Choosing a taxi

Now the taxi story starts. There were three or four taxi drivers waiting outside. I was examining the taxis to see what kind of condition they were in. One particular taxi had pictures of Mother Kali and Sri Ramakrishna. Both of them were garlanded. I said, “There cannot be a better taxi than this. I am carrying a picture of my Mother Kali all the time. Plus, this one also has a picture of Sri Ramakrishna.”

I said to the driver in Bengali, “You have to take me to College Street and bring me back. How much will you charge?”

He said, “Oh, no problem.”

“Meter?” I enquired.

He responded, “Babu, whatever the meter reads.” When they say “Babu,” it means gentleman or sir.

I said, “Perfect. Whatever the meter reads I will give you.”

I entered into the taxi. I bowed to my Mother Kali and her dearest child Ramakrishna very devotedly. I was so happy. After we had covered about a hundred metres I realised that the driver had forgotten to turn on the meter, so I said to him, “Brother, now turn on the meter.”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you that the meter doesn’t work!”

Can you imagine! Just two minutes before he had told me that I would pay whatever the meter read. So I said to him, “How could you forget such a thing? You told me that you would charge whatever the meter read after I asked you for a flat rate.”

So that is how the story started. Then I asked him his name. He said, “My name is Gauranga.”

I said, “Oh, Lord Gauranga, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.” I was so pleased to hear his name. We began talking about Gauranga, and he had also read a little bit of Indian scripture. I said to myself, “All right, the first time he fooled me, but now let us see if Lord Gauranga will also fool me.” We were talking and talking. He was telling me about his son. His son’s name is Abhijit. He is studying at the Ramakrishna Mission High School, and he is very happy there.

But in the back of my mind, I was thinking, “His first deception I know. Now let us see what he is going to do.”