Recently, we, at A Journalist Reveals, were contacted by the representative of Rastey’s spokesperson – Shabir Momin. We were in talks regarding a review and we received the necessary permission for a complimentary trip, soon.
Booking: A car was booked for the 25th of July. Currently, 011-4884 4884 is their primary contact number. They have plans to convert the same to a pan-India number. Their mobile app is expected to be launched within the fortnight. We need to distinguish this service from the others like Ola. Ola is a radio taxi, which is a point to point service only. Rastey, on the other hand, is a car rental with Intercity (outstation) and Intra city (Full/half day). Booking process is the same except that you book in advance for outstation and full day. As of now, they execute approximately 700 outstation duties per month.
The spokesperson added, “We are a 4-way car booking system, covering 58 cities with 15000 cabs and dealing with 150+ corporates, doing 5000 rides a day. We are group of 30 employees, providing 24/7 dedicated Customer Support to 58 cities. We do our homework. Our partners are rated internally on key parameters, viz. punctuality, fleet quality, ease of booking, transparency in pricing, etc. so that you get a hassle free and pleasant commuting experience. Our increasing users is the proof of our satisfied service. You can refer to our website http://www.rastey.com/ for details.”
The Trip: We decided to visit 5 temples on a full day basis through one of their cars. Though we requested the spokesperson to send a small car because we were just 3 of us, they sent us a 5 passenger-seater Innova. Our chauffeur, Pradeep reached our pickup point before 8:10 AM, which was the actual pickup time. We were ready and went to the car within 5 minutes.
Then, we set out for the small pilgrimage in Mumbai. We caught traffic around Dahisar Check Naka. But, Pradeep manoevered the car so smoothly and so well that I fell asleep! I woke up only in Bandra! At Bandra, we negotiated the Sealink to Worli in about 15 minutes.
We managed to reach the Balaji Temple at Charni Road, just before they closed their doors for the noon. We got a good darshan because our group was the only one that was present at that time. Our next stop was Mumbadevi. This temple is close to the bylanes of Kalbadevi. Though Pradeep missed the turning, he navigated the car cleverly to return to the turning, soon enough with advice from the other taximen.
There was a long line at Mumbadevi for the darshan. We were about to leave. But, the line disappeared within minutes and we could go in, immediately. Our next stop was Mahalakshmi Temple. At Mahalakshmi also we expected some amount of crowd due to the auspicious Shravan month going on. But, we seemed to have reached at a time when there were less people. The darshan went well and we had some snacks in the canteen behind the temple. The pleasant air with the high reaching waves in the sea beckoned to us for a shower. But, we did not have time for it.
The ride from Mahalakshmi to Malad Vaishnodevi Temple was also driven very smoothly by Pradeep. Again, I fell asleep. I got up just when he was navigating some bylanes of Malad. Luckily, there was no other devotee present in the temple when we reached there. We had decided to have lunch near this temple.
The last temple that we had on our agenda was Saidham at Kandivali. Very few devotees were present there, as well. Our darshan was very good and we got back into the car for returning to our drop point. Overall the trip was very good. Kudos to the chauffeur!
Price for the trip: Rs. 4895/-.