Taxi Driver: The most Maligned Job

When you mention the word ‘Indian’ pretty much all over the world, the first things that come to ones mind is Bollywood (Mostly Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan), Curry, The software (IT) brainees, Taj Mahal, Cricket and Taxi Drivers. Yes, you read it right, Taxi Drivers!! And there are many fine examples of this. We have seen the friendly Sadarji cab driver in New York City in Indian movies playing match maker getting the hero and heroine together. We have seen a bearded guy with a turban driving a taxi with Spider Man on top of the roof in his signature stance in the comics, we have seen Mohinder Suresh, one of the lead characters in the American TV series ‘Heroes’ who is a biologist, driving a taxi when he first arrives in New York. Those who have played the game Grand Theft Auto IV have seen and heard the Indian accent of the taxi driver in it. I have seen Indian taxi drivers in the US, London, Dubai, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Singapore, Malaysia and of course India. But lets keep India away from this and focus on the rest of the places. The demographics of the age of these people vary.

Living in a first world country is by no means cheap. For many Indians, driving a taxi is an immediate source of income when they migrate into a new country and continue to do so until they find a proper job. But I am sure there are countless stories and cases where people have ended up driving a taxi for year’s altogether. Indian international students pay about three times the tuition fees than the local citizens in most places including US, UK and Australia. Many of these students hope to get a part time job for surviving, let alone being able to focus on what they are there for, studying!! Looking at it in a different way, who does not like that extra bit of cash??? Let it be clubbing, alcohol, gambling, buying clothes, food, gizmos, whatever!! But the bottom line is, which has recently been lingering and bothering my mind, why drive a taxi out of the many part time jobs available out there most of which don’t even demand u have prior experience??? While reading, keep in mind that most students drive cabs after hours and on weekend’s coz that’s when they are free from University commitments.

There was a recent famous case in Melbourne where a 23 year old Indian IT student was repeatedly stabbed by two men at 2am in the morning in a suburb. There was a massive protest the next day by the Indian cabbies in the city center in Melbourne demanding better security and safety for them after hours especially on weekends. Here is one of the many youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36c6NGZQM3c

Today in Adelaide, there was a protest by 50 taxi drivers in the city center lead by an incident 2 nights ago where an Indian taxi driver called Balraj Singh was bashed up by two drunk people who also stole his taxi. The demands were the same, more safety and security after hours and on the weekends.

Source & News link: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/

0,22606,23720136-2682,00.html

So let’s get this right. These incidences are related to drunken people who happened to be the passengers of these two cabbies on those ill fated nights. Binge drinking in general and partying on the weekends in Australia is a popular culture and it’s no surprise that these drivers complain of such incidences of assault and torture, not to mention ill treatment and swearing, taking place more often than actually noticed or recorded on the weekends. Getting straight to the point, people claim that Australians are rascist and in general more towards the Indians. I mean, everyone has seen that this year in cricket as well. The Indian team is also known to be criticized by the Australian fans in cricket stadiums in Australia.

What I am about to put forward is very simple and a fact that is often overlooked and its all related to alcohol!! Ever heard of the fact that a drunk person always speaks the truth? Ever heard that pretty much most of the people in the world are rascist in some way or the other including Indians? Ever been scared of an unknown drunk person on the street or in a party? Ever heard that the amount of hatred in the world is increasing by the day for whatever reason that may be? See the point i am getting to?

Being in a state of intoxication brings out the best and the worst of human nature no matter what color you are. Take a new years party in India where people get drunk turning into sleaze bags and getting violent. We all have seen those drunken fights which start off from nothing but ‘Mujhe dhakka kyoon diya? Tujhe pata hai main kaun hoon? (why did u push me? Do u know who I am?)’ or ‘Meri biwi/beti ko kyon cheda? (why did u tease my wife/daughter?)’ Similarly, I am not surprised why these incidences relate to drunken people and those Indian cab drivers who happen to be working on the weekends picking up drunk passengers from clubbing districts. As far as cricket is concerned, beer is legally sold in cricket games in Australia and strictly restricted to the general admission sections whose tickets are of course the cheapest. Why go international when u can find local examples in India? Look at the incidences that took place recently in Bombay where the pro Maharashtrians went on assaulting north Indians and UP, bihari taxi drivers.

