After a long day which i went to school at 1030 am (which is damn early by my standards) and spent an entire day discussing about that irritating project otherwise known as MP3011, i made a trip to the other end of the earth which many of us fondly refer to as Sengkang. Poor Evon is down with diarrhoea and fever also don't know what she ate wrongly. After spending some time with trying to diagnose her problem, i can safely say that she seems better, although she kept farting without me knowing. Silent but, fortunately for my nose, not that deadly.
So i decided to dispense with my limited amount of cash on a cab ride after calculating that i would not spend the entire weekend eating grass if i had taken a cab back home. After all i'm still a poor student living on my parents who on occasions moon-light as a 'small white face' with dear as my sugar mummy. And, admittedly, my family isn't that well-off too.
It was on the back of these circumstances that i got onto that fateful cab ride.
After being asked which route for him to drive me home, he began his long-winded nonsensical rant with this sentence.
"So, you still studying? How many more years left?" he asked in chinese.
"Yup, still got 2 more years," i replied with as short an answer as possible.
Not another useless chit chat with a complete stranger again. Hope this wouldn't take long.
My prayers obviously got re-routed past whoever had power to prevent such things from happening, like god. He continued on being a nuisance on the ear.
"So you are 18 then? No? What you are 24 already? Studying uni? Done your army? No lah no offence but you just look young that's why."
You can already imagine the look of pain on my face then. Blast the cab for being so dark otherwise he might stop if he had seen my contorted face. But no, he began rambling and rambling and rambling and suddenly the topic was changed to, "Young people nowadays......."
So he began airing his grieviences about how young people nowadays are so rude towards their seniors and blah blah blah you know how the tone of these older people goes whenever they have things to complain about, especially about young people. For a moment i thought my mother had suddenly became a taxi driver and i was the unfortunate passenger. Then he started mentioning years ago, as students, they respected teachers and would never question whatever the elderly did. And how young adults do intimate stuff like hugging and snugging up to one another's arms in public places like the train. And how teenagers are constantly in contact with previously-taboo subjects like smoking, alcohol, sex etc. So i tried my best to pacify agitated bull by agreeing and at the same time coming up with comments like "The times have changed" and "It's like that with all the western influence" without trying to be rude or what.
He began reminiscing about a happy occasion when he was told by his passenger to drop him off at the Plaza Singapura bus stop but he refused as apparantly no one is to alight there except buses. The passenger was adamant in his order but the driver was as stubborn as an ox so he had to adhere to his own principles. Somehow that i had to agree as people who make exhorbitant claims and think they, as a customer, are always right do exist. However, to make youngsters bear the blame is not right as there are also older people who do that! What he's doing is he is being biased to young adults basing solely on one bad experience. Not very smart i must say. Alrite maybe he had other bad experiences but still he mustn't be so narrow minded.
It was only after he had released all his pent-up stress that welcome peace of mind came. Finally god had heard my prayers after so long. I thought i could have a quiet ride home until the cab exited from the PIE at clementi ave 6. Travelling along the road which leads to the junction where he had to turn left to commonwealth ave west road, i told him what i had always told to my previous drivers - Go straight, do not turn left, and drop me off at the bus stop thank you very much. According to the diagram below, i wanted him to go along the red arrow. Otherwise taking the blue arrow route we had to pass by at least 2 junctions first before he can u-turn to my flats. I was expecting an affirmation or a silent nod of the head to accede to my request, when he suddenly blurted out, "
Tai hao le!"
Taken aback by his unexpected response, i asked why was it so good. There came his insulting and curt reply.
"
Tai hao le mah, because of you, who wanted to save 20 cents, i had to enter the expressway and go one big round before i can pick up another passenger. That's why i say young people nowadays all not considerate one."
That, i tell you, can be one of the biggest load of bullshit i had heard in my entire life. Why can't i do things to my advantage, which in this case is ensuring i save time and cut down perhaps alittle on my cab fare? Why can't i, without any lack of respect, who paid an obscene amount of money ($12.60 to be exact) have a little advantage over the person taking a bus who's paying lesser than me ($1.30) but has to endure a longer journey home? Why do i even have to endure this man's snide remarks, endure his self-righteous, self-halo effect of his seemingly 'correct' values? How could he even judge me as an immoral selfish individual? As a person who provides the cab service, isn't it his duty to ensure that the customer gets his value's worth? No doubt it was a little troublesome to have to make a slightly longer detour than he had expected, but can't he make a little sacrifice in order to make his customer happier? Just get on with it that's part and parcel of a job. I don't want to know what difficulties he have that's beyond my comprehension, such as he has many mouths to feed or his children are pursuing education or what, but for him to make such a sweeping statement just because things didn't go according to plan just makes him look like he's a kid who's throwing his toys out of his prams when he soiled his diapers. Be a man dude and get on with it.
Just because he's more senior than me doesn't make him a better man than me.
At least i know i didn't leave behind my mannerism in the cab when i got off - i said thanks. Then i went back home to see my
real mom. And please. I bet i will save at least 80 cents, which can buy me a nice fruits meal in school.
