Lessons From A Cab Driver

I went to Sydney University Village, Newtown this afternoon with some other friends for a Petronas scholars gathering. We decided to get a cab after the driver of the bus that we were supposed to take screwed up our 30-minute wait. Immediately after we got into the cab, I told the driver to drive us to SUV. I was not sure whether it was the anxiety of arriving late for the gathering, or the heat of tension caused by the long, futile wait for the bus, or simply the fact that I rarely ride a cab before, but I was half-expecting cab drivers to know each part of the region, exact locations where the passengers wish to go to. Maybe they are familiar with every road and where each of them leads to, but to know the points of thousands of places in a big city is a different story altogether and beyond logic, at least that was what I thought. All that put together triggered me to spontaneously ask the driver whether he knows where SUV is. He gave me this one look, and suggested that maybe I could show him the way. I said sure, just head down to Newtown and I would navigate him from there. Before I could add more he smiled at me cynically, and said, "I’m a cab driver, I know every part of this city!" before he burst out laughing. Hearing that, I sat motionless on the passenger’s seat and contemplated on that first lesson of the day.

That cab driver turned out to be a friendly person nevertheless; in fact that first treatment of his towards me was actually done in a friendly manner. Reacting to a conversation from the backseats, he asked me if we are from Indonesia. The first word that came from him upon discovering the truth was ‘Mahathir’. Our conversation went on and on as his cab glided towards Newtown, and I soon learnt that this kind man is from Ghana and like many other foreigners, came here to make a living. He talked about his admiration towards Mahathir, and how he wishes to visit Malaysia someday. Mahathir, he claimed, is his favourite leader and that led him to read a lot about Malaysia. Nothing was really surprising up to that point until he touched on the topic of palm oil and its importance to our country. Now, you feel proud knowing that someone like him knows so much about our country. However, having that conversation with that cab driver at the same time made me feel little. Now, do any of you know anything about Ghana? Well, apart from the fact that it is an African nation and Michael Essien of Chelsea is from there, there is not much else that I know. Lesson number two: a cab driver can sometimes be smarter than you.

Anyway, just before we reached SUV I took the chance to share with him what cab drivers in Malaysia are like. He commented a bit, and before long it was time to say goodbye. I paid the fare, thanked him for the ride and took that final chance to say that it was nice talking to him. It was indeed nice.