

A decade ago he lit out on his own, bucking conventional taxi instructor wisdom by founding AJ Yellow Taxi Tutors in Jackson Heights instead of Long Island City.ġ67 languages are spoken in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood where the majority of residents-62%-are immigrants. He got a gig at his now-rival’s taxi school, soliciting potential students by waiting outside the TLC's offices at four in the morning. He moved from New Delhi to New York when he was 18 years old, and drove a cab to fund his tuition at CUNY Hunter, where he studied educational psychology.
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Gogia knows how to run a classroom: he's been teaching people how to pass the Taxi and Limousine Commission's exams for over two decades now. Really: it doesn't taper, doesn't dwindle-it just stops. Small talk erupts in multiple tongues, and cuts off the instant Gogia re-enters the room. Three minutes and much chair-scuffling later, the class has been divided into about a half-dozen pairs-Nepali speakers with Nepali speakers, Tibetan with Tibetan, Arabic with Arabic-at which point Gogia retreats back into his office. "Come with me-we're going to put the Nepali brothers together." "You speak Nepali, right?" he asks a student.

Without any formal introduction, he starts redistricting. Shortly after 11:30 am AJ Gogia bounds out of his doorless back office, clad on this fall Friday in a long-sleeved black t-shirt and blue jeans. The men-and, with one exception, they are all men-sit quietly in the classroom's first four rows, scanning notes and checking phones. Yellowing posters of the five boroughs are stapled to the right wall, near a cloth-encircled photograph of the Dalai Lama.

The shabby basement decor and the dozen or so people in their thirties and forties squeezed into grade school-style desk-chairs suggest a mid-day AA meeting, or a state-mandated road rage course. It's a few minutes before class time at AJ Yellow Taxi Tutors, and the late arrivals are straggling in.
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His charisma has landed him in the year's most acclaimed documentary and brought offers for a reality TV show, which he rejected. May you be rewarded for your generousity, ameen.In Jackson Heights, Queens, AJ Gogia runs his cab driving school like a strict headmaster. So she needs to take driving classes in order to get her license.Īs you donate please also pray for them as they are extremely distraught, lost and helpless. For those of you who have children, you can understand how difficult that must be. She currently cannot drive and it is getting extremely difficult to get by without running everyday chores such as groceries, school supplies for projects, etc. The money will go towards rent for their apartment, utility bills, grocery, clothing, neccessitites for the children, car insurance and fees for a driving course the mom needs to take. We need help supporting this family as the wife cannot work until the boy is old enough for school. They are 11, 7 and 8 year old girls and 2 year old boy. Please help us protect the children from loosing more that what they have lost already. He passed away in the end of December and left behind 4 children who dearly miss him and ask him about him every single day. Imad was a very hardworking father and a devoted husband who did whatever he could to support his family, no matter how hard it was. We are reaching out to you today because we need your help to support a family that has recently lost their breadwinner.
