Sikandar Ali restores our faith in taxi drivers. The 80-year-old cabbie scoured the localities of Matunga for three days to return a passenger's bag despite ill health

Sikandar Ali from Govandi spent three days looking for the passenger who had left his bag in his cab. Pic/ Datta Kumbhar

Sikandar Ali restores our faith in taxi drivers. The 80-year-old cabbie scoured the localities of Matunga for three days to return a passenger's bag despite ill health.

On the night of February 26, Ali was about to call it a day when a US-based doctor of Indian origin, Dr Anant Vora, hailed his taxi from King's Circle to head home to Matunga. While alighting, though, Dr Vora forgot his bag, which contained his passport, documents, a cellphone and a camera, in the cab.

Ali didn't realise that the bag had been left behind till another passenger pointed it out. Although he had taken only a few passengers that day, he still couldn't recall whom the bag belonged to. It was only after he reached home and took a look at the passport did he recognise Dr Vora. “There were many things in his bag. The gadgets looked expensive.”

The aged resident of Govandi, who suffers from a number of ailments, resolved to return the bag to the rightful owner, “come what may”.

Although the norm among taxi drivers in such cases is to deposit the lost property with their respective unions, Ali took it upon himself to return the bag to Dr Vora safely.

He remembered the area in which he had dropped Dr Vora, but locating his house proved to be an arduous task. For two days, he hit a wall.

In the meanwhile, a perturbed Dr Vora lodged a police complaint and approached the US Consulate. "More than anything else, I was worried about my passport," says Dr Vora.

Ali finally made a breakthrough on Day 3 — Dr Vora's neighbours recognised him from his passport photo and offered to take the bag on his behalf. But Ali refused to part with it and waited patiently for Dr Vora's return.

Dr Vora rushed home on receiving a call from his neighbours. “I was overwhelmed to see him standing at the entrance of our lane with my bag in his hands,” he says.

Ali says relief washed over him after he returned the bag. “One can't stay happy by keeping others' possessions.” He was rewarded as a token of appreciation by Dr Vora.