Interesting things are always available for us to see and learn from, only if we actually take the effort to always be on the alert for the presence of such opportunities. Recently, I've been taking more than a fair share of cabs all over the place (I'm starting to become a little too lazy to leave early to arrive early, since all the folks that I am meeting are always late), and have listened to many tales that the taxi-drivers were telling me about.
So one of them picked me up from outside my house, and asked me whether I was working or not (I said I had a day off; no point telling the whole truth all the time). And he was saying something like, hey young man, then why the heck are you still in Singapore? He suggested that I take a holiday over at one of those resorts in Thailand, where things are exceedingly cheap. And he mentioned some things about renting the services of some girls at the low low price of about 50 dollars for a day. Not being a nasty fellow, I just sort of nodded my way through what he said, wondering how on earth did the conversation ever ended up to me receiving advice on going to some tropical paradise to party. He also started talking about how cheap and easy it is to actually go there, particularly via the budget airlines, as opposed to the usual bus-route. Everything's interesting and such, but I felt more amused than anything; it's quite cute when people start to mistake me for being a young working professional as opposed to the undergrad student that I really am.
In another cab ride, the cab driver was asking me what I was doing at the National University of Singapore. I told him that I was doing some summer work. He asked me if I studied there, and I said no, I was studying overseas (a little truth doesn't do much harm). Then he asked if I was studying in Australia, which I said yes to (no sense trying to explain to folks where Carnegie Mellon was). At this time, I realised my error, but I think that he didn't, since he was more involved in the driving than he would be willing to admit (I can't possibly be studying in Australia if I said that I was doing summer work in the middle of June). So, he asked my field, which I said Computer Science. And then he asked me which university I was studying in. I sort of hemmed and hawed and said that something to the effect of "nah, you don't really want to know" and sounding really sheepish and all, and he made his own conclusion that I was studying at some Informatics group of schools. And then he started talking about his son in the polytechnic doing some IT-related course, and how his son's computer cost a bomb and that they were still trying to pay it off, and that all the son used the machine to do was to play games and not the stuff that he was supposed to do with the computer. I just nodded emphatically.
In yet another cab ride, the cabby and I were discussing about surgery and medicine(!); that's right, surgery and medicine, particularly with regards to cancer and stuff. The conversation started innocent enough; we were talking about how hot the day was, and that how soon it was to rain, and that since the clouds were so dark, it would be a really heavy rain. We then talked about the various rain gear that we used; I said I used some umbrella or the hoodie of my jacket, while he said all he brought along was a small plastic bag to keep his head dry, with me making the comment that keeping the head dry is very important as it would affect the overall comfort of the body and with him agreeing with what I said. Then the topic progressed to the cab driver talking about his sister. Apparently, his sister had a brain tumour, and was at the critical crossroads of whether to operate or not. According to him, his sister decided to not operate on the tumour, because of the potential risk of being in a vegetative state. We then talked about the state of neuroscience, and how some times the neurosurgeons have not reached the stage where they can perform the surgeries flawlessly due to the overall lack of understanding own how the brain works. It progressed to the point where we were talking about the conjoined adult Iranian twins and how their eventual demise was more or less expected, given the circumstance.
As I said, there are often many interesting things that we can learn about the world, if we actually allow ourselves the opportunity to take in things that come by and try to make sense of it. The often strange and fruitful discussions between me and the cab drivers will probably be a reason why despite the apparent cost, I didn't mind taking a cab to some of my meeting places. Most of the cab drivers are pretty world-wise, though they might not have that air of success that most people would like to assume that folks who are successful will have. But being in the business for so long, and being alive for so long, means that they often have some interesting point of view that we probably have not had the chance to look into.
Which is why one of my favourite activities is to just talk to people to listen to the stories that they tell, in the hopes that through their telling, they will be more comfortable with the subject matter, and I will be able to learn something that is not directly available through the books.
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