A Haryana Lad

Last week I was in Brisbane and all my cab drivers were from the sub-continent. One, a gentle giant with an easy going manner, was from Sirsa in Haryana. He had first come to Sydney and the first two weeks had frightened him so much that he had returned to Sirsa. After a few years he returned, this time to Brisbane and seemed to have adapted to it. He liked the night time driving in spite of the drunks who got on. It wasn’t as bad a Melbourne he said where a friend’s wife had got hit with an object and been hospitalized. His opinion of the Australian police didn’t seem very different from his response back home – “they won't do anything”. He kept up a friendly patter throughout – a little unassuming boy underneath that exterior. And like countless desi cabbies I have encountered, refused to take the fare till I explained my employer was paying.

At the university, on this a rare morning shift, he got off , drunk in the air and said it feels good to be in the sun.