“Work is work. I don’t think twice before going to a place; I’ll take the passenger wherever he wants to go.”
He spoke good English. He said he liked speaking in English with his passengers when he could. “Whenever I get a chance, I speak in English with my passengers. This is my classroom, this is where I learn whatever I can.” He spoke, enunciating each word, with a slight American accent. “Once I had an American passenger and I spoke to him a lot. He was amazed at my English. He said my English was better than many people in his office. That made me very happy.” He’s married and has a kid. I told him his kid is lucky. “I talk anything. It’s the only time I can. I hope I’m not boring you.” I told him I was enjoying listening.
“Whenever the passengers are talking, I try to hear so I can learn new words. If I don’t understand a word I sometimes ask the passenger.” I told him his English was pretty good. He smiled. “Sometimes some people don’t like it when I speak English. They probably think I’m trying to show off. But I don’t apologize because I didn’t do any wrong—I just want to learn.”
He dropped the other guy off (it was raining hard, and we—Pankaj and I—couldn’t find a rick, so this guy asked us to join him since he was headed in that direction anyway), and then we headed to the airport. I told him I wish all auto guys around here were like him. My flight was at 21:30; it was about 21:00 now. I have missed this flight twice in the past, and I didn’t really care if I missed it this time. I asked him if he’d like to have tea. He parked his rick and we had tea and smokes.
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