Microchips and Taxicabs

12/09/2005

I am leaving San Francisco, CA and heading to Bangalore, India for my 3-week vacation, something that I have been looking forward to for a long time. So around 10.00 am, I hailed a cab at the gas station behind my apartment and unbeknownst to me, had myself an interesting cab ride. So, this is what happened...

Being Indian myself, I made small conversation with the Indian-looking cabbie. He replied in clear, crisp, well-articulated English that he hailed from Singapore, but that his grandparents were from India and moved to Malaysia at an early age. His urbanity and suaveness surprised me to no end! I asked him how he liked driving a cab, and – surprise, surprise, he said “I would rather work in the electronics industry as a design engineer!!!” It appears that he used to be a design engineer in Singapore and came over to these United States in 1998. He held some good jobs, making what he said about $110,000 in 2002. It must have been a sweet life! Alas, as many post-dotcom stories go, he lost his job and is now driving a cab in San Francisco for the past three-and-a-half years.

He's a gentleman roughly 50-52 years old, Kesavan is his given name, but goes by Kes. He’s a trained electronics engineer with a bachelor’s degree with a lot of experience in designing microchips and controllers for various applications, various operating systems, but has been unemployed since 2002, separated, living alone in San Francisco’s Excelsior district in a small room. He lost all his possessions including the usual accoutrements typical of a high-tech employee here and living the “good life”. After the layoff and subsequent separation he was very depressed for a long time. But, somehow, somehow, he found the strength to get his wits together, picked up pieces of his life and has found a way to survive in The City.

It’s heart-rending to hear this and other similar stories in the heart of Silicon Valley, the homebase for high-technology, where a well qualified, legally-residing person of somewhat advanced age, and somewhat down on his luck has to struggle to make ends meet by driving cabs. So what’s the point, you ask? Unlike other stories of individuals, what I find refreshing here is his positive attitude. Some people, no matter how poorly Lady Fortune has dealt her cards, put on a brave face and get up each and every day with the hope that maybe today or maybe tomorrow Lady Fortune will smile on him/her once again and shower her blessings.

I want to put him in touch with someone upon my return from my vacation. We shall see how it goes! I hope that 2006 turns out to be good year for him, and he gets back to doing what he loves best – being a microchip design engineer. Bravo Kes! I hope you realize your dreams. I have to now board my flight and head off to the Old World and further on to an even older World – India, my country of birth.