Today's Taxi Driver is...

Ahaswamy. A Tamil Singaporean. He was very, very similar to many of the South Indians I met in India. Here's how our conversation went:

Me: "Tamasek Tower Please"
Him: "Somerset Tower?"
Me: "No Tamasek Tower"
Him: (laughing and shaking his head wildly) "Tamasek Tower, not Somerset Tower! I thought you said Somerset Tower! There's no Somerset Tower just Tamasek Tower (laughter and head bobbing continues)... Somerset Tower isn't a tower...Tamasek Tower not Somerset Tower...Tamasek..."
Me: "Where are you from?"
Him: "Singapore. Where are you from?"
Me: "I'm from California, but I live in Singapore now."
Him: "Does America have a black president or a white president?"
Me: "We haven't had the election yet."
Him: "Do you want black president or white president?"
Me: "I would like Barack Obama to win."
Him: (laughing and bobbing his head): "Barack Obama. The muslims like him. They want him to win. If he wins more muslims will go to america. they will blow things up. I like george bush. muslims are afraid of him...he got sadaam hussein...hahaha"
Me: "hmm" (the non-committal "oh" of "hmm, I'm just going to let you keep talking because there's no point in arguing...").
Him: "Are there more black people or white people in america?"
Me: "There are more white people."
Him: "How can the president be black if he is a minority?"
Me: "People like his ideas enough that they don't care about his color."
Him: (pause, thinking...) "who were the first people in america, black people or white people?"
Me: "there were natives there first"
Him: "oh the red indians....who discovered america? Marco polo?"
Me: "No, Christopher Columbus."
Him: "Was he Spanish?"
Me: "He was Italian but he sailed for Spain."
Him: "Captain Cook discovered Australia. Australia is a big country."
Me: "Yes it is...Do you speak Tamil?"
Him: "Yes, Tamil."
Me: "Nandri."
Him: "Ooohhh. How you know Tamil?"
Me: "I lived in India for 6 months."
Him: "Oh. Not very long...where were you?"
Me: "Hyderabad...but I went to Chennai twice." (They speak Tamil in Chennai)
Him: "They don't speak Tamil in Hyderabad...it's Telugu..."
Me: "yeah. Baunava ("How are you" in Telugu)."
Him: (laughing) "Lots of languages in India. India small country lots of people. Australia big country little people."
Car pulls up. Me: "Nandri."