Skip to main content

The curious case of the taxi driver and his passenger



I was on duty one Monday when the office orderly knocked on my door. I beckoned for him to come into my office. He came into my room agitated and said there was a taxi driver from Muar, Johor who was insisting on seeing the boss. As the boss was not in, he was directed to see me as the duty officer for the day. I requested him to direct the taxi driver to my room. 


When the driver came over to see me, I informed him that the boss was not in but that he could talk to me. I inquired how I could  help him. He told me that he had a peculiar problem and related the following. 


He came from a village close to Muar, Johor. That morning an elderly man had arrived at the taxi station with a young man and asked,  “could one of you take my grandson to the Federal Capital where he has been offered a job as an office orderly at the headquarters of a Government Department in KL”. He also added that his  grandson had never left the village and he hoped that the taxi driver could ensure that the grandson is introduced to the local taxi drivers who could keep an eye on him.


As this was his first task for the day he was elated and agreed to undertake the trip. The fare though exorbitant was agreeable to the elderly man. However on reaching the destination, his passenger saw the ten storey building and refused to get out of the taxi. The taxi driver asked him ”this is the address given by your grandfather. Why do you not want to get out?” To which the young chap had replied “I am scared as I have never seen such a tall building!”.


 The taxi driver  parked his taxi on the roadside and came up to seek help as his passenger was to report for work at this office that very morning but refused to get out of the taxi, saying he was scared. He said it may help if a Malay officer could come down to coax the timid passenger. I called one of my Malay colleagues, explained the problem and requested his help to approach the timid taxi passenger. My colleague was more than helpful. He assured the taxi driver that he was living with a few bachelors, all of whom were civil servants who had also just arrived recently from the villages  and could understand the  predicament of the young man. The young man could live with him and his colleagues. He accompanied the taxi driver to his taxi and after some assurance the timid passenger agreed to accompany his new found friend to report for work. 


The taxi driver was relieved that he could report to the grandfather that the grandson was in safe hands and went about his way.  

 


All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com


Images are for illustrative purposes only, and are sourced from the web. Please drop us a note if you are the owner and wish to be credited.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first car

  After my Higher School Certificate examination, I was appointed as a labour officer. This job paid well enough that I could finally afford a car for work. It involved a fair amount of travelling, the allowances for which could well cover my petrol bills. This first car was a second hand Volkswagen 1200, reg. AF 1085 in white. However I had just learnt driving and was not confident in taking out the car for my duties. So for the first few weeks, a friend of mine agreed to be a co-driver while I learnt to drive in my neighbourhood.  Once I gained confidence, I told my friend that I was confident and he need not assist me while I drove around. The first day of independent driving, I reversed into a child’s tricycle. Fortunately the child had abandoned the bike in my driveway and went away to look for other pursuits that drew her attention. There was a dent to the rear of my vehicle    that would require some money to have it fixed back into its original shape.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pigeons always look for variety

One of my female pigeons left her nest and moved over to my neighbors pigeon Coop where she had taken a fancy for a male pigeon. I spoke to my neighbor and told him I shall trap my pigeon later that evening. But my neighbor like a budding lawyer told me “possession is 9/10th” of the law and since the pigeon was in his coop it is rightfully his. Now when I feed my pigeons I usually give a loud whistle for them to attend to their food. I told my brother to spray some green peas on the ground. My house was about 5 houses away from my neighbors where my pigeon had sought refuge with her boyfriend. When I gave a whistle my pigeon with 3 other pigeons left my neighbors coop to peck food at my coop. The neighbor was stunned seeing his 3 pigeons heading to my house. He mellowed and asked me to allow him to go over to my coop later in the evening to trap his birds. I used his same words and turned down his pleas despite his apologies. In the evening when the birds got into the coop I caught hol...
Post a Comment
Read more

SENIOR CITIZENS AND THE QR CODE

Age is certainly catching up for me and my friends of my generation. Technology is moving fast and I find we are no longer able to fit into the fast paced modern age. The other day Ben, my friend and I set out to Bukit Damansara to meet up with an Investment banker. Both of us are retirees. I am in the 80's while Ben is a lot younger. We have been residents of KL for a long time, used to Pusat Bandar Damansara area as we had worked in that area many years ago. We decided to take a Grab to go to Bukit Damansara. As we got into the car and buckled up with the safety belt, the driver told us to scan the QR code a small piece of plastic stuck to each side of the window. It took some effort as the sticker was slightly bigger than a postage stamp while we are used to a big placard attached to the back of the front seat. It was quite a challenge to scan it as the car was in motion through some humps and bumps. To our surprise Pusat Bandar Damansara wasn't the place we knew. Our office...
1 comment
Read more