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Taxi Driver

In 'The Taxi Driver' by Kartar Singh Duggal, Dittu, a poor taxi driver, grapples with moral conflict after finding a wallet full of money left by a wealthy passenger. Despite his wife's desire to use the money to improve their lives, Dittu's past experiences and beliefs about the curse of ill-gotten gains lead to tension and arguments within the family. The story concludes with Banti counting the money while Dittu and their son Gullu sleep, highlighting the emotional turmoil and ethical dilemmas they face.

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1K views1 page

Taxi Driver

In 'The Taxi Driver' by Kartar Singh Duggal, Dittu, a poor taxi driver, grapples with moral conflict after finding a wallet full of money left by a wealthy passenger. Despite his wife's desire to use the money to improve their lives, Dittu's past experiences and beliefs about the curse of ill-gotten gains lead to tension and arguments within the family. The story concludes with Banti counting the money while Dittu and their son Gullu sleep, highlighting the emotional turmoil and ethical dilemmas they face.

Uploaded by

servicesdigitally23
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Paragraph Summary of "The Taxi Driver" by Kartar Singh Duggal

"The Taxi Driver" by Kartar Singh Duggal is a short story that explores the themes of
honesty, guilt, poverty, and moral conflict through the life of a poor taxi driver named
Dittu. One evening, after a long day of driving, Dittu finds a wallet full of money left
behind by a rich passenger in the back seat of his taxi. Instead of being happy, Dittu
becomes deeply worried and uneasy. He believes that money that does not belong to
him is cursed, as he had suffered earlier when a rich woman had left her attaché case
in his taxi and his wife Banti later got afflicted with leukoderma after wearing the
woman’s clothes. This past incident made Dittu very cautious and suspicious about
accepting anything that wasn't his.

Dittu remembers a past mistake from his youth in Pakistan before partition, when he
picked up a sealed parcel from the road in a busy market, thinking it was lost. After
opening several layers, he found it was just empty paper, used by shopkeepers to test
people’s honesty. This memory still haunts him and increases his fear that accepting
someone else's belongings will lead to bad consequences. Though tempted to ignore
the wallet, Dittu fears what might happen if someone else, like his son Gullu, finds it, so
he brings it inside the house.

Inside, his wife Banti sees the wallet and becomes excited. She wants to use the money
to pay off debts, improve their living conditions, and feed the family better, believing
it was "their good luck." However, Dittu refuses to let her use the money. He insists that
the money does not belong to them, and using it would be morally wrong. Banti argues
that they are the neediest people, and that the rich are careless and wouldn’t miss the
money. She believes the man who lost it must have gotten it through dishonest means.
This leads to a heated argument between husband and wife, where Dittu, in frustration,
slaps Banti, something he had never done before.

Later, Dittu falls asleep and has a terrible nightmare in which he is wrongly punished by
a policeman and eventually dies in a car accident, symbolizing his fear of being cursed
for keeping the wallet. He wakes up sweating and sees Banti still holding the wallet. In a
desperate attempt to take it away, he struggles with her and again loses his temper,
causing more distress in the house. Their son Gullu wakes up and watches the fight in
confusion. Banti later tries to comfort him, saying that sometimes husbands beat their
wives.

As the story ends, Banti quietly begins to count the money, asking Gullu if he has ever
seen large currency notes. But Gullu falls asleep, unaware of the real meaning behind
the money. This moment shows the emotional pain and moral conflict that the family
faces. The story ends with both Dittu and Gullu asleep, while Banti stays awake, still
dreaming of a better life.

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