The taxi driver is currently 48 years old. He has been a taxi driver for 18 years. He was never married. I do not know if he's had a relationship before (I sincerely doubt that he has had one). But I do know he's still single, and he has resigned himself to this fate.
He's not alone. He has a number of friends who are of the same age as him and still single as well. All of them want the same thing: to find true love just like everyone else. If he had only lived in a romantic movie, he would be able to find his special someone soon. Sadly, life isn't like that. He's pretty much past his prime, left as an average old guy in Singapore: not too tall, very skinny, geeky looking (he was wearing glasses), and has a high pitched voice. He's not rich, he's not good looking and he probably doesn't know how to woo women, which pretty much ruins any chances he has on being able to find someone he can spend his entire life with.
His friends were actually entertaining the prospect of marrying girls from overseas by engaging in a mail order bride system. He didn't want it because he thought it was going to be scary. If the relationship did not work out and ended up in a divorce, the guy would lose half his fortune to the woman he hardly even knew. So with that, he'll probably not find a special someone anymore. The closest thing he has to having a relationship is by engaging in prostitution (which I figured out from listening to the hints he was dropping regarding that topic).
In today's world, we're culturally conditioned that finding our "true love" is the ONLY way of being truly happy and fulfilled in that aspect of our lives. Worst part is, this "true love" can only be acquired in ONLY ONE POSSIBLE ACCEPTED WAY. We grow up with that notion through movies, soaps, books, billboards, advertisements, the works. Guy finds girl, does something so girl will notice. Girl likes guy, they fall in love, live happily ever after until they get divorced or otherwise.
However, society doesn't really tell us what happens when we're not able to do live by this. What happens to that heartbroken guy in the movies, the third person cast out by the couple? We don't know. We happily ignore that guy because we're too caught up in the wonderful life lived by the couple. What we do not know is that the people who are not able to fit into this mold are in pain and slowly suffering because they feel they were outcast from everyone else by not being able to find their "true love". That's why they compensate through other means, through prostitution or arranged marriages, as a desperate attempt to fit into the mold.
Like what the taxi driver told me, his friends have the same predicament as he does. It means the number of people getting caught up in this situation is increasing. A subculture of people who cannot conform to society's standards of "true love" is already being established right under our noses, and what's scary about it is that we absolutely have no idea it even exists.
I guess if there is something we can learn from all this, it's that in today's world, we're starting to box ourselves with notions that appear to be universal such as our notion of "true romantic love". What we need to be aware of is that it's not universal. It's something we've boxed ourselves in in order to be comfortable, ignoring the consequences for those who cannot fit the bill. If we allow ourselves to believe that there is ONLY ONE WAY of acquiring this, it makes those who cannot fulfill this feel very insecure, outcast and insignificant. And it forces them to settle for ways that are not necessarily acceptable, just to be able to fit in.
layman
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