People, Work and the Quality of Life

I love talking to people and finding out more about them. Their views on issues, their backgrounds, their lives, their family and most important of all, their quality of life.

My favourite people to chat up are usually cab drivers. Being locked in a metal box for 30mins does not permit escape from me and my sometimes rather inquisitive tongue ( I do not mean it in THAT way, if you know what i mean ).

A cabbie's life in Singapore is pretty much standard. He/She usually shares a cab with another driver, usually a younger one who does the night driving. Its to offset the SGD86 per day rental for those old toyota cabs and SGD120+ for the faster and more powerful Hyundai Sonatas. Have not chatted up a Merc or a Chrysler cabbie.

I took a cab back last night from a bar and I had the most interesting chat with an old malay cabbie. He surprised me with exceptionally well polished manners and style of speaking. His voice was uber smooth and he spoke with an air of a person with very high self esteem, someone who has achieved something and is proud of it.

I talked to him and learnt he has 4 kids, all above 25, very well educated and successful. The oldest was offered a seat in the NUS medical school and currently works at NUH. The second is a trained electronics engineer working as a senior product engineer at Accenture, one of the world's largest tech consultation company. The third is doing a PhD in the US and the youngest daughter is a lawyer.

The conversation became awkward when i asked him why none of his kids were taking care of him. He was a really small man with wrinkles and white whisps of hair on his head. He shrugged and the car turned silent for the remainder of the journey.

It disgusted me. For all i care, his kids were not successful as he thinks they are, their failure at expressing gratitude and love for a person who had worked so hard, and is still working hard to raise them is inexcusable.

What is society coming to when morals and the value of family is overlooked in the pursuit of personal agendas and happiness?



Matrix