In my long and eventful career of taxi rides, one fact has always stood out. Barring a few, make that a couple actually, none of them had a transistor onboard.

Although all of them have a tape deck, for some inexplicable reason. That belt out ancient melancholy songs by Mukesh and such. Why oh why would I make a miserable journey more unbearable by playing such songs!

Not that some of the stuff our RJs dish out is any better. Quite a few FM stations have lost the plot, and few RJs don’t irritate. Nevertheless, FM stations are made for the commute, the inane chatter they provide keeping the mind off mundane stuff as the vehicle’s squalid interiors etc.

And where the taxis have an FM transistor, the station of choice seems to be 93.5 which has since undergone a change in numerals I think. Beyond Malishka Mendonca, I don’t think the station has a star, but one indication of their popularity among the yellow and black cabs is this orange contraption I see moving about bearing the 93.5 colours and logo. I presume it is the taxi guy who does the traffic updates for them.

But why are our taxis so allergic to installing transistors? Can someone enlighten me?