees every day-- but much of it goes toward his living expenses or gets sent back home to his parents.  He's not sure its worth it, in the end, to work in a place where the cost of living his so high.  He is aware of the anti-migrant politics in Bombay, but says they don't affect him.  He said politics has its place, and I have mine.  I'm just here to make a living.  If there are any services that the BMC provides for migrants, he's not aware of them.

He doesn't vote in Bombay because he's not registered here, meaning he doesn't have a ration card.  A ration card is like a proof of residency and an ID card, administered by state governmetns.  It entitles the bearer to certain goods at subsidized rates, including kerosene, sugar, rice, wheat, cooking oil.  If you live in a slum, its also your guarantee that if your home gets razed for new development, you have some recourse and the government will provide you some kind of different housing.  In theory (and by the letter of the law), anyone who moves from one province to another should be able to submit their old one and get a new one issued to them.  But in Bombay, at least, the administration is quite unwilling to issue ration cards to migrants since there's a strong movement to stem the flow of incoming workers.  The cab driver said he is trying to amass 4000 INR to get one-- this is probably the bribe he has to pay, or else the fee for a forgery, because the card itself is free.  I didn't ask more details.

For now, he doesn't know when he will get himself one.  He didn't seem too worried about it... he intends to spend a couple of more years in Bombay making as much money as possible and then head back home, or somewhere else.  There may not be as much money to make elsewhere, but the cost of living isn't anywhere near as high either.

His friends are all like him.  Here to earn a living and not politically inclined.  By this point in the conversation, we arrived home and I didn't want to hold him, although he would have kept talking willingly.  I would have asked about his extent of political participation and voting back home in UP.  Also whether he sees a connection between Mumbai city politics and his ability to get a ration card.