MI players, coaches treat taxi driver Sarika to lunch at five-star hotel

MI’s Sajana Sajeevan (extreme left), Harmanpreet Kaur, Charlotte Edwards and Jhulan Goswami (extreme right) with lady taxi driver Sarika Randive (centre) at a city hotel yesterday. Pic/Satej Shinde

One of the first lady taxi drivers of Mumbai, Sarika Randive, usually drives from Gateway of India to Nariman Point and Marine Drive and gets Rs 30 per passenger. On Wednesday, she enjoyed a once-in-a-life-time moment, when four passengers hopped in and asked her to take them to a city five-star hotel for lunch. Randive's passengers were illustrious Indian women's team and Mumbai Indians' (MI) skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, head coach Charlotte Edwards, mentor and bowling coach Jhulan Goswami and young batter Sajana Sajeevan.

Randive revealed that she was not aware of the stature of these international players. "Someone called me to pick them up at a hotel and then told me to drop them at the same hotel after a round at Marine Drive. I think they were some players, but I didn't recognise them. When one of them told me that she is India and Mumbai Indians' captain Harmanpreet Kaur and said: ‘Madam, please come inside the hotel to have lunch with us,' it was a pleasant surprise for me," Randive told mid-day on Wednesday.

"When I was driving, some of them discussed that a lady driving a taxi in Mumbai is a big thing. They even exclaimed, ‘Wow, lady driver,' and clapped. People know me as Gateway Chi Rani or first lady taxi driver in Maharashtra and many felicitated me as well, but today's [Wednesday] experience was totally different for me. I took photographs with them and for the first time in my life was at a five-star hotel," she remarked. Come to think of it, a Famous Five were in one cab!