Saturday, December 23, 2006

Preaching cabbie

Running late, I took a cab to work this morning. The driver was a man from Sudan. He asked me if I was going home and I said no, I'm going to work.

He paused and asked, "Are you Indian?"
"No, my family is from Bangladesh."
"Oh, so you are Muslim?"
"No, I'm Hindu. We are minorities there."
"Do you want to become a Muslim?" (WHAT?! Gut says to Brain..... Ok, stay calm)
"No, I think I'm gonna stay Hindu."
"Would you convert for your husband?" (Double WHAT?! Brain responds to Gut...... stay cool, stay cool)

"Nah" I said getting uncomfortable. I thought, is this dude coming on to me? Or does he just try to convert all his passengers? Trying to make me his 3rd wife or something? If I wasn't already late for work and a few minutes away from my destination I would have gotten out, but I thought I'd stick it out. Then it just got weirder, he started sort of BEGGING me. "Oh come on, I can teach you how to be a Muslim." I acted like I couldn't hear. What sort of conversion technique is this? Begging?

So yeah, I got to work ok. And I made it out of the cab still Hindu.