taxi ride 30.3.11
on Wednesday I had to be at work by 4am so I hailed a cab near my home. The taxi driver was an Indian chap maybe slightly older than me. He was telling me about his escapades with non-local passengers and their pronunciation of the names of places. Eg he picked up a young man in Yishun and he asked "which route do you want to take to get to ?" The man replied "man-die" and the taxi driver was thinking he was saying someone had died. Actually he meant "Mandai". Another time a lady passenger said she wanted to go to "Bedok Watermanymany" which was meant to be Bedok Reservoir. And another lady he fetched, he said "Where do you want to go?" And she said "Uncle, you know" and he said "No I don't know!" She said "no, you know, just down the road, you know" Then he realised she meant Eunos. It was hilarious.
Then we started talking about drunk people (he starts his shift at 2am so he sees a lot of drunk people) and I told him that my friend once x-rayed in A&E a guy so drunk he had managed to swallow a bottlecap without knowing it. He only complained of a scratchy feeling in his throat but said he hadn't eaten any fish or stuff which is the normal culprit for causing a foreign body in the throat. His very strange reply was "Was he a faggot or what? Maybe he got nothing to suck for the night so he sucked a bottle." I was rather shocked. Even typing this now I am getting chills because it is such a rude thing to say. I am also very curious how he made that connection. I would have expected the faggot question only if the situation had involved the patient's rear end. My response to him was just "No he was drunk and his friend later admitted to dropping the bottle cap in his beer as a prank". I was extra guarded because initially while relating the story I had decided not to tell the taxi driver that the patient in question was Indian, so I already had a screen up. I am also shocked and puzzled that he would think that such conversation is appropriate. I would not be surprised if he talks like that while joking around with his mates, but to be comfortable saying things like that to a female stranger is beyond my comprehension. Without sense of propriety or etiquette. And at the same time, my brain was trying to negotiate the idea of how deep-throating a capped bottle can result in the cap becoming lodged in one's throat. One would need to first have a bottle opener lodged in the throat I guess.
Then we started talking about drunk people (he starts his shift at 2am so he sees a lot of drunk people) and I told him that my friend once x-rayed in A&E a guy so drunk he had managed to swallow a bottlecap without knowing it. He only complained of a scratchy feeling in his throat but said he hadn't eaten any fish or stuff which is the normal culprit for causing a foreign body in the throat. His very strange reply was "Was he a faggot or what? Maybe he got nothing to suck for the night so he sucked a bottle." I was rather shocked. Even typing this now I am getting chills because it is such a rude thing to say. I am also very curious how he made that connection. I would have expected the faggot question only if the situation had involved the patient's rear end. My response to him was just "No he was drunk and his friend later admitted to dropping the bottle cap in his beer as a prank". I was extra guarded because initially while relating the story I had decided not to tell the taxi driver that the patient in question was Indian, so I already had a screen up. I am also shocked and puzzled that he would think that such conversation is appropriate. I would not be surprised if he talks like that while joking around with his mates, but to be comfortable saying things like that to a female stranger is beyond my comprehension. Without sense of propriety or etiquette. And at the same time, my brain was trying to negotiate the idea of how deep-throating a capped bottle can result in the cap becoming lodged in one's throat. One would need to first have a bottle opener lodged in the throat I guess.