Mumbai auto driver surprises passenger with his knowledge: ‘Audience was hooked’

A Mumbai auto driver left his passenger amazed with his depth of knowledge (Image credit: @krish_rajiv/Instagram)

A Mumbai man says he spent the most informative one hour of his life in a traffic jam, all thanks to his auto rickshaw driver. Rajiv Krishna dedicated an Instagram post to Ramdev, the auto driver who surprised him and other bystanders with his in-depth knowledge of India, Europe and more.

Krishna said he was stuck in one of Mumbai’s infamous traffic jams when his auto driver began engaging him in conversation. “He started off by asking which countries I’ve been to. I decided to humour him and named a few places,” the passenger wrote.

Much to his surprise, the driver, Ramdev, proceeded to rattle off the name of all 44 European countries in near alphabetical order. He also named the leaders of some prominent European countries.

A native of Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra, Ramdev also knew the names of all 35 districts of his home state, all well as those of other states like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

The auto driver did not rely on rote learning, as was made amply clear when he proceeded to educate his passenger on the highlights of demonetisation, the 2G scandal and the Panama papers.

By this time, wrote Krishna, he had attracted a small audience that was hooked to his every word.

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A post shared by Rajiv Krishna (@krish_rajiv)

“Bikers stuck in traffic next to our rickshaw were hanging on to every word he spoke with amazement writ large all over their faces. He had the audience hooked!” the Instagram user wrote while sharing a video of his auto driver.

For Krishna, the most astounding thing about the whole encounter was Ramdev’s background. The auto driver told him he was never formally educated. Everything he knew, he taught himself.

“His family never had the means to educate him formally. They could afford a meal once in two days when things got really bad. All the knowledge that he had gained was through self study,” wrote Krishna.

In a parallel universe, he mused, Ramdev could have been a professor at a top-tier college. He is “blessed with the uncanny ability to retain vast amounts of information,” wrote Krishna.