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There are times when you weren’t expecting that you’d need a cab, but when you do, you wonder if you weren’t fated to have flagged down that very cab that you did. Wednesday was one of those times.
I got into the taxi, and told the cabbie uncle my destination. His response: “Geylang? Geylang ah… dangerous place leh!”
My mom had said a similar thing when I last visited the NSS office, which unfortunately is situated in this most unsavoury part of Singapore. She had cautioned strongly against my going there again. Thanks to an officious-sounding purpose (these sessions, held quarterly, are called the ‘President’s Chat’), she relented.
Anyway, not being inclined to make small talk with the taxi driver, I merely nodded and went, “Err, yeah, I know…”
We were at a traffic light junction, and he took the opportunity to slurp a few mouthfuls from the Nissin cup noodles that he had placed in a mug holder by the side of the steering wheel. “Don’t mind hor,” he looked at me through his rear view mirror, “I makan first before it gets cold.” I smiled politely.
We managed to get past a few more traffic lights in silence, and then he asked, “Do you play 4-D?” I wondered what it had to do with Geylang, or instant noodles. I answered no. He then asked if I was interested in statistics. I said that it would depend on what sort of statistics. He then launched into a monologue about how he has a degree with distinction in stats, and how he has been studying the 4-D system for a decade. He has pulled out all available records on every single 4-D draw since its inception, and has discovered certain ‘truths’. He believes in his work, even though his ‘wife and girlfriends’ don’t (at that point, I became curious, but refrained from interrupting as I didn’t feel it prudent to further distract him from the roads). He was going on about numbers and permutations - at which point my mind turned itself off - and something about the AABB or ABBB combinations which stand the highest chances of seeing an opening. Something else about an AAAA occurring only every X years, and so on and so forth. That if you ‘invest’ $XX in which ever combination, you’ll likely Y% receive a $XXXX return.
I had a feeling that he’d recited all this a thousand times.
We turned into Geylang Road, and he found the inspiration for a topic switch. He continued talking just as ardently about the various even-numbered lorongs of Geylang and the predominant countries of origin of their red lighters. He knew their price ranges. He added that he used to be in the police force, as if that explained where he obtained his intimate knowledge of the area from.
And just before I alighted, he was going on about AIDS and suicidal men…
I was eager to get off, and slip into the Sunflower building on the corner of Lorong 28, which, I was told, was the most notorious street of them all. While giving me the change, he told me his name. So that if I ever come across this name appearing beside a lottery windfall in the news, I’ll know that it’s him.
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