ASHA: Inspiring story (fwd)

[Kamalkumar Gursahani <gursahan@cae.wisc.edu>]

New York Daily News
July 31, 1999

CAB METER RUNNETH OVER: DRIVER FUNDS SCHOOL, CLINIC FOR KIDS BACK IN
INDIA
By LENORE SKENAZY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Shri Om Dutta Sharma stood in front of his wife, his eyes squeezed shut so
he wouldn't see her reaction. Before moving to Jackson Heights, he had
been a lawyer in India. "But I have done such a thing today!" he said,
trying to sound upbeat. "I became a taxi driver."

"She fell on the ground," Sharma laughs now, 23 years later. "The image of
a taxi driver in India is the same as here illiterate, uneducated,
obnoxious. It is a worldwide phenomenon."

Little did either of them know that one day the Sharmas would found a
school, a clinic and a free dispensary for the children of Sharma's
hometown, all paid for by miles and miles of taxi driving.

Sharma grew up 60 miles north of New Delhi in Doobher Kishanpur, a hamlet
of 2,500 where his family farmed. "My dad was totally simple," recalls the
cabbie-philanthropist, 65. "He did not even know how to sign his name. But
he used to see the people coming to town tax collectors, educators,
policemen and he knew that the world was changing." Sharma senior decided
his oldest son should get an education.

Public schools in small-town India went up to fifth grade back then. The
children sat on the floor, shoeless, bookless, paperless, writing upon a
slate.

Still do.

Unlike most of his peers, however, Sharma continued on to high school and
eventually bunked with a cousin in New Delhi, where he attended college
(studying English poetry) and then law school at night. Married at age 15,
he had two children, but, "The minute I got my law degree, I divorced," he
says. He then married his neighbor, a nurse, and they decided to seek a
better life in Queens.

Sharma found work at an H&R Block, but this was seasonal. One day as he
stood on Broadway watching people hopping into cabs, he impetuously did
the same. "How can I get a taxi license?" he asked the driver. "By evening
I had the license in my hand."

The morning after breaking this news to his wife, Sharma delivered himself
to a fleet owner in Flushing. "They showed me how the meter works and said
good luck." He bought a map.

As the weeks went by, his wife, Krishna, began to seem happy about the
whole thing, but Sharma wasn't quite sure why until two years later. "One
day she said, 'Why don't you buy your own medallion?' " Sharma recalls. "I
said, 'We don't have any money.' She said, 'Go find out anyway.' " So he
did.

It cost $85,000 to buy a medallion, including a $5,000 down payment, he
told his wife. Where could they ever find that kind of money? Krishna
excused herself to the bedroom and came out with a surprise:

Sixty-three hundred dollars. Cash.

"Where did you get this?" Sharma demanded, and his wife just laughed. It
was his! Every day she had taken $10 from the pocket where he stuffed his
tips and he had never noticed. Grateful and thrilled, Sharma bought the
medallion and put it in her name "because she deserved it."

Now the couple was on a roll. They had two sons, bought a house and a
condo all in Krishna's name and when Sharma's mother died four years ago,
they even inherited the family farm back in India . But what were they
going to do with it?

Again his wife provided the inspiration.

"She said, 'We are satisfied, happy, it's time to do something else.'
'Well,' " responded Sharma, " 'charity begins at home.' " Taking that
phrase literally, they decided to convert the home where he was born into
a gift to his town.

The taxi driver flew to India and invited the villagers to a meeting under
the central tree. "If you become active participants in your children's
education and see them study at home," he announced, "I will give them
books, uniforms and a free education." The poorest children would get
preference. Soon 210 kids were attending the school he named for his mom.

Sharma then contacted his New Delhi cousin, whose son, Amarkant, had
become a doctor in the town. "I asked Amarkant, 'How much is your
practice?' He said, 'About 4,000 rupees a month,' $100. I said, 'Okay. If
I give you 4,000 rupees a month, will you provide preventive medicine for
all the children, for free?' " Done. Then Sharma made the same deal with
the local pharmacist.

"It's amazing what he has created," says Sharma's Jackson Heights neighbor
Paritosh Bhardwaj. "I don't know anybody who's done what he's done."

Today Sharma has plans to open more local primary schools, as well as a
high school and a bank providing loans to poor women. Eventually, he hopes
his sons, now students at St. John's University, will become doctors and
open more clinics. In the meantime, Sharma sends 15% of each day's taxi
receipts to the trust.

"Look at the children," he says, taking out a photo he just received from
this year's graduation. "How handsome they are. What beautiful life there
is in their faces."

For more information, call (718) 533-0631, or write to O.D. Sharma, 61-15
Broadway, Woodside, Queens 11377.

Caption: PAT CARROLL DAILY NEWS FOR INDIA Shri Om Dutta Sharma in his cab.
He has founded a school, clinic and dispensary for the children of his
hometown through his taxi driving.


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