Don’t get me wrong here!! I have been fortunate to have known some very good and polished Australian people. But on the other hand there have been several occasions where I felt that I was being treated differently specially at the airports of Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne where I was bomb and drug tested on several occasions in spite of the fact that their machines dint buzz or detect any metal. Add to that London Airport (and I don’t know whether it has anything to do with my beard :S). But I believe that its no way to generalize people and it’s the good and bad that make neutral.

So the question still remains, why do most Indians settle for a taxi driver’s job? I know for a fact that the pay rates are not very fancy, some being as low as $13/hour and that the drivers are paid only 50% of every fare. Australia is a place where employees have their fare share of rights and wages are set to a minimum to avoid exploitation. There are tons of jobs offering salaries like $15-$16/hour and if u are above 21, the chances of you earning $20-$21/hour are quite high!!

In the mean time, I wish the best for all the taxi drivers in Adelaide and around the world and can only hope for better things to come.

Related Article: Melbourne's Taxi drivers are a breathe of fresh air

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/melbournes-taxi-drivers-are-

a-breath-of-fresh-air/2007/02/23/1171734021985.html

2008 F1 Season and.......

It’s been a great start to the 2008 FIA Formula1 Championship with a lot of drivers showing their worth and justifying their hefty paychecks. This season is already set to be a cracker with lots of surprises in store. Of course we had more than our fair share of shocks and surprises last season but this time the action is guaranteed to be on track rather than off track, that is, excluding the ongoing case against Max Mosely regarding his sex scandal with prostitutes that had a Nazi theme. So then, 5 Grand Prix weekends are over with Kimi Raikkonen (KR) leading the championship at 35 points with Felipe Massa (FM) and Lewis Hamilton (LH) behind him at 28 points each.

Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari: had a terrible start to the season in Australia with a shaky performance that included a couple off track excursions. An engine problem during the second half of the race did not help either. Being a man of few words he put Australia behind him and made a come back in the championship with victories in Malaysia and Spain. So far he definitely is the favorite to win the Championship.

Felipe Massa - Ferrari: and the words solid, composed, bullet proof performances do not go hand in hand. He is a driver who I have always believed does not deserve a drive at Ferrari. However, he is all set to silence his critics this year with the desire to win the championship as strong as ever. For that we will have to wait and watch. He however has had mixed fortunes this season which two DNF’s already. He failed to finish both the Melbourne and Malaysian GP but came back with a dominating win in Bahrain. His credible and composed victory this past weekend in Turkey was a record setting Hat trick making him the most successful driver at the Istanbul Otodrome. These two tracks are his favorite among all on the calendar this year and he has played down speculation that he is a one (or two) track wonder.

Lewis Hamilton - Mclaren Mercedes: I was right when I said at the end of last year that it’s gonna be even harder for Lewis to win the championship this year. Mclaren lie third in the driver’s championship behind both Ferrari and BMW and the pressure from team mate Heikki Kovalainen (HK) is increasing by each passing race weekend. So, things are not looking very good for him so far with only one win in Australia. Not to mention the fact that he has been outpaced by HK quite a few times including qualifying in Turkey in spite of HK being heavier on fuel. Mclaren have not won a single championship since 1999 though they have had the best drivers in the world piloting their cars not to mention they lost the services of two world champions. That’s a bit of a worry if u would ask me. More on LH a little later.

