The day was Monday so I rose early and went out to second campus by
the uni bus at 7.20am. I taught freshmen Oral English until 10am and
then caught a taxi back home. It is not expensive to catch a taxi
here, but it is often exciting, if sometimes dangerous. Today the
driver was an anachronism in physical appearance. He looked exactly
like a cartoon version of a 1950s/early 1960s American hipster: about
30 years old, in a wide-lapelled, double breasted jacket with a dark
shirt underneath, 'cool' sunglasses, a prickly black goatee beard with
matching moustache, and a crazy haircut not unlike an old flat-top
Kramer cut from those decades. When I sat down, he said 'Hell oh',
gunned the tincan taxi out into the traffic, then grinned and said,
all as one phrase, 'Hell oh sit down pleeze'. I liked his way of
driving - fearless, fast and lyrical. He drove like I imagine Dean
Moriarty of _On the Road_ fame would have driven – or maybe the real
man behind the wheel of Keroauc's novel, Neal Cassidy. My driver knew
where every inch of outside skin on his tincan was, and he ducked and
dived through the slenderest alleyways of traffic like some kind of
animal … In fact. that was it!, the tincan was an extension of himself
and he was ducking and jiving like an Aboriginal Aussie rules football
player. And when the opposition defence got too obstructive – four
lanes of raggedy parked traffic at the red light, with bicycles and
pedestrians all taking up any inch of space - he took off the road and
went around that corner on a broad footpath! Hah! He did it all so
effortlessly and with such clear-eyed athleticism that I just sat
there and marvelled. I don't know how he didn't hit anybody or cause
an accident, but he did it languorously, driving me home quicker and
smoother than any other taxi-driving maniac in this crazy city.
He cool
He no need no driving school
He a crazy Zen-driving fool
Playing the road like he's shooting pool …
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
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