Mohammed Ali

No, I am not talking about the one who "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee", but instead my cab driver. Tonight I was coming home from a friend's apartment who I am dog-sitting for, and I had the most interesting conversation I have ever had with a cab driver in my entire life. It started when I was trying to hail a cab and Mohammed was, apparently, honking at me to let me know he was available, but he was behind me so I didn't hear him or see him until I turned around. When I got in the cab (a mini-van cab, might I add) he told me that he had been honking at me, but he thought I "didn't like his face or his car or something." I assured him that it had nothing to do with his face, I just didn't hear him honking. Then after I told him my destination, he asked if I was originally from Manhattan...which shows he was already a little confused. And then he asked if I was Jewish, because the skirt I had on reminded him of Jewish and I was quiet like the Jewish...and I have blond hair NOT like the Jewish. So I asked him about that - if my blond hair still made him think I was Jewish - and he said yes, yes. Apparently a neighbor or someone who lives very close to him is Jewish, yet she wears the same kinds of "pretty skirts" that I wear, with the same haircut (and blond) and the same face. Interesting, huh? Then he started telling me how he picked up girls in downtown Manhattan on the weekends who were drunk and hardly had any clothes on - not like me, who was dressed very nicely and prettily, he said. He said girls should be ashamed for the way they acted and dressed these days. I agreed. Then he told me about today, when he was driving, he saw a Korean or Chinese girl (he said he couldn't tell the difference) crossing the street at a crosswalk, looking down at her cell phone, bothering no one, when a guy started talking to her. Mohammed relieved his anguish and disgust by telling me how much it bothers him to see a guy say "*whistle* honey *whistle* *whistle* love you"  to a girl he "has no friendship with or does not know." Even though it is refreshing to hear these things from a guy - at this point, I am about to lose it in laughter in the back seat of this mini-van cab with the convo that I am having with Mohammed. Then he tells me that he has only been outside of NYC once in his life, and that was to go to Colin Powell's office in Washington DC. I got excited to hear this - and enthusiastically asked him how that trip was - then he informed me it wasn't any big deal. Apparently Mohammed is a pretty big deal in Pakistan because his cousin is some high up official there and another member of his family is a pretty big deal there...blah, blah, blah. So, then I start to wonder if he is in any way related to Osama bin Laden? And if Osama bin Laden even came from Pakistan? And why I am not more up-to-date on my current events and world news? Anyway, after this he starts to tell me how he never drank once or smoked once while he was in college and he went to mosque 5 times a week, but he was always denied entrance into events and bars in college, so he drove a cab all the time because of this...blah, blah, blah. Then he tells me that people in New York City do not trust him or always think he is up to something because he tries to make friendships and talk with people in his cab. "See, you talk to me, I talk to you, we make friendship, I don't ask your information, but people still do not trust me. People in New York are not so nice. You are very nice and friendly, and then you will go on your way and I will go on mine. That is my mission in New York City - to make people more friendly and to see that I am not up to something." I told him he should move to the South. Then we finalllllly arrived at the Markle. I told him it had been nice talking to him, and he told me his name was Mohammed Ali - then, he chuckled and said "easy enough, right?" He told me he hoped to see me again in a cab sometime, and God Bless. 

New York City is a city with 8 million people in it. But, with even the smallest efforts, you begin to see, that just because it's big or because everyone in it isn't from the same place, people are still seeking to make friends and connections. No, Mom, I didn't give him my bank account number or invite him in to have dinner with me at the Markle, but it's nice to know that people still appreciate friendliness, even in such a big and bustling city as New York. And just because New Yorkers don't go out of their way to be friendly, doesn't mean they don't appreciate it (or even love it) when someone else does.

And, if I knew how to request a cab driver for whenever I needed a cab, I'd call Mohammed Ali, every single time!