"Yes, Yes madamme!" I then told him my story of the lost passport, I left one of three bags I had ( i need to learn 'travel lite') with me in a taxi, I was arguing with him over the fare and got upset and jumped out. Leaving him with some new mac makeup (i was gifted) a phone charger to a phone from china (can't find a charger in india, who knew how many charger connector sizes existed!?) a new kurta, other toiletries and clothes and most important my passport (i did not tell the driver about anything but the passport - my hindi is not that fluent).
What was amusing was the interest of our driving neighbors with my story, why the foreign girl was leaning forward talking to the cabbie and did she speak hindi.
At each traffic light we met a new driver and my cabbie proceeded to tell him my story!
On the way to the taxi union office we passed several workers - there is work going on everywhere with the monsoons near, seems all the work is happening at the same time, tearing up streets, tearing up sidewalks, tearing up pipes, wires, burying more pipes and wires...
Safety is NOT a major concern in India, just not high on the priority list. These workers all had hard hats on and reflective vests - so it really caught my attention. I am aware at the project I work on a vocational training program in construction skills and learning safety is step 1 - it is an international company teaching the skills.
We were in a traffic jam, so I had some time to study the workers. I noticed they did not have shoes on, ok, they were just carrying rocks. Then I noticed some flip flops laid up on the side of a ditch being dug, looked like the worker with his tall spiked tool that was breaking up the ground decided to remove his footwear while working.
The cab started moving and we passed more workers, the safety topper was the guys with a jackhammer violently tearing into the ground just 6 inches from men's toes - no shoes!! but their head was safe.
No luck at the taxi union office, no one had turned in my bag. I am not surprised, I had not really left the cab on good terms, I don't know why the cabbie would be motivated to turn in my bag. Funny, I lost my temper with that cabbie, over the fare, and my horoscope that day had said to be careful about loosing my cool and getting angry! I usually don't follow horoscopes.
My current cab driver, was very nice, he parked and came into the office with me and insisted it would only take 5 minutes - he was right! I made it to my meeting on time - well on IST - Indian Stretch Time - 5 minutes late only!
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