African Safari

Somewhere in Dec 2007
Location - Melbourne

This was the day when everything was going wrong. My alarm clock stopped working somewhere in the middle of the night and that made me get up an hour late. I was to start work at 11 am and it was already 9:30 am when I got up. I quickly got ready and to make things worse I realized that it was a weekend which meant that Flagstaff station would be shut and I would have to walk all the way to Melbourne Central to take the train. Normally this is not a major concern for me but today it was cause I couldn't waste even a single minute. It takes me an hour and 15 mins to reach work normally and on weekends 1 hour and 30 mins. I did not have time for this. I couldn't afford to be late. First I hate being late and secondly I knew that the store owner would be there. The only option was to call a cab. Luckily I got one quickly.
I told the cab driver where I wanted to go. Usually the cab drivers are Indians - yes Punjabi's and Gujrati's, Pakistani's, locals or Africans.
This cab driver was from Africa. Soon he started to talk to me and started asking me these typical questions that all cab drivers ask. These are a set of typical questions that everyone asks and the answers are at the tip of my tongue. I told him that I was an international student, studying full time at Swinburne University, that I was late for work, studying IT. Questions I am bored of.
The question that came next completely surprised me ! He asked me if I knew Amitabh Bachchan. For a second I thought I had heard him wrong and I made him repeat the question. I realized I had heard it correct the first time itself. He had actually asked me about the Bollywood legend Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. I told him that I knew him and that he is a good actor and everyone in India love him. To add to my already surprise state he started singing the song from his movie - Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein Khayaal Aata Hai.... and asked me if I knew the song. I was so surprised that I didn't know what to say. I asked him how he knew the song. Not only did he know the song, he turned out to be a huge Bollywood fan and knew the dialog's like ' Jaani, Yeh chaaku hai...lag jaae to khoon nikal aata hai !! ' and knew Rajesh Khanna, Shah Rukh Khan and had seen many Bollywood movies. including Mr. Bachchan's Coolie. He told me that Bollywood is very famous in Africa and like India people worship Mr. Amitabh Bachchan there. He told me that ever since he was a kid he has been watching Amitabh Bachchan's movies.
Suddenly I felt very happy and proud of the Indian Cinema and its achievements.
For a long time we discussed Indian Cinema and I didn't realize when I reached my destination - work. The guy was so happy with the conversation we had, he did not take money from me. He told me " I cant take money from you, you have just reminded me of my childhood. "
As for me the wrong start to my day had suddenly turned right, I had one of the best conversations with the cab driver and I cannot deny the fact that I was happy that because of Mr. Bachchan I had saved around 30 AUD.