Despite various hi-tech safety measures app-based taxi services, women still are unsafe when it comes to travelling by a cab. A Delhi-based journalist Ananya Bhattacharya, in a series of tweets, describes her ordeal in what she calls 'the most harrowing experience' of her life.
Bhattacharya, who booked an Uber cab at 10.55pm, alleged that the cab driver stopped the car on a deserted stretch on Noida- Greater Noida Expressway within few minutes after the trip began. When asked for the reason, he replied "Madam petrol khatam ho gaya hai (Madam, the car has run out of petrol)."
The car could smell of 'alcohol and paan'. The driver then started making calls to his brother and friends asking them to fetch petrol not forgetting to mention that there was an 'aurat' (woman) in the car, mentions her tweet.
Terrified at this moment, she starts calling up her friend to pick her up.
"The driver overhears me talking and asks if someone was coming to pick me up. I tell a curt yes,” she says.
The driver switched on the light, and locked the door despite her asking him not to.
After 10 minutes of calling and confusion, the woman's friend arrives at the spot. When urged to cancel the trip, the driver refuses and gives a 'death stare' to both the woman and her friend.
In a series of tweets directed to the cab operator Uber, Bhattacharya described her experience, only to get an automated reply 8 hours after the incident happened, calling the incident 'regrettable and concerning'.
"I'm numb from the experience. Shudder to think what could have happened had my friend not reached there before the @Uber driver's friends."
