A
friend told me today that she & her baby were in a taxi from
hospital for home. Once there she discovered that the little cot-blanket
the baby always grabs tightly for comfort had been left in the taxi.
She had no idea what taxi from which company it was, let alone any
detail of the driver. Most parents know well that to a baby that's
nearly as a 2nd mother, no substitute would to. Miraculously she got it
back just one day later, delivered to her door by the wife of the taxi
driver. They too know all about babies and their inseparable little
blankets.
That reminds me of a Blog I posted in 2008. I hunted for it, found it, and decided it's worth re-posting to show the noble and admirable side of people, amongst the bad ones we keep reading about in the papers these days.
(10/05/2008) Posted on Multiply
A few days ago in
the United States, a prestigious violinist left his Stradivarius at the
back seat of a taxi. He had failed to observe one of the unwritten but
sacred doctrines of a musician: never be separated with his instrument.
The taxi driver, however, had tracked him down and returned the
priceless Stradivarius to him, and refused to take anything in return.
"I was just doing my duty." He was reported to be saying. To show his utmost appreciation and gratitude, the musician decided to organize a small one-man concert, in the patio of the headquarter of the taxi company, where his most kind and honest benefactor works in. That took place last Wednesday. The very unusual personal concert was broadcast on the Spanish " Telediario ", a daily news programme of international events. The instrumentalist was shown, standing at one end of the somewhat flimsily put up mini marquees, passionately dedicating his art and homage to many smiling taxi-drivers, who responded at the end of the concert with thundering and very lengthy applause.
This anecdote, susceptible of inspiring a telefilm, compensates in a small way
those other times, when absent-minded or forgetful passengers left valuables in a taxi, but never able to recover the loss. It also demonstrates the sensibility of a taxi driver who recognised the true value of the found object, not in money terms, but the realization that only in the hands of it's owner could this instrument give it's best and prove it's worth.
There existed a period when there were no computers, hard disks, and security copies. Many a time in news, stories or films, where manuscripts of novels were left in the back seat of taxis. Cyclically some aspiring candidates seeking fame of a novelist would claim they have left a promising original manuscript of years' work in a taxi, giving the "2nd" copy a good dose of publicity.
The fact that no taxi driver returned any of them might be, that unlike the recognizable value of the Stradivarius, the taxi-drivers needed to read the manuscript first, before they knew whether it was of value or not. Since none were ever returned, it might be deducted that, they have in fact saved some editors and readers a lot of time reading some totally unworthy ramblings.
Tags:violinist,taxidriver,concert,novel
- Current Mood:
accomplished
