Winter Ride Memories

source: flickr.com

Over the past 4 years I have been a daily user of the most badmouthed public transport industry. Moreover, many of you will identify with me when I say; sometimes taking a taxi is the worst ever form of transport one could ever think of. If it is not road rage amongst the taxi drivers themselves, it’s their impatient tendencies of driving on the yellow lane, to their lack of communication skills treating passengers as if they mean nothing, these to name a few. Putting aside the fact that one rotten potato spoils the whole bag, the expressed view in the article does not in any way account to every taxi driver in the country, for the article identifies the selective few taxi drivers who abide by the law and do not treat passengers as if they are nothing.

Shifting attention from the unpleasant side of the industry, it is interesting how a taxi ride home after a long day can be your highlight of the day. Memories ranging from that one conversation you have with a stranger who shares the same views as you on a particular topic, be it politics, soccer, fashion and or any other topic of interest between the two of you. To the ladies, although some of you do not acknowledge it, it must be a pleasant feeling receiving a complement from a stranger you just met in a taxi, more specifically if you just spent the whole day with people you hold dearly to heart and none of them complemented you on your hairdo, dress, make-up and or the most basic thing, your smile.

What caught my attention on 12 April Thursday evening was the respect of the driver of the taxi I bought on my way home from campus. I say respect because more than once I’ve seen taxi drivers yelling at passengers for having not shouted loud enough for the driver to hear that the passenger is about to get-off. And quite often when a taxi drives past a spot where the passenger had intended to get off, some passengers get rude and shout at the driver, robotically shifting the blame to the driver. But this evening, what I experienced was different from the norm. One of the passengers on the same taxi as I tried getting the driver’s attention and for some reasons the driver couldn’t hear them. Nevertheless, the passenger was polite enough to shout even louder for the driver to hear and when the driver noticed that he had passed the intended spot, he apologised to the passenger and this made me realise how respect is a dual phenomenon. In that no matter how well-off you are as an individual, you ought to respect other people in order for them to respect you back. And if this trait was one society lived by, then maybe, and just maybe our societies wouldn’t be so filled of hatred and anger. As a result we owe it to ourselves to do unto others than we would have them do unto to us.