Mumbai: Meet Sarika Randive, a 38-year-old taxi driver who has made the Gateway of India her personal kingdom. “Mujhe ‘Gateway Ki Rani’ kehte hain,” she laughs, proudly claiming her place among the sea of male taxi drivers.
Sarika’s day begins at 8am and ends only after 10pm. When this journalist approached her, she was in the middle of a heated exchange with a male taxi driver trying to cut into her spot in the queue. With effortless ease, she shut him down — “Bhau, thoda chill kar na.” Her secret to surviving in a male-dominated profession? “The more you react, the more they’ll try to overpower you. Just laugh it off and move on.”
Sarika has been driving her taxi for the past two years, ferrying passengers only along the CST-Gateway route. “This is my turf,” she says with pride. But her journey to the driver’s seat wasn’t easy.
She once worked as a housekeeper at a mobile showroom, cleaning floors and picking up odd jobs to make ends meet. She later met her mentor — Popat Date, an NGO worker who trained her and five other women to become taxi drivers. All except Sarika gave up. “Even I was scared in the beginning,” Sarika admits. “The big vehicles, the constant overtaking, the feeling of being the odd one out — it was terrifying.”
Her lowest moment came when Date himself told her to quit. “He said I was a waste of his time and I should go back to mopping floors.” That was the day Sarika made her choice. “I pulled up my pants, fastened my seatbelt, and hit the accelerator of my life. I never looked back.”
Born in Solapur, Sarika lost her father at a young age. Her uncles married her off to a man 20 years older when she was still a child. “I became a mother before I turned 20. I didn’t know where to go or what to do with my life.”
But somewhere within her, the spirit of Rani Lakshmibai lived on. “Every woman is a warrior — whether she’s fighting battles at home or out in the world,” Sarika says.
That’s the lesson she teaches her two daughters. “I tell them to study hard and be successful, but more than that, I teach them courage.” One of her proudest moments came when her daughter’s school invited her to speak to the students. “The school didn’t want a doctor, engineer, or teacher as a role model — they wanted a female taxi driver to inspire the children. I told them — every failure is not a dead-end, it’s just another step forward. Don’t ever give up.”
She earns, manages the house, raises her children, and even takes them on holiday – all without relying on her husband. “I’m the breadwinner, the planner, and the fun-maker in my family,” she says with pride.
