wtf?

it seems I am extremely biased towards indians. I am not. but one thing I am pretty sure. soon indian prime minister will announce in a speech that indians have been to white house but its still hard for them to catch a cab in nyc. just read these two incidents and correct me if I am wrong.

first at jfk terminal 7: an indian guy with wife and kid, he wanted to go to 17th street & 2nd ave. once we were on van wyck expressway he asked if I could take williams burgh bridge? I politely refused as its way out of way. first you go down south and then come up north? just so you can save toll?
he repeated "out of way" in a surprised tone. offered me "i can pay you the toll money."
I said politely, "no lets pay it to the gov."
at the destination he gave me zero dollars tip on a credit card. I turned back. took a good look at him and thanked him twice. I dont know if he was nervous or what he threw pen down from the window. god bless his soul may be he was broke or what.

2nd two young indian guys. asked me about a budha restaurant.
I said,"no I dont kno, you have to give me the address."
one said." 75th & 9th."
me,"you mean 75th st & columbus?"
him,"yeah yes."
once at 75th he asked me again if I know the restaurant. I said no you can look around. him called come body got the address on his cell phone and said its between 16th and 17th street. I felt this is going to get ugly. these guys dont know what they are doing. well after fighting my way through the horrible traffic getting out of the city for july 4th vacation I went down. once outside the bar. which happend to be chesea markete & not budha restaurant. he made sure that his campanion is inside the chelsea markete door then handed me 5 dollar bill while the fare was $18. I thought may be he made a mistake and wanted to give me a 20 rather 5 so I yelled hey its a 5 but he didnt listen to me I honked and came out of the cab. followed him by saying hey excuse me, now every body else was looking at me but him. he played as if he is busy on his ph but hurridly went inside the door I went after him but too late he was gone. what a looser cheap indian.
lets be aware and update the list of possible fare runner.

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Your Actions tell What kind of Person YOU are.

Yesterday: A girl hailed me on 9th and 72nd. asked me thompson st & spring st. as soon as I took the 65 street transverse. she kept quite when I didnt turn on 9th she kept quite when I was in the turning lane into 65 st crossing but she went on after I was in the park.
her," we are going to west side. why are you taking this? you dont have to go across park."
me," you are going to thompson & spring, right?"
her,"yes, but thats on west side. I know, I take cab every morning."
me," ok how you would have gone?"
her," you could have taken 10th ave you could take west side highway down but you dont have to go across park to east."
me laughing," westside highway is simply out of your way and do you know 10th ave goes uptown?"
her," well you could have taken 9th ave or you could take 8th ave or you could take 7th ave"
me,"what? 9th at this hour? you know 9th has tunnel traffic and 8th ave goes uptown and 7th has times sq? nobody wants to go through times sq."
her," no times sq is on 8th ave."
me,"miss times sq is on 7th ave."
when she insisted in an aggressive tone. I pulled over as soon as I was out  on 5th ave and told her ride is free if she walks out right now and take another cab. or better she can ask the cop in front of us. she refused to ask the cop and agreed to continue on.
at washington sq park I told her that thompson should not be on our left if she was right. she said she had mixed up 9th & 7th ave. still didnt apologise. gave me 2 dollars on a 21 dollars ride.

today I took a couple they had a child, a girl of 3 or 4. they were going to 13th st & 2nd ave. once on van wyck guy asked me
him,"can you take williams burgh bridge?"
me,"no, why? its out of your way."
him,"out of the way." in a surprised tone and added,"I can give you the toll money."
me,"haha no you can give it to the government."
him,"the government."
once at his destination he used his credit card. gave zero tip. I thanked him twice. question? would he ask the same had he had been going on meter and not on a flat fare? clearly he wouldnt dare. well I understand some peoples simply cant afford it though I am glad he atleast paid the fare.

Guess Me!

