Cab ride and a schism

Few months back I wrote about a cab ride which educated me about Ghana. Two days back I was back inside a cab on my way to Dulles. Looking at the cabbie, I almost felt a momentary deja vu. But before my hopes of another possibility of a sweet ride to some African country could take shape, my ears heard, "I am from Calacinas." Once he saw my face distrught and puzzled he immediately clarified,"North Carolina. That's what I call it" And then he began. What followed was a tirade - thoughts that I read in papers but rarely hear on a one to one conversation. For the simple reason - that I don't hang around such minds at work or for pleasure. This, I thought, is the beauty of a cab ride. I get to get captive company of people I usually not encounter.

I was quiet and spoke just enough to get him to keep talking. He loved to hear himself talk. And I loved it too. Rare enough, but there comes a time when a man gets a clear ground where he can speak out with all his heart. At times, even with all his throat and lungs, when enthusiasm translates to intensity, and intensity shows up in a constant spray of saliva - wetting your surroundings. I did not mind. Yes, that's where I took him to. After all how often do you get a black man speak out his mind - devoid of political correctness, bereft of concerns about what his black brothers are going to think. Sure enough, this only comes in an encounter with a perfect stranger.

I wish I could write everything he said. Besides being inappropriate, I dont think it makes any point. But I wish to mark out few of the interesting things he spoke. I was most interested in the words he was using. For example, he thought eradication of slavery is an illusion. "We were all in chains for many years. Lincoln unchained us . True, but he knew that we were like the bird who after living inside the cage for long has forgotten to fly." The same thing has happened to the black people. They stayed back where they were used to. "The minds of black people are ignorant and are in chains. They have lost the gift of imagination, of thinking through things, they are servile." Chains as a physical object it has become a mental abstraction which is by far more dangerous for the entire black community. What he spoke about reminded me of a debate I participated in many years back on whether Indian independence is still an illusion. An event that is marked on red ink on calendars, but it our minds we as Indians are still servile and forgotten to fly.

Religion, he says, "is a diversion that keeps people away from reality." People are mostly foolish, and especially blacks have sort of plays second fiddle to the whites who seem to have got the church and the religious machinery all in their control. He passed on some interesting anecdotes. "Black people like bwon ball games, white the white. I disagree, but I have learned through life that in some cases disagreemts are best kept to one's ownself. In this case, Tiger Woods is an living exception. And as far baseball, it was true until few years back. Now, baseball is dominated by hispanics.

The most interesting comment was about how he thought colored people had dominating genes. In other words, his thory was blacks will dominate the world and whites are scared about that. He cited that an offspring of a mixed couple tends to look more black than white. Talk to any medico. That's not true. Anyway, people have their own thoughts and opinions. Life encompasses everything, and I feel at the end of the day nothing matters. The significance of opinions with which people fight is all a function of time. Think about the next two minutes, I may be freaking out because my internet is running slow, think about a year, I am concerned whether I will make in to my next career move. Think about 20 years - retirement, and then, another 100 years - I am dead and gone. Who cares whether the black dominates of the Indians. Someone recently characterized - the world is divided into two groups: one who divide the world into two groups and the others who don't. As long as I live, I wish I can overcome the challenges imposed by shortness of timescale and think an a part of a whole. As I got off from the cab ride, for another flight to the west - I felt I enjoyed the ride. After all for me, he was another human being, working hard to make a living for himself and his family, and yes like anybody else he has his view of the world. And it is this diversity that makes life a joyful expereince to live by.