Here's a piece from Debayan Datta from Silchar, India........Nice read.
I had only just arrived in the US. I had to go to the Social Security office for paperwork, just like every other immigrant. Since I hardly knew anyone, I decided to step out of my office and get a cab.
Getting there was the easy part. However, once I was done with my work, I realized that I was a long way from the office, and there would not be any bus till evening. As I was hovering around the bus stand, unsure of what to do, I noticed a local cab/van with an Indian/South Asian-looking fellow looking out through the driver's window.
Needless to say, the van stopped, I walked towards him, and this fellow asked me where am headed. After figuring out the address he said "Ok. I'll drive you there". I gladly hopped in.
Within 5 minutes, he got a call from someone on his cell. After he hung up, he turned to me, and asked - "Do you mind if I make a detour?". I said Ok, figuring out that it was a redundant question for someone lost as a Dodo.
Within two minutes, we got out of the freeway. The roads started getting narrower. The houses started looking shabbier, creepier. The neighborhood looked like ghetto.
At this point, my south Asian-looking cab driver, turned around and asked me "Are you from India?". I nodded, and asked him the same.
"I am from Karachi. My name is Rahim. How do you do?" - pat came the reply. Then he added - "I'll be right back".
Probably a few thousand thoughts went through my head as I started imagining things, how he could from behind, shoot me, dump my body somewhere, or simply rob me at gun point, and throw me out of the cab etc. etc.
In reality nothing remotely close to any of that happened. He stopped the car, went to one of those houses, probably his, and came back with a large coffee flask. As the aroma of freshly brewed coffee pervaded the cab, he smiled mischievously at me, and said "My car-owner wanted me to get this for him when I go back to the garage". I smiled back, still reflecting on my sheer idiocy and flight of imagination. We shared some of his tasty home made coffee and moved on. ( I learnt later the garage owner was an Indian!)
I remained silent for the rest of the trip. My newly found friend brought me to my office, stopped the cab, and asked me "How much did you pay when you went there?" I said, "30 dollars". He thought for a while, then said, "Give me 20".
As we exchanged the fare and the change, shook hands, and he drove out, two people from different sides of the borders just got to know each other, more at a personal level, rather than an arch enemy, and went on their business.
Till the time I left that city, I regularly played cricket with Rahim and his gang. It was one of the best things that happened to me during my stay.
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When I was on a visit to Lahore, my cab driver even refused to take a tip from me for driving me around for two days! He said he couldn't since I was a guest from India!!
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