Now all media including EXIT POLL Groups will turn cabbiewallas for their guess work. May be the exit polls will not become cabbiewall polls, who knows? People who move will public definitely know the pulse well and with some keenness in politics or any subject, they can easily grasp and judge. Not just that, even while bargaining they know for sure how to bargain with whom. They may not be from IITs or IIMs they are definitely the IMM (Indian Mass Media) for all times.
Basically they are uncanny and very observant. If they had dropped a passenger in one spot, they never forget the spot next time around, could be after a few years. This habit extends to observing the people and arriving at logical conclusions. The day I went in a cab at the end of the emergency when Indira Gandhi was triumphantly marching towards victory, being stamped by the people of India as an uncrowned empress, it is a cabbie whom I met at New Delhi who was very clear in his judgement as to where the commonfolks would turn out to be in the ensuing election. When I had to tune BBC announcing the defeat of Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, then President of INC and the delay in getting the results from Rae Bareilly, I remembered the cabbie as well his acumen in knowing the pulse of the so called uneducated masses, poor peasants, who gave the greatest of the lessons to the educated class, I recalled the uncanny ability to know things better. Jayaraman
The article is interesting. As a diplomat the author provides his take on how people enter the land of opportunity. Cabbies and Barbers are great at story telling. They love to talk with their fares as long as they can prevent them from seeing the fare meter. They love mostly long rides and can slip in a long detour while they keep their customer enthralled with their tales. They are quick to zero in on their targets. They can spot an outsider in a jiffy and ply a story of how the Local Authority is senseless and targets the cab drivers or how they(the authorities) do not even spare the visitors or about useless one- ways, exhorbitant parking charges and police harassment of the poor cabby thrown for good measure. Cabbies love to tell tall stories to pull some fast ones on the unsuspecting traveller. I think their stories make good fictional accounts, most of the times. The author seems to enjoy his experience of cabbie stories
An adopted son of a Doctor would attend university at the minimum. There is no way that he will drive a taxi.
I live overseas from some years and most people who drive taxi are not exactly qualified. Some will say that their degrees are not recognized etc etc. Most of the taxi drivers are actually refugees and people who entered on some shady visa. The earnings of a taxi driver is only slightly more than an entry level technician. A call centre tech would make 35K NZ$ and a taxi driver makes like 50k NZ$. But in the second year the gap closes but another 10K and by third year it is totally gone.
There is no wonder if the writer finds taxi drivers in America emanating from various parts of the world talking all world politics.Even in India if you go to a hair saloon, the barber talks every thing including politics,on the face of earth so vociferously-right from action of Kamal Hasan in the recently released Dasavathaaram film to the contraversy & political situation in the country,that you will be wonder strauck for his awareness of things.Same will be the case with an auto/taxi driver of a town/city and also with a villager sitting at the junction of his place who talk, with great ease,about the contemporary politics. What the writer has dwelt upon is not world politics,but the experiences of the three drivers for their settlement in USA.The caption,therefore,is a misnomer. If we are to say about the political knowledge of a commoner in India,the above examples of barber,auto/taxi driver& villager speaks a lot.Thanks to growing literacy,media-especially TV which has become a household even in villages,people are getting more & more exposed to what is happening out side-in country and world as well.
Nice article, but isn't it about how people come to USA ... I mean the guy who had a business in Kabul got adopted by his uncle, the one from pakistan came on a tourist visa converted to asylum and the 3rd came from Egypt ... who knows how.
This piece has nothing to do with world politics but with how people come to USA for a better qaulity of life - better than what they had there.
Even this guy's other article "just a passport, sir", is about how a guy from punjab got to US faking as his brother ... now of course the finger print and validate them at US port of entry.
So, the author gets into a cab and asks the driver "so, how did you get into this great country?" LOL
RE:Kill bramhin power from india...n make them begger as they already refer in all stories...
by Anand Sharman on Jul 05, 2008 08:42 AM Permalink
Dishonesty take the support of mask of honesty to propogate itself. It is a paradox that most dishonest people talk continiously about honesty, and they self-certify themselves,too! Those who are neither 'Adarsh' nor 'Satyawadi', only write such 'A-satya'. Anti-India forces getting funds, ideology and instruction from enemy countries, putting up mask of saviors of our country and portraying as messiah of the down trodden, need to be exposed immediately by every true Indian.
RE:Kill bramhin power from india...n make them begger as they already refer in all stories...
by indian on Jul 05, 2008 11:13 AM Permalink
My vote for you. We all indian must be united irrespective of religion/region or casts. Alas...aahh, we are not.
RE:Kill bramhin power from india...n make them begger as they already refer in all stories...
by Calspadeaspade on Jul 05, 2008 05:31 AM Permalink
You are full of crap and hatred. Brahmins are not ruling any more. They never did. It was the Moghuls and then the British. You dont even know the history of USA.
RE:Kill bramhin power from india...n make them begger as they already refer in all stories...
by deepak on Jul 05, 2008 06:15 AM Permalink
Calaspade..the main idea of these kind of Islamists disguised at Satyavadis is to spread discontent among Hindus. Caste prejudice in India is nothing compared to caste & religious bigotry in Islamic countries. You will not find any person from the lower strata of society in the high echelons of Pakistan...and we thought Pakistan is casteless.
