pur gunawan, the taxi driver

From: @ulma_nh
Sent: Aug 17, 2010 23:28

Our taxi driver is a 21 yo man with plenty experiences&knwldge of the city's undrworld :D

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On Twitter: http://twitter.com/ulma_nh/status/21415895575

His name, as he told me, was Pur Gunawan. I'm not sure if it's the correct spelling or whther I misheard him but it was too dark anywy to check his ID. So let's jst call him Pur.

Pur drove us (me & iko) from Setiabudi One to our place in Radio Dalam on Tuesday night. Iko&his colleagues had to work on stuffs&they chose to do it at Anomali Coffee (just opened. Nice place). I joined a bit later after work & the whole gaiety with fellow Globians celebrating the Independence Day.

We left the cafe a couple of minutes before 11 p.m., or before the baristas hv 2 kick us out. Pur was outside with his "Manuk Mira" taxi, which most of the time we wud avoid whn going alone.

Pur was very chatty :D iko went silent the whole time. We were tired but I kinda feel obligd to ask him q's :p

He claimd that he nvr went to school. Pur has been living on the streets since he was little. That's where I started to get interested.

He told me that first he started off as a child busker, then a 3-in-1 jockey before becoming a metro mini bus driver, and then finally a taxi driver.

"I've just turned 21. My birthday was the same day as the start of Ramadhan this year," he said. Then he began citing the famous people he knew that were also August-born, including SBY and Marshanda.

When he was a jockey he was caught 3 times by the Police.

"They sent me to Kedoya [social institution] twice. The third time they got me they sent me away to Cirebon," he said.

The Police gave him Rp 20,000, which he used it to buy a bus ticket back to Jakarta :p I bet that's the same story for beggers&buskers netted by our dear friend Satpol PP. He also referred Kedoya as a prison, because he was locked up all the time.

He said that he hv friends who once sent to Cipinang for drug-dealing.

"They treated them bad. Every three days or so they got beaten up by the prison guards," he said.

At least the positive side is, that story has deterred him from anything drug-related.

I won't say much about his regular customers. Let's say he's familiar with that other side of Jakarta. Oh he could speak a little bit of Arabic too.

In the end I concluded that Pur was amongst the few bright n lucky ones. I believe that not that many unschooled child buskers could end up as a taxi driver with about Rp 3 million a month.

I didn't ask him what he would want to be when he's bored with taxi-driving..as we finally reached our destination.

But I did save his phone number.. just in case I need him for a story..or just in case ;)

Update: iko's take on Pur..
From: @ikoputera
Sent: Aug 17, 2010 23:40

Ini supir taxi kaya' wikipedia, detail obrolan bs dikembangin jd topik baru

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On Twitter: http://twitter.com/ikoputera/status/21416789560

Lol...