Many must have heard stories about driving Passionist, racing drivers or off-roading drivers but meet this legend who has carried his passion to his earning. Atamaram Naik, from Arabo-Pernem drives vehicle at the present age of 93 years.
Atamaram Naik, born in village of Arabo in 1926 did his schooling in Portuguese medium. He has gone through various phases in his life and it is very uniquely interesting to know about this personality who at his early age of around 15 became post man, his 1 st job which he did for just 1 year. 2 nd job was at printing press of doctor Raja, in bastora. The printing press task during that time was manually done without no machines but a wooden stamp which they used to dip in ink and use. When he was working at bastora he says Mahadev Naik just showed him one day how to hold steering in hand at Mapusa. Soon after that another day he finds a village boy washing dessai familys vehicle (Mansion at Arabo) he asked key with the cleaner, got into the van, set the gear and took the vehicle down in that moment the car was out of his control on slope and he had no clue about gear change, break or how to control, but the vehical went out of the road and stopped with no bang but he got scared and got fired by the dessai family but this is the incident that set a fire for his driving passion after which Mahadev taught Atamaram Naik to drive on caminhao (16-seater bus). Finally, Atamaram got his license at the age of 20 and a job to drive
caminhao from Mapusa to Betim and panjim.
Later he starting driving the same caminhao from Dodamarg to Mapusa route. He never said no for any trips no matter it was early morning or late at night of clients, locals, or sick patients that makes him passionate driver. this allowed him to build many contacts like doctors, advocates, landlords, locals and so on. He met one van driver named Anand in Dodamarg (border of Goa) who handed over his van to Atmaram to drive, and he paid total of INR 4,000
through installments to Anand. That was his 1 st second hand vehicle which he drove in various parts of India with his passengers/ travelers like Calicut, Ooty, Mysore, Mumbai, Kolaphur, belgum, Pandarpur, shirdi, Pune, Ahmenagar, Rajasthan, Ahmedabad were frequent trips but the list goes on of the other states as well. He later settled in Mapusa with his loving wife, who was his travel partner too.
At the age of 26 he got his own vehicle with his hard-earned money and made a living for 9 children with good education. He recalls the hard times that he and his wife shared together to provide happiness to their children.
He shared on his long journey trips he used to even apply spit to eyes that he doesn’t fall drowsy when he could not find a single tea stall at mid night or on lonely roads. The fact is Atmaram never met with any single accident
in his life but he says “this is all given by God”.
What makes Mr. Atmaram drive till today?
Atmaram currently drives 4 th van, without spectacles. He says “wearing spectacles disturbs my driving but never without” … Van is my love, I followed my love and passion because it made me travel around, explore the unexplored side, meet many people across the various religions and vivid culture. Van and the roads have taught me lessons,
earning, happiness, and have given experience that any other job would fulfill.
