My brother being the good one in the family never swears abuses or uses foul language. I just figured a way to make him do so – make him wait for a cab in either Dubai or Sharjah. The expletives that leave your mouth are many a time well deserved.
The usual wait for a cab is on an average an hour to an hour and a half. During that wait you are likely to encounter empty taxis that do not stop because they do not like the look of your face or your posture, taxis that stop but refuse to take you to the destination that you want to go to and others that just go past you as if you did not exist.
The other day I waited for over an hour for a taxi from Sharjah to Dubai. Nine empty taxis zoomed past me but did not stop. Three taxis stopped but the moment I told them I want to go to Dubai, he looks at me as though I was from out of space and repeats “Dubai?” “Yes Dubai,” said I. he just nodded his head as though it were impossible to go there because the economy is doing so badly and if his cab sets wheel on the ground in Dubai, the rate of the dollar will drop even more and we shall be facing the great depression before one can shout George Bush. So I asked him, “Singapore or perhaps Hong Kong?” I was so infuriated that I was thinking to myself if I ever find a man lying injured on the road and I go to help him and he turns out to be a cab driver from Dubai or Sharjah, I shall leave him unattended. That is how pissed off I was.
I finally managed to get one and we are on our way to Dubai and he starts taking all these weird routes and I ask him why and he says that it’s shorter. Needless to say we got stuck up in really bad traffic and I let out some more expletives to calm myself. So he then asks me if he should take the Salik [toll] route and I nodded in the affirmative. As soon as we passed the toll bridge he informs me that I have to pay him AED 8 for toll and I ask him why since the toll is only AED 4. Very coolly without any hesitation he says’ return toll’.
“What on earth is that” I asked him. He tell me that he does not know any other way to go home but the same route so he has to pass the toll bridge and that will cost me AED 4. “And how is that my problem I ask him?” He nonchalantly mentions that all the other customers give him the 4 bucks. I was so irritated by then I told him if he wants I will give him the fare of the next person he takes as well if he will just keep his mouth shut and take me home. I did pay him the 4 extra bucks and I knew it was no point in calling the Sharjah taxi number to complain.
I usually have to wait for an hour or two to get a cab from work to home and I do not expect the situation to change at all. If I happen to work three extra hours at work I manage to get a cab fairly easier and on one such day I did get a cab around 22.00. we had a very interesting conversation. The cab driver tells me of the girl he just dropped before me and how she got into the cab and started talking into her expensive mobile to her friend how she had got a job in the bank and would be earning a salary of 25000. after he dropped her, the fare was about 27.50 and she gave him 30. He returned AED 1 and she kept standing there waiting for him to return the remaining change. And he was so agitated that he gave her the change back. And the man was furious and told me, “See how these women are? They have 25000 dirham salaries and yet they expect the change back.” I had to control my laughter and my urge to debate with him. I face drivers like him often who just assume that they do not have to give you back the change because you have dressed well so obviously you have no need for the change. In fact they probably think that they are doing you a favor because if you had kept the change in your pocket it would cause a jingling sound and what kind of a ‘rich’ person carries coins with him.
The situation is very frustrating and it kills the productivity of the people big time because by the time I have reached work I am so infuriated that I am tempted to take out my frustration on the others as I am in a foul mood.
Wake up officials. Dubai is a wonderful place to live in but with this kind of a public transport system you are not doing yourself any favors in endearing yourself to the people who live and work here or who come visiting.
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