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A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

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Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#151

Post by ransom1538 »

gk1 wrote: post #39

Nearly 20 years ago my friend and I returned to his dorm building after a long long night out, only to discover we were locked out. With nothing better to do, we sat outside on the stoop and planned to chat the hours away until 6am when the doors would reopen. Before the dawn came, a man in his 80s almost walked past us. He stopped to ask for directions somewhere, maybe to a church. After our half-hearted attempt at…

For some strange reason this story really made me upset. Why is it so extraordinary - to talk to an elderly person? I talk to elderly people all the time and they are normal humans with tons of stories. Why is this so strange to the OP they remembered it 20 years later? Do we ignore the elderly this much?

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#152

Post by dudeinjapan »

The cab ride I will never forget: it was a night-time trip from Thane to Mumbai. A group of friend and I were headed to a bar in the city. I was watching the highway signs, and saw we missed our exit. So I called out, "Excuse me, I think we just missed our exit."

"Oh, no matter" said the driver. He then slammed on the brakes in the middle of the freeway, threw the car into reverse, and looked back as he began careening in reverse back up the outermost lane (not the shoulder!)

We made it about 100 meters until we got rear-ended by a tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw). The tuk-tuk driver pulled over to the cabbie's window and began giving him an earful. The cabbie nonchalantly pulled out a few bills from his wallet, the tuk-tuk guy counted them, nodded, and off he went.

We were all shocked speechless, no one said a word as the cabbie then proceeded in reverse another 100 meters. We did eventually reach the exit, and began moving in the forward direction again.

One of my friends then explained to me that was a classic example of "jugaad". As defined by the Oxford Dictionary:

jugaad /dʒʊˈɡɑːd/ noun, Indian "A flexible approach to problem-solving that uses limited resources in an innovative way."

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#153

Post by amadeuspagel »

dudeinjapan wrote: post #152

The cab ride I will never forget: it was a night-time trip from Thane to Mumbai. A group of friend and I were headed to a bar in the city. I was watching the highway signs, and saw we missed our exit. So I called out, "Excuse me, I think we just missed our exit." "Oh, no matter" said the driver. He then slammed on the brakes in the middle of the freeway , threw the car into reverse, and looked back as he began careen…

A hack, kind of.

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#155

Post by colineartheta »

dang wrote: post #92
colineartheta wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is…a deeply disturbing take and outlook on life, and all I can hope for is that it was meant in some dark irony that is beyond me. The sheer arrogance of it has me floored. We are all human, and our lives are worth living and sharing. But yours? I can only imagine your existence is as lonely and angry as you wish upon others. Be well, friend, and may the sun shine on you, one day.

Please don't cross into personal attack, no matter how wrong another comment is or you feel it is. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Please explain how my comment was a personal attack.

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#156

Post by shepherdjerred »

Ancapistani wrote: post #124
shepherdjerred wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you not scared of picking people up? I would love to help others, but I've always been worried that it could go poorly.

I regularly pick people up, but wouldn’t recommend it unless you’ve really given it thought. For me - I’m a 6’2” bearded dude. I drive a Jeep and almost never have the doors or top on it in the summer. I’m also armed and have had some training. Being in an open vehicle means that anyone around me in traffic can see what’s going on, so I’m reasonably confident a hitchhiker isn’t going to try to take me hostage or dire…

Ah, maybe the physical build is a large component. If I were big and intimidating, I definitely would be more open to picking up hitchhikers.

(assuming you're American; I am) I wonder if Europeans feel more at-ease about hitchhikers, or if there are any safety statistics.

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#157

Post by ficklepickle »

shepherdjerred wrote: post #56
macintux wrote: post #34

I have been fortunate enough (privileged enough?) to feel comfortable picking up hitchhikers (or simply people walking along the road) over the years, and while most aren't particularly noteworthy, a few have been rough. One teenage boy had just been thrown out of his house, with nothing other than a torn shirt and shorts, by his drunk father. I drove him to his girlfriend's place. One desperate father had taken a bu…

Are you not scared of picking people up? I would love to help others, but I've always been worried that it could go poorly.

You just need to be prepared to out crazy whatever you encounter. My plan, if it ever went sideways, was to pin the throttle and take my hands off the wheel. Fortunately it never came to that.

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#158

Post by hrudham »

mansoon wrote: post #134
neilv wrote: post #40

> it was possible to believe that I had been placed on earth for the sole purpose of providing her with that last ride. I suspect that a lot of people have a "heroism gene". In situations in which they're doing something selfless, and nothing matters other than helping the person before them who really needs it, there's an implicit "this is my purpose" or "this is what we do". I've wondered where that comes from, nat…

I did this for a friend once--housed a friend for 8 months during the pandemic--and it turned out they were just using me and deepening their addiction. I don't really believe in caring about people anymore. I argued against that conclusion, but I lost.

I did this for a friend once too, for a year and a half. My friend had been running backpackers, and lost the business (and their place to stay) fast and unexpectedly when the building it was in was sold to a hostile landlord. It paid off. He's back on his feet.

I see people like investments; in cases like this, I didn't want to profit in the classic sense, but I did want to see my friend succeed, and I knew my friend had it in him. All I needed to do was provide a roof over his head for a bit.

I'm sorry to hear you had a negative experience here. There are success stories out there though. In the end, its about taking the right risks for the right people.

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#159

Post by dang »

colineartheta wrote: post #155
dang wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't cross into personal attack, no matter how wrong another comment is or you feel it is. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Please explain how my comment was a personal attack.

These lines were both personal and aggressive:

> our lives are worth living and sharing. But yours?

> I can only imagine your existence is as lonely and angry as

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#160

Post by muffinman26 »

neilv wrote: post #40

> it was possible to believe that I had been placed on earth for the sole purpose of providing her with that last ride. I suspect that a lot of people have a "heroism gene". In situations in which they're doing something selfless, and nothing matters other than helping the person before them who really needs it, there's an implicit "this is my purpose" or "this is what we do". I've wondered where that comes from, nat…

It's definitely something that can be trained and improved with practice. The brain needs to switch from thinking "Is this a situation where I can actually help? Do they need help? What if I mess up? What if it's a scam?, etc." to "I'm helping, how do I help?". It's easy to freeze and let the opportunity to help pass by, but once you start it's much easier to continue.

I remember an interview from an old LARP camp director (Brennan Lee Mulligan, although I forget if it was his podcast or another one) who recalled the nurses helping out at the camp saying LARP was surprisingly good training for first responders because it gives kids practice with running towards the people who need help instead of away from potential dangers.

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