An Unorthodox Cabby on a Path Less Traveled

IT isn’t every day that New Yorkers take a yellow cab with a woman behind the wheel. It is even less frequent when the driver is an Italian-American woman who converted to Sikhism.

In a New York accent, the cabdriver, Brooklyn-born Maria Singh, 53, likes to joke about how she ended up quitting her office job four years ago.

“I took the final Punjabi step,” said Mrs. Singh, who wanted to escape the drudgery of working as a car service administrator.

But it was not always easy. “I cried the first time I went over the 59th Street Bridge,” she said, adding that dealing with the competition for fares and with ruthless drivers was also challenging. But Mrs. Singh quickly learned the unofficial rules of the road.

“You can’t be meek, because it’s not going to work,” she said. “You’ll get stepped on.”

Mrs. Singh’s unorthodox path began in her early 20s after her parents and only brother had died, at separate times. She was alone and wanted the love only the intimate ties of a family could provide.

Years later, a neighbor traveled to India and, improbable as it may seem, arranged a marriage to a Sikh man to remedy Mrs. Singh’s aching heart. “I brought you a husband,” the neighbor said upon his return. After months of exchanging letters, photos and phone calls, Mrs. Singh agreed to travel to Ludhiana, India, to meet her suitor.

At the airport in New Delhi, her soon-to-be husband, Charanjit, wasted no time. “He puts a ring on my finger and said, ‘Don’t ever take this off,’ ” Mrs. Singh said. Four days later they married. “It’s the sense of community, a sense of family,” she said about her Sikh tradition. “And I missed a family.” They have been married 16 years and live in Astoria, Queens.

Melding her two cultures has yielded interesting results for Mrs. Singh, who usually wears a salwar kameez, the loose tunic and pants suit popular among Punjabi women. She admits to eating a little pasta every day and substituting olive oil for ghee while following a vegetarian diet. “Instead of having meatballs, we have kofta,” she said.

Despite a happy married life, Mrs. Singh said, she has still had to face the rigors of a taxi driver’s life, including long hours (she typically drives from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays) and a hostile passenger who once pulled at her head scarf, thinking she was a Muslim. She no longer wears the scarf, called a chunni, while she works.

Yet for Mrs. Singh, it’s not episodes like those that upset her. “What makes me more angry is the guy that was driving in two lanes on the F.D.R. Drive,” she said. As she glided along First Avenue looking for her next passenger, a cool summer breeze blowing through the taxi windows, Mrs. Singh said, “I wouldn’t trade this life for anything.”

Source - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

Quite Interesting...

Quite strange id say.

Strange but sweet, she's happy and found a new family to replace her tragically lost one. Its beautiful I say!

Well its strange to some, maybe peace to others...she was just searching for the inner-peace and she has found it. This verse changed her life, in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib(only scripture in the world written by the founders)...

One Universal Creator God. Truth Is The Name. Creative Being Personified. By Guru's Grace:

My taste for pleasure ended, along with conflict and egotism.
My consciousness is attuned to the Lord, by the Order of the Infinite.
My pursuit for worldly pride and honour is over,
When He blessed me with His Glance of Grace, peace was established in my soul. ||4|| (sggs)

The three gods(Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva), and the 330,000,000 demi-gods, were astonished. ||1||
The power of Maya(illusion) is pervading everywhere
The secret is known only by Guru's Grace - no one else knows it. (sggs)

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva suffer from the disease of the three gunas - the three qualities; they do their deeds in egotism.
The poor fools do not remember the One who created them; this understanding of the Lord is only obtained by those who become Gur-mukh(Gurus way of life). ||2|| (sggs)

Guru Granth Sahib also contains thoughts of other religions and saints like Sant Kabir, Ravidas, Tulsidas, Farid.

Sikh Gurus honoured the saints & divine persons from low classed & untouchable sects belonging to different faiths by including their hymns and utterances in Guru Granth Sahib. Thus putting into practice the message of "the fatherhood of One God and love for the humankind (God's children) irrespective of their cast & creed".

Guru Granth Sahib does not contain any autobiography of any of the Gurus or the Sikh history rather contains Hymns to teach one to attain spiritual advancement / perfection.

Numbering System: cannot change a sentence or word in the Guru Granth Sahib

The Hymns in the Guru Granth Sahib are written in a particular order with unique numbering system by the Gurus in order to prevent any additions or subtractions at later date.

O Gur-Sikhs, know that the Bani, the Word of the True Guru, is true, absolutely true. The Creator Lord Himself causes the Guru to chant it. (sggs)

Why does she wear a salwar-kameez to drive a taxi? Most women that I know of don't even wear that to work.....

That shouldn't surprise anyone.



In my experience, a lot of American converts to perceived "exotic" philosophies and religions tend to go overboard just a little.

I call it the "Steven Seagal Syndrome" .