Flat rate, tips and toll extra
Even after more than a decade in an industry that borders on being snooty about how mobile it is...I am still not quite at ease while traveling. I've often tried to break down the issue to really get to the bottom of it. Is it because I absolutely detest packing a suitcase? Or is it because I hate waiting at random airports waiting for my next connecting flight? Or is it the whole lack of sleep thing coupled with skipped meals that precedes and sometimes follows a last minute (like mine often are) business trip? Or is it because I am just plain and simple...lazy? I think the last one sums it up pretty nicely.
That said, I have always enjoyed at least one part of these business trips...the ride back home from the airport in the back of a cab.
Well you see, the ride back home is nothing like the taxi rides you take at other times during the trip. It is devoid of any anxiousness of how the meeting would go? Would your flight be late? Plus, you know you'd get a little more "bhav" (attention and/or nuisance value) from your significant other considering she didn't have to put up with you for these past few days...etc etc.
But the real reasons why I enjoy this last leg of any trip are the conversations I often end up having with the cab driver. Funny as it may sound, but after all the posturing, positioning and one-upmanship of business interactions, it is so much easier and comfortable having a nice unadulterated and relaxing chat with the guy at the wheel.
Interesting folks I tell you, these cabbies! While some may do this full time, most of the people in this country who drive ungodly hours, are doing this to make ends meet and this is their second or even third job in some cases. For instance, the gentleman who dropped me home recently was a Vietnam war veteran, got laid off from a large pharma company's logistics department last year and so was ferrying people back and forth to O' Hare so he could make his ends meet. He told me all about how he was raised by his stepfather and the extent his dad went to keep he and his siblings out of harms way as they were growing up on the Chicago south side. Then he told me that as he was enlisting in the Army, he even took his stepfathers name over his own dad's as a show of respect to what the man had done for his adopted family. Then we talked about the role of parenting in how your kids turn out and so on.
Then there was this other guy who started out as being quite irritating by asking questions about my faith, what it means to me and so forth but after 10-15 minutes we were thick in a debate on the role of religion in a man's life. Though a catholic Greek immigrant, he knew so much about other religions that it ended up being a very fascinating conversation. For some reason, I had a pocket book version of Gandhi's - Message of Gita with me and I just felt like giving the book to this very quirky but intelligent cabbie. So I did.
Another interesting one was this guy who picked me up from the airport sometime in summer this year and seemed to be quite well groomed and sophisticated for someone driving a cab (nothing against the profession, just an observation). He had a copy of the latest WSJ by his side and seemed to be picking it up at traffic signals for a quick glance. One thing led to another and soon I found myself at the wide-eyed-tell-me-more end of an amazingly simple yet in depth take on what's wrong with the American economy. After a while I couldn't keep myself from asking what the hell is he doing driving cabs and was taken aback by this man's story. He was a Turkish business graduate who went bankrupt and had come to the US for a job but due to some issues with his visa paperwork needed to do something to put food on the table till that got sorted out. He found ways to get his hands on all the newspapers and magazines, albeit a bit late, to keep him self up to date. I have to admit that the best explanation of the sub-prime crisis that I've ever heard came from a cabbie!
I guess the setting of a conversation means a lot when it comes to what you end up taking away from it. That the back of a head could be so much more interesting than Pandora or Spotify, has been a revelation for me.
That said, I have always enjoyed at least one part of these business trips...the ride back home from the airport in the back of a cab.
Well you see, the ride back home is nothing like the taxi rides you take at other times during the trip. It is devoid of any anxiousness of how the meeting would go? Would your flight be late? Plus, you know you'd get a little more "bhav" (attention and/or nuisance value) from your significant other considering she didn't have to put up with you for these past few days...etc etc.
But the real reasons why I enjoy this last leg of any trip are the conversations I often end up having with the cab driver. Funny as it may sound, but after all the posturing, positioning and one-upmanship of business interactions, it is so much easier and comfortable having a nice unadulterated and relaxing chat with the guy at the wheel.
Interesting folks I tell you, these cabbies! While some may do this full time, most of the people in this country who drive ungodly hours, are doing this to make ends meet and this is their second or even third job in some cases. For instance, the gentleman who dropped me home recently was a Vietnam war veteran, got laid off from a large pharma company's logistics department last year and so was ferrying people back and forth to O' Hare so he could make his ends meet. He told me all about how he was raised by his stepfather and the extent his dad went to keep he and his siblings out of harms way as they were growing up on the Chicago south side. Then he told me that as he was enlisting in the Army, he even took his stepfathers name over his own dad's as a show of respect to what the man had done for his adopted family. Then we talked about the role of parenting in how your kids turn out and so on.
Then there was this other guy who started out as being quite irritating by asking questions about my faith, what it means to me and so forth but after 10-15 minutes we were thick in a debate on the role of religion in a man's life. Though a catholic Greek immigrant, he knew so much about other religions that it ended up being a very fascinating conversation. For some reason, I had a pocket book version of Gandhi's - Message of Gita with me and I just felt like giving the book to this very quirky but intelligent cabbie. So I did.
Another interesting one was this guy who picked me up from the airport sometime in summer this year and seemed to be quite well groomed and sophisticated for someone driving a cab (nothing against the profession, just an observation). He had a copy of the latest WSJ by his side and seemed to be picking it up at traffic signals for a quick glance. One thing led to another and soon I found myself at the wide-eyed-tell-me-more end of an amazingly simple yet in depth take on what's wrong with the American economy. After a while I couldn't keep myself from asking what the hell is he doing driving cabs and was taken aback by this man's story. He was a Turkish business graduate who went bankrupt and had come to the US for a job but due to some issues with his visa paperwork needed to do something to put food on the table till that got sorted out. He found ways to get his hands on all the newspapers and magazines, albeit a bit late, to keep him self up to date. I have to admit that the best explanation of the sub-prime crisis that I've ever heard came from a cabbie!
I guess the setting of a conversation means a lot when it comes to what you end up taking away from it. That the back of a head could be so much more interesting than Pandora or Spotify, has been a revelation for me.
posted by Shishir @ Monday, December 31, 2012
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