Laila

On the way home the other day, I had a rather talkative female taxi driver. I thought my life was complicated, but I think hers puts mine in the slow lane.

Five times she has married and divorced Malaysian men. She has three daughters from three different husbands. Now she drives a taxi part time to pay off the debts of one or more of the former husbands.

From the back seat I marveled at her smooth driving, fluent English and the lovely tone of her voice. During the trip from the center to the outskirts of KL, she received three calls from customers that she promptly turned down. The first was an old Chinese bloke who has previously called her for a ride home from drinking bouts, then tried to make passes at her. She didn’t want to be bothered with him. That’s not what she’s being paid for she said. Then there was the woman in Brickfields who wanted a ride to (all places) someplace in Brickfields! Lol! There was another call from someone speaking Malay but he must have been to far away for her to take the job so she said “no” to him too. She took all these calls without any evidence of being distracted from her driving. After all, she is both the receptionist, and the manager of her red and white mobile office.

I shuddered to think of her riding the roads of KL late at night, and felt the need to tell her. After all, she’s my sister. As we pulled up at my house, I told her to be careful and that I would keep her in my prayers. I told her that I wished she could make ends meet by carrying regular trustworthy customers instead of taking her chances with anyone who hails her cab. I took four of her cards with the intention of passing them to Muslimahs who refrain from riding with males. I know of a few niqabis that would appreciate having her number.


She said that her friends told her not to pick up men and blacks. I suppose I can understand why her friends would say that, about men, and about blacks. Between the prejudices and the facts, she should keep her eyes open on both fronts. There are some bad men in this world, some of them are Black and some of them are even Malaysian।


She went on and on about it and then said that “not all black men are bad.”
LOL!
Did she forget for a minute that I was Black?
I told her “I know, my father isn’t bad”
(she totally missed that and kept talking)

The subject of racism aside, I think this sister is the epitomy of the modern woman. She is not a woman, she is a wannabe superhero – SUPERWOMAN. She’s got the beautiful face and voice of a woman, but life has forced her to make some tough decisions. She’s doing “a man’s job”. The world we live in today doesn’t really allow women to be ladies in the traditional sense. But that’s a whole other blogpost. In fact, that’s a book! Let me leave you there, before I get into trouble!