The hold up

Based on true events.

I was travelling using a ride sharing service. When I boarded the vehical two gentleman were already seated. After me another passenger was supposed to board. This passenger happened to be a young woman. The woman boarded the cab and that is when the whole situation took a different turn. The woman was accompanied by a man supposedly her boyfriend, husband, or romantic partner (could be a situationship as well). The women boraded the cab and rolled down the window to speak with the man. Their romantic conversation was continued. They continued to talk to each other romantically for another five minutes. Their romantic conversation did not seem to get over at all. Nobosy including the cab driver had any issue with tgis. I wanted to reach my destination on time and hence I decided to intervene. I said "please end the conversation quickly so that we can move. We have been waiting for over 5 minutes and all of us need to reach somewhere". My direct message definitely did not sit well with the romantic couple. The man got agitated and said, "if you are in hurry, book yourself an exclusive cab". He did not realise that he had just opened the can of worms.
"This is not your private vehicle, it is a shared vehicle. You do not get exclusive privileges in a shared vehicle. It is the basic decency not to waste anybody else's time for the personal conversation. It is unfortunate that nobody taught you that. You have no right to waste the time of remaining for people in this cab," I responded to him with facts. Remaining two passengers in the cab overheard the commotion and looked up from their phone. The cab driver finally found the courage to speak, "there will be a waiting charge applied to your service" he informed the woman. Both of them looked at me angrily but at least I was able to end the wait time. The man cursed me that I would not be able to find love because I had interrupted a conversation between a loving couple. I did not mind at all. But this incident made me realise that nowadays people do not even have the basic decency to understand the value of someone else's time.

I wish this was an only incident. There have been many instances where people hold up and waste other people's time. Unfortunately this is the reality of today. Hence I believe it is a crucial lesson for the people: Your time may not be important but that does not mean others' time is not important too. You have no right to hold up and waste someone else's time.

Let me make it clear I am not targeting any specific population here. Teenagers, young people, and even older generation are guilty of wasting the time of someone else because of their hold up. Everybody needs to understand that their problems are not the world's problems and hence if they need to wait up they should ensure that nobody else is suffering because of them. Understand that only they have the authority over their own time. They do not have the authority over someone else's time.

I believe this is the least we can ask from everyone. Respect your own time and respect others time as well.