It was a jet black Jaguar one week, a Mercedes the next; sometimes, a drive within the city or a cross-country trip to Goa. Surender Singh was 27, working for a private cab service, doing what he loved — driving. His days were spent ferrying magistrates and lawyers around the city but the nights he reserved for his friends.
“We were a large group of friends who were into bikes and cars. Some of them were dancers. And at night, I would use my friends’ bikes for stunts. They would bet on me,” he says. Born into a cross-cultural home — with a father from Delhi and mother from Tamil Nadu — Singh had just got married and had his first child. “I stopped the stunts after a few accidents. I just kept my head down and got more driving work and soon I started driving people across the country,” he continues. “I also liked to sing, and had started scoring gigs at local pubs or neighbourhood functions. Beyond that, the memory fades a little. It was 10 years ago.”
Singh is sitting at a cafe in West Delhi, a month after being released from jail on permanent bail. He is wearing a crisp white shirt, tucked into a pair of jeans, and is sporting a black cap. He takes a deep breath, as if in preparation to talk about the worst decade of his life — the time he spent inside Tihar Jail on murder charges in a road rage case.
