“I have been travelling regularly since the last 2 years between Pune and Mumbai every weekend as my office is in Mumbai and my family is settled at Pune. I heard about BlaBlaCar and it’s carpooling concept from my brother Akshay and just in a year’s time it has become close to my heart.
The beauty of BlaBlaCar’s concept is you can check the profile of people and assess their authenticity and integrity. And you always have the option of saying no to people. Many people have travelled with me since the last one year and enjoyed my safe driving experience.
My favorite hobby is to connect with people; not only to connect but join by heart. That’s why I have got more than 1000 facebook friends, more than 3500 linked in connections and always I try to be in touch with almost 80% of the people. I have worked in more than 5 companies and I have made strong contacts with more than 50 people from each of the company. I just love to network!
In BlaBlaCar, I travelled with many young professionals. Earlier I had strong opinion that today’s youth does not have enough focus in life and live a very ‘Happy Go Lucky’ kind of a life. But when I started travelling with them, I understood that I had a very wrong impression of them. These young people are very ambitious and serious about their future!
Thanks to BlaBlaCar, I have some amazing memories. Dr. Karen travels with me regularly. We discuss current affairs and our future plans. She helped me plan a family vacation to Shimla by putting me in touch with her travel adviser. I have travelled with people from the IT industry, many of whom have given me ideas about my daughter’s educational and carrier plans. I met Viraj who has a strong political and financial background but he has devoted one year of his life for travelling throughout India in public transport systems to study Indian human. His observations shared with me were so inspiring! I had a spectacular journey with Shraddha who is a travel manager in Thomos Cook and handling their Australian operations single handedly! Once I met a chartered accountant working in a Nationalised Bank who felt that bank jobs are too easy. After a long discussion about realizing one’s potential, he changed his opinion completely and decided to challenge himself more! Also a lady bank manager travelled with me who was proudly mentioning that she had achieved the highest no of loan disbursements in India. Such amazing people and such great conversations!
Many people feel very comfortable sharing their rides with me as I am a smooth driver and a smooth talker! They always express their joy at having such a nice company and ultimately cannot resist from giving good ratings to me. And that’s why I have more than 50 ratings!
I can go on and on about the wonderful experiences I have had on BlaBlaCar journeys. I feel very energetic after every carpool experiencing these different facets and colors of human nature”.
[Atul is the CEO of a manufacturing firm that produces aluminum radiators and oil coolers]
