Drinking alcohol is apparently a serious, serious problem here. Worse yet, guards and drivers are known to be the communities that drink heavily. Still worse, drinking and driving are considered a norm; if the driver is caught, police are easily paid off. We saw a signpost while we were in Mumbai that said “Drink, OR drive.”
We have had a couple of these experiences with our own driver. On Diwali, I saw him staggering home from a party. This was “off time,” but it was a red flag for us that there could be a problem here. It is hard to believe that someone gets fall-over drunk on his off time but never touches alcohol during non-holidays. Amnon made it painfully clear that as long as he works for us, drinking is taboo. Indeed, even in the evenings of the work week it is taboo….If there were an emergency at night, and we needed to get somewhere, *he* is our driver and our means of transportation.
In February, while Amnon was in the US, the boys and I had another “situation.” We were walking Kimbo, and our driver was hanging out at the guard booth. (All of the drivers and guards hang around together; there is so much down-time for all of them. For guards, in fact, it is ALL down time…) Our driver saw us, but clearly was uncomfortable. We lifted Kimbo, then a small puppy, to greet the driver. The driver said repeatedly “BYE, Kimbo…” He clearly wanted us to go.
The boys then looked out from the rooftop, down on the guard booth, and saw the guards and our driver passing around a bottle.
The boys THEN called the driver, saying that one of them needed to go to the doctor. Our hope was that he would say he wasn’t feeling up to driving, and that he would tell us to take a cab. But no, we came downstairs, and there he was, red-eyed and behind the wheel.
The boys told him to get out of our car, and give back the car keys - - he would no longer be our driver. (Note that this complicates things….Our driver and maid live in our servant quarters on the roof with their 3 teenaged-and-above kids. You do not want to have a drunk and disgruntled ex-driver living on your rooftop. Nor do you want to evict a family.)
People that I spoke to at work, and people that Adam spoke to at school, indicated that this was not uncommon at all; that many drivers in India drink. So it was not as though we got the “bad apple” and if we just replaced him, we would be safe and secure…
Amnon returned from the US a few days later, and spoke to our driver. He read our driver the riot act. He retained his salary for that month, and said he would only get it…along with his bonus…if he remained “dry” until the end of our stay here in July. Amnon said that if he finds a drink that is worth THAT much money to him….then enjoy it.
Our driver was diagnosed with diabetes soon after this, and told that he was medically forbidden to drink. So we assumed we now had even more assurance that drinking was “history.” Amnon ultimately gave him the salary we had withheld.
A couple of weeks ago, there was a birthday party for one of the other drivers. Our driver went to celebrate with him. Amnon needed to go somewhere in the afternoon (it was a regular workday), and our driver had clearly been drinking, despite the warnings, despite the diabetes. Amnon took back the keys to the car, and told him to move off of our premises by the next day. (His wife and family were allowed to stay. His wife – our maid – was so incensed with her husband that I don’t think her allegiances were even divided…)
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