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Abu Dhabi: There are not many smiling faces which were so common during the '70s and '80s here, says a Pakistani driver who has been driving taxis in Abu Dhabi for the past 34 years.
"Residents were not so educated and wealthy but all had a smile on their faces. Now most of them are educated and wealthy but I find very few smiling faces," said Janat Mir Mohammad, 55, from Waziristan, who reached Khor Fakkan in 1968 as an illegal.
"I was just 15 and did not have a moustache." He has been driving taxis since 1974.
Having experienced the hardships of an illiterate who could never attend school, he still struggles to provide a better education for his children back home.
"To know about an official procedure, law or regulations, I have to ask others several times. So I was determined my children should never face such a problem," said Mohammad, who is a father of 14 children by his two wives.
"But I don't understand why education and wealth don't make people happy."
The question remains unanswered after spending four decades in one of the most prosperous cities in the world.
"When I reached Abu Dhabi from Al Ain in 1972, only villas and single-storey buildings were there. The tallest one was a five or six-storey building called the TV station building on Hamdan Street. Later, many five or six-storey buildings sprang up in the city. Many of them have been replaced by multi-storey buildings now. But, such colourful changes brought by wealth, took some good old habits away from the people," said Mohammad.
"Long ago, whenever I was fed up with hotel food, I used to knock on the doors of some familiar people - both locals and expatriates, and enjoyed their hospitality," he said.
"Now people don't entertain familiar taxi drivers" at their premises, said Mohammad. "It is an inevitable change due to the increasing population and fast living which makes you a stranger in society."
He is indebted to the humane attitude of Emiratis. "Emiratis always give way for us and greet us, but some expats always make baseless complaints that old taxi drivers are rash drivers."
Mohammad is satisfied with life after working 15 hours for most of 365 days a year during the past four decades to support his 30-member family back home.
"Six of my 14 children got married ... [but] I and an elder son, who works at a shop in Sharjah, are the breadwinners."
He does not know where to go when old taxis are phased out.
"I am ready to work but who will give a job to an old man," said Mohammad, joking about his responsibilities even after four decades of hard work.
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