Conversations with cabbies
That is essentially what Khaled Al Khamissi’s book Taxi all about.
I found it by chance last December and thought it’s very similar to a project I’m (supposedly) working on. It is similar, it’s just that for Al Khamissi the conversations – fictional as they were – took place in cabs in Cairo.
The version I bought was the English translation, and I think some stuff got lost in the process. Or maybe it’s because Cairo is unfamiliar to me and I do not understand the Egyptian ways of life that I didn’t get some of the topics brought up in the book. Still, I like the concept. While I can’t claim to be original with what I’m trying to do, I now know that someone else had done it, with relative success.
Yes, it’s another reminder to finish my project!
i heart cairo. most of the taxi drivers there are really out to get you though. although i had a solo encounter with this really, really nice taxi driver who when he realised i didn’t have the right change, and i gave him more and told him i didn’t mind if he kept it, he stopped his car, and went from shop to shop to shop down this whole street until someone changed my money for me.
restored all my faith in taxi drivers. and humanity. i love encounters like that.