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The owner of a taxi company for whom the journey is the most important thing
Take a trip in a Karma Kar and you’ll understand the company slogan: “The journey is more important than the arrival.” The west London-based firm is a cab company with a difference. Its fleet consists of four imported Indian Ambassador cars, each lavishly decorated and boasting interiors that feature flowers, beads and dazzling upholstery.
The brains behind this eccentric, yet popular, concept is Tobias Moss, a self-confessed hippie –”not in my lifestyle, but in my thinking,” he laughs over the phone from northern India. “I’ve lived in different places around the world for the past 30 years or so, using my wits to stay alive.” Moss’s big love – and hence the reason for bringing a taste of the subcontinent to the UK – is India, which he has visited every year since 1968. “I hitchhiked there from Munich, travelling through eastern Europe and Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Two years previously, I had been in Syria, Iraq and Jordan.”
Moss is currently nearing the end of a three-month vacation from London, his home city, and has just completed a 10-day silent Vippassana meditation course in Dehra Dun. “I am in Haridwar now, at Swami Ramdev’s Ashram, on an Ayurvedic programme and doing Pranayama yoga (lots of breathing and stretching).” Moss is not a regular yoga practitioner, but he hopes to practise daily when he returns home.
“I find it really difficult to spend winter in London, but my travelling has been restricted since I set up Karma Kars because I’m totally involved in running the company.”
Moss first had the idea for the business in 1999 and this is the first time in years he has taken such a long break. Despite his travels, he believes London is “the greatest city in the world. There are so many opportunities available to many people. There are so many parks and it’s so multicultural; people, food, music and events combine to make a wonderful fruit salad.”
Moss is clearly a people person and admires those who are loyal and have integrity, qualities he appears to share. “When I set up Karma Kars, I never thought of making money; I wanted to give pleasure to all who took a ride.” He abandoned the pursuit of material goods after his first trip to India in the 1960s and instead chose a spiritual path. For Moss, achievement is measured not in terms of money, but in terms of personal happiness and fulfilment. “Karma Kars is a big success,” he says proudly. “Not financially, but we are known around the world.” And what might the future hold? “I will write my autobiography and I would love to open a Karma Kafe in London and a boutique hotel based on Karma Kars, with themed rooms, all different and in mosaic.”
Kathryn Miller; portrait by Simon Brown
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