Racist slurs cut deep with Masterton taxi driver

After months of experiencing racial abuse taxi driver Sippy Singh now turns up on night jobs at strangers' homes with "bated breath".

In the latest incident, outside King Street Live two weekends ago, Mr Singh was racially abused by a man swearing at him about being Indian and how he wouldn't give his money to an Indian.

Slightly worse than the abuse he often experienced from passengers he picked up, he said. "Why do that? They don't know me. It's just the nature of people. It doesn't leave you feeling very good. It's sad. It happens quite often - just little comments."

On the night of the latest verbal racist attack, other people outside the club shared their disgust with him about the man's behaviour. "People were ashamed of it, ashamed he could say those things. It was unprovoked."

He knows his job isn't the safest for an Indian after a colleague was "bashed in the head" in April and left the job soon after.

The King Street Live racially motivated comment occurred only days after a Pakistan-born taxi driver was subjected to a torrent of verbal and foul racist abuse which was caught on his Invercargill taxi camera. That driver also remained calm and polite throughout the tirade of abuse.

Like the words used in the South Island incident, Mr Singh was told to "f ... off back to India."

But he said generally he ignored the abuse and carried on doing the job because Masterton was home after 10 years to him and wife Lovely and their twin teenage children Aqeeda and Vishwas.

"Since I came here I have never been back to India. I'm sad because we love New Zealand and we love Masterton. We all love it here ... it's best just to ignore the comments and let it go. You have to handle the situation as best you can."

These days when he goes to a new address, especially at night, Mr Singh said he feared the behaviour of passengers. "When I go to a strange job where I haven't been before I go with bated breath because I don't know how the people will react."

His family are New Zealand citizens.

New migrants were contributing members of society and didn't deserve such treatment, Mr Singh said.

"Migrants aren't on benefits and work very hard to make a life for themselves here.

"They don't deserve to be treated in this manner. This is their home too."

He just hopes people will start being more understanding of different cultures making New Zealand home.

"People need to be more civilised. We live in a civilised society and we should control ourselves. We are all human beings."