The content yellow cabbie - Paré

We got picked up from the Wesley Hospital after our doctor’s appointment. “Hop in guys” said the cabbie. I got in the front seat and J squeezed in to the back of the Toyota Prius. This was my first electric car ride :).

Soon we were on our way to pick up our car from service.  The Filipino cabbie loved to talk but I was hoping to just have a quiet ride. Anyway it takes all sorts to run the world and I was forced to listen.  Turns out that he was interesting to listen to and at the same time a bit different since he also liked to listen; he would ask meaningful questions and seemed well informed about the ways of the world business and economics minus the appropriate business jargon of course.

Anyway after he dropped us off he got me thinking as well. Over the last two months I had been bitching about how monotonous my professional life had become as this was the first time that I had taken up a desk job and I was getting to the point of needing a bit more excitement at my work place.

Talking about monotonous jobs, my “pare” cabbie (paré – Filipino equivalent of the Aussie ‘mate’) has been driving a taxi for a good part of his 22 years stay in Australia and the surprising part of this is that he was not bitter at all. He didn’t complain about low wages or traffic jams, high taxes or rising medical expenses, instead he talked about how he and his wife had two daughters and that they were going to graduate in the next two years and how life in Australia has been great. He talked about all the good things in life. He also talked about the phase in his life when he was jobless but I guess he accepted that as part of his life’s learning experiences.

Paré encouraged me to see joy in little things that you have as a part of your life and not talk and think too much about what you don’t.  My old folks in Dubai often remind me of a quote they have read somewhere.. “If you have a roof over your head, have access to three square meals a day and if your parents are still married – then you belong to the top 1% of the fortunate people in the world”.

J writes down a few good things that happenes in her day before she goes to bed. Whether it is someone who smiled at her in the city or the bus driver who greeted her… she writes it all down. I might start that too.