Fernando Alonso (FA) - Renault: Every passing year makes me admire him even more. Being a double world champion makes it very hard to be fighting in the middle of the field when you know you should be at the top of the grid fighting for victories. However, Renault have only recently started to get things right and have realized that the only way they can keep him in 2009 is to provide him with a title winning car. He has however been pushing his Renault to the max and scored well deserved 9 points. Poor outings by FM at the start of the season lead to rumors that FA had already signed a secret contract with Ferrari for 2009. Luca di Montezemelo and Flavio Briatore, who believe that a team must have a number 1 and number 2 driver, have played down the rumors and admit that having KR and FA alongside each other is not going to be in the interest of Ferrari claiming it would be ‘Damaging’.

The BMW’s of Robert Kubica (RK) and Nick Heidfeld (NH): BMW is a team on the rise with not much between them and Mclaren. Both drivers have been consistent so far with RK enjoying more success than ‘Quick Nick’ and the dream of winning a Grand Prix is not that distant anymore. Although a driver’s title for BMW is very unlikely, consistent outings by the team should give them a chance of finishing runners up in the constructors.

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed the racing but no so much the coverage of ITV and F1 racing magazine who never fail to show that they are both British and Lewis Hamilton is a superstar legend of F1. Let’s start with the coverage of ITV. F1 is telecasted on channel ten in Australia which I believe has some sort of connection to the ITV network. All James Allen and Martin Brundle, the commentators of ITV, talk about during the race is Lewis Hamilton. I am sure they were in seventh heaven during the Melbourne GP where Lewis won, but I am glad I was not tortured by them since I was in Melbourne watching the race live. They never admitted Lewis was at fault when he ran into FA in Bahrain ruining his and Alonso’s race and immediately came to the conclusion that FA brake tested Lewis without any evidence. Even a normal drive on a race weekend is termed ‘Heroic’ by them. During Lewis’s second stint in the Turkish GP, LH was lapping nearly a second quicker than FM simply because he had a very light car and James Allen called that Senna’esq race pace.

F1 Racing magazine is all about Lewis Hamilton these days. There has to be an article about him somewhere in there not matter how silly it is. If not, let’s put him on the cover page at least!!! Following are some of the words by Peter Windsor (Yeap, you guessed it!! He is British) in the article called ‘Kimi vs. Lewis: Inside their title fight’ in this months (May 2008) F1 racing issue.

“If there is anyone better than Kimi out there, then his name is Lewis” – WRONG!!!!

“Lewis is learning to handle the most difficult and omnipresent press corps in the world” – I agree to that. Thanks for being Honest Peter. Much appreciated

“Lewis, the man of the future, follows one packed day with another. Abbey, Vodafone, Mercedes, Boss, factory visit, test, TAG Heuer, travel, Mobil, media, Olympus, team meetings, race, travel, factory…. And they still want him to join the GPDA” – I wont say much apart from the fact that he can choose not to do half of the things above like Kimi does and did when he was at Mclaren and concentrate on his racing.

I mean, its time that the British media shut their mouth and came back to reality. More so, if they don’t want Lewis to end up like Jenson Button or David Coulthard. Lot’s of promise initially, but not a single championship between the two.

Following are some quotes by David Coulthard in the same issue of F1 racing:

“When I was young, I thought F1 was easy, because I’d come straight in with a winning car and I didn’t appreciate how technical it was – a bit like, I guess, what Lewis is experiencing right now. He probably can’t believe how easy F1 is, but a few years down the line, when the cars not so competitive, it may be a different story” – Thank you DC. I don’t need to comment more on that, do I??

Q: looking at what happened last year at Mclaren - where there were some doubts regarding equal treatment – do you think you had a fair treatment when u were Mika’s team-mate?

DC: “It was no surprise that, despite Mclaren’s best efforts, one guy ended up feeling less loved than the other.” - Mclaren, stop lying to everyone and admit that u love Hamilton and take responsibility of damaging Alonso’s reputation too!!

On yea, and finally, did I mention that Lewis’s biography was eating dirt at the bookshelves around the world and that he is struggling with car set up this year? Can’t steal Alonso’s car setups anymore can you?