My Indian Travels Day 4: Another taxi incident.
We were feeling SO tired! So it was a late start to get to Trade Alternative Reform Action Projects, or called TARA Projects for short. We booked a taxi to get to their office: It costs £15 to hire a taxi driver for a day; that is 8 whole hours! He was more than happy to wait for us when we talking to TARA. He promised he would wait outside with what ever we did and would take us back at the end of the day.
TARA is an international social enterprise founded in 1973 with good premises and with really positive initiatives to lessen poverty including health, education and the environment. They especially focus on destitute and abused women and give them employment in the organisation.
Sam, Owner of Voyage Fair Trade with Moon Sharma, Owner of TARA Projects
Their products were of a high quality I thought. The daughter of the founder called Moon showed us around. I feel she was interested in Voyage Fair Trade and what I had to say. Moon introduced us to the workers and we had lunch with them around a big table.
An Indian Artisan making fair trade jewellery at TARA projects.
After leaving TARA, we asked the taxi driver to take us to the railway station as we had to get our tickets for our next day’s journey to Moradabad AND all our future train trips in India and Nepal! This was extremely complex and long-winded. It involved filling in forms which took Dad a while! There was no sign of our driver when we came out, so we had to take another taxi.
When we got back to the hotel, our original taxi driver was there with members of the hotel staff accusing us of forgetting about him at the railway station and demanding his money. I said we had been in the station for ages and that we looked for him when we came out, but he wasn’t there. He then backed away, saying sorry! Another taxi driver incident – and probably not the last!
To read about what happened the in the next day: the day of the train journey or read about what happened on the previous day – the day of the fair experience.