I took a couple they wanted me to drop them off at a good desi food restaurant. I asked them if they were Indian or Pakistani, it was just a question to decide where to drop them coz Indians restaurant use mild or no spice while we like it hot but the guy said one of us is from Pakistan and one of us is from India so you guess who is from where?
I told him I will tell him by the end of the ride, I thougt that clearly they will give me hint coz there is a slight difference in speaking Urdu/Hindi but they both talked more like Urdu speaking so It was hard to guess.
Once I reached their destination he used his credit card and gave me 4 dollars in tip and I yelled you sir are from Pakistan. He was amazed, admitted he was from Karachi, Pakistan and asked how did I guess? I told him coz had he had been Indian he never would had given me 4 dollars in tip, they don't even tip that much to airports even when their company is paying for them.
We laughed on this and off they went to their hot n spicy food

Ps: btw this post was composed on an iPad.

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Queens "Bra" Bridge

I was dropping a passenger on 6th ave when an indian guy opened my door. handed me his cellphone and said. do you know this address? it was either a garmin phone or a droid phone but I think hearing it giving instruciton it was a garmin phone.
screen had directions for 72-33 37th ave queens.
I said, " yeah if this is the address I can take you there".
he said you know "kabab king" ? I
I asked, "in jackson heights?"
he answered, "in queens."
me, "yeah there is one in jackson heights I can take you there."
they hopped in.
since we were in 50's so I started going towards 59street bridge. as soon as I was on central park south he took out his cell phone and said out loudly "my phone is showing me directions"
I kept driving and once crossing madison he turned the volume all the way up and I heard his phone giving instruction "go straight 0.x miles" once we were in between 2nd and 3rd ave phone said, " go straight and keep left towards queens "bra" bridge." It was hard to control my laughter but I managed somehow while the poor guy turned off his phone. now I was on the bridge and asked me, "do you know the way?" I assured him I am well aware of where he was going. dropped him off there and bought myself a nice chicken over rice platter.

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Indians

If you have read my blog long enough I will seem pretty biased towards indians but that isnt the case. indians always manage to offend me in one way or other but I do ignore small offences but some of them are so much into poking that I cant help it. I still keep quite but overall they lower the respect for indians.
2 days ago I dropped somebody and was planning to move and look for another passenger. before moving my car I always look into the side mirror and back mirros so I dont accidently run over any body. I noticed an indian guy. I didnt want to take him becoz seeing a familiar face lead them to ask so many nonsence questions and poking stuff so its better to avoid. but I could see in my back mirror that he was limping. I have one simple rule. never ignore some body with any kind of disability or older peoples coz not many other cab drivers are willing to take them. when some older peoples or disable person is getting in my car I always put the gear into parking and tell them "take your time, no rush" coz I can understand and dont want them to be uncomfortable and try to hurry just because mr cabbie will say something harsh.
so I took that indian guy. he came to my window asked me how much to hoboken I told him 45 plus tolls. he thought for a while and said ok.
the asked "why you guys charge so much?"
Me: "becoz we cant pick some body in jersey"
him."will you make it 50 even?"
me "no I cant"
I usually charge 50 plus toll so its 58 I get tip on top of that so its always 65 and some change. he was asking to knock another 3 buck while it had already 12 knocked off.
him,"where you from?"
me. "pakistan"
him, "oh you see they fixed the match?"
now seriously? its always they bring something up some pakistani guy had done something embarrasing and they want you to talk abt it. I have a better response if u poke much n thats wtf. I wana drive you and get my money thats simple so stop offending me.
me, "no i dont follow cricket" while very quitely
him."oh you dont watch cricket"
then we were quite until I was in tunnel he started talking about just cricket and normal stuff and about india and this and that. then he bombed another question.
him."are these drone attacks affecting normal pakistani peoples?"
me,"just as much as indian forces attack on kashmir's peoples."
he went quite for a moment and then started saying thing against borders and politicians and armies and I was forced to listen while hoping the journey end soon.
he said  my motto is to just make money and live happily, well thats what I was doing before you asked me about match fixing and american drone attacks. I dont blame you for what your country or someone in power from your nation did. so why do I have to answer your stupid questions?
well finally his destination arrived. he said ok stop here and walked out, I asked him are you coming back? he said oh yes I am going to bank to take out some money. came back with 3 twenty dollar bills and said give me 10 dollar please. I had already told him I cant but seems he was a cheap indian afterall so I told myself dont be a cheap youself with an indian cheap and gave him 10. if any good indian reading this my apologise.
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