“Expunge” - a 15 minute crash course from a taxi driver!

Sep 16, 2015
3 min read

I took a taxi to go to railway station, pre booked the night before. A small exercise but you hardly know who will come to pick you up. It’s just a fifteen minute drive.

I am a morning person and I like to know my companion so I mostly sit in front passenger seat of the cab. A warm smile on my driver’s face gave me confidence of a great morning…or so…to be…

We are from the same continent and hence an initial exchange of pleasantries, a must.

The driver asked me “where are your roots?”

I replied, “I am from India and Bangalore is my home”

This is where I should have shut up but I asked, “and you sir?”

“I am originally from Pakistan…..a small, very young country. Not as old and big as India”

I wanted to ask him about awesome North west frontier food but I changed my mind and instead asked “How is your prime minister doing?...Nawaz…..any better than earlier ones?”

It must be the many morning-breakfast-breaking news core memory cells that instigated me to ask a fine newsroom question right there in the morning!

“OH…him?. I will tell you in few words what I think…..”

(I should have really shut up before the news anchor in me was awake)

“Our PM is a doer and not a leader…actually none in the south east Asian countries possess leadership skills. They do as the west admonishes them to do……exploit the country for their own good. No progress for the people…..

I tell you the Britisher(s) should have never left our country, we are now a remote control run country. It would be better if we never got our freedom.”

Now this was really harsh for me but going by the apparent age difference between us I decided not to retort but probe him further.

“What do you think is the immediate and biggest problem in your country”

Not that I was going to change anything for his country but I wanted to understand his view, who left his country to be in a foreign land for a better life.

He replied “Corruption and bureaucracy”

I asked, “What is one thing that could be done to improve it?”. Now that is something I shouldn’t have asked , I had no idea what he was about to tell me…

He claimed in a higher tone “more than corruption its population which is a bigger problem”

“We are so many who need to be taken care of and our country’s economy’s not growing at a good rate. The politicians and anyone who holds an office will continue to be corrupt because they have so many family members to feed in their own house. Family planning is thrown out of the door!”

By this moment my driver was pretty upset. It’s a vicious cycle - when you see someone so agitated you feel a moral obligation to bring them to a calmer state. So I asked further, although in my hindsight I think I should have shut up.

“Do you have any idea to fix the problem as a responsible citizen of your beloved country?”

“You see I am a brit now, I have red passport. But you asked an excellent question. I have a friend in Pakistani intelligence and we often meet and share ideas and I will tell you what his idea is to fix this issue. There is a strong theory to reduce the existing population to few young millions and then raise them with all proper education and facilities so that they become better citizens!”

By then I had my fingers on car door and I asked him “When you say reduce, what do you mean?”

“O Madam Obliterate them, mass removal. Basically do this to the entire Asian region burgeoning with higher population. The solution is EXPUNGE the numbers.”

And there it was my destination had arrived and I had never been so happy to see a railway station in my life than that very moment. I made the fastest exit through the taxi, paid and told him goodbye. Before I turned, I asked him a final question.

“How many kids you have?”

He said “Four”.

This conversation will linger on in me.

Below is a photograph of more than forty thousand pair of shoes. These ordinary shoes belong to people who faced the worst human tragedy of all times. The shoes are currently on display in Auschwitz in Poland. Auschwitz was the bigest extermination camp where approximately 1.1 million jews were 'Expunged' forever during world war II nazi occupation. These are their Shoes. I wish I can show these images to him.