Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A passenger might see a woman driving a Rapido auto through Bengaluru and assume it is just another job to make ends meet. What they may not know is that she once worked in IT, before her father’s death made her rethink the kind of life she wanted for herself and her mother.
Content creator Tanvi was pleasantly surprised to meet this inspiring woman, and made sure to share her story of grit on Instagram. Their auto ride gradually blossomed into a conversation about career choices, family and the pressure women face daily to live up to society’s expectations.
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“You were working in IT?” Tanvi asked in the video, visibly surprised. “Yes,” the woman replied.
She then explained in fluent English why she decided to leave the industry. After her father passed away, she found it increasingly difficult to balance her night shifts with her responsibilities towards her mother.
Rather than continue in a job that kept her away from home, she decided to make a complete career switch.
Driving an auto was not an obvious choice, particularly after working in the corporate sector. Her family was initially against the decision, she said. But she eventually went ahead with it.
And the change, she says, has worked out better than she expected.
The woman told Tanvi that her new job is not bad and that she earns more than she did in IT. More importantly, it allows her to have greater control over her time and stay closer to her mother.
Her profession also often left passengers surprised. Some, she said, questioned how she could drive an auto despite speaking fluent English. The remark captured the assumptions she regularly encounters while working in a field traditionally dominated by men.
Tanvi chose to frame the encounter around that very question: “But what will people say?”
“She chose not to care. She chose freedom. She chose independence. She chose to take charge of her own life,” she wrote.
Calling her a “single daughter” and “a woman in a male-dominated field”, Tanvi praised her decision to choose a career that worked for her circumstances rather than conforming to expectations.
“Because being brave isn’t always about doing something extraordinary,” she wrote. “Sometimes, it’s simply having the courage to say: ‘This is what I want. And I’m choosing it’,” she added.
Watch the inspiring video here:
The video has crossed over 253k views, and many users applauded the woman for making a difficult career switch on her own terms.
“The way she said, not to leave mom at night alone, oh man! proud of you girl,” wrote an Instagram user.
“Real queen spotted,” said another.
At a time when conversations around women’s safety and freedom continue to dominate the news, this woman auto driver is quietly challenging another kind of barrier; the expectations society places on women. Behind the wheel, she is carving out a life on her own terms, one ride at a time.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
