{"id":85567,"date":"2018-03-27T12:45:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T10:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=85567"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:58","slug":"op-zoek-naar-relativerende-gesprekken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/03\/27\/op-zoek-naar-relativerende-gesprekken\/","title":{"rendered":"Make learning real: Time to seek for humbling conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Conference life is indeed a carbon life. Trains, planes, automobiles and, more specifically, taxi rides punctuate my time. This instance, it was a cab ride to the International Delhi airport. The cab driver and I started to talk. He told me how work was hard to come by since the rise of Uber. The last two days, he hadn\u2019t gone home. He had a wife and two boys. Both in decent schools so they don\u2019t have to be like their father, he said. He hoped that one day he would be able to buy good things for his parents who have sacrificed so much and who have now moved back to their village in Haryana.<\/p>\n

He slept in his taxi the past two nights, hoping to give someone a ride even if late at night. I was his lucky break with my red eye flight. I asked him if he was tempted to join Uber. \u201cDefinitely not,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cI would feel unsafe, because who knows what kind of passengers you get. They might be drunk. They could take you to a strange area and steal your taxi. You never know. Also, who knows whether you as a passenger will be raped, madam? Delhi is not safe. Our taxis are.\u201d While he was saying this, another cab, as if on cue, passed us by with a bumper sticker saying: \u201cthis taxi respects women.\u201d What about reviews, I asked. \u201cThis is India, madam.\u201d That seemed to sum up his argument. Trust is a privilege. Predictability is for the affluent.<\/p>\n

He paused. \u201cDo you mind if I ask something, madam? Why are rich people cheap? Even if they can afford it, they still don\u2019t want to pay more. Even if drivers can\u2019t make any money with so many Uber cars on the road. My friends and I joke that rich people should be called Below Poverty Line people.\u201d He gave a hearty laugh.<\/p>\n

This moment was a humbling experience. I teach about precarious labour, I don\u2019t live it. I make my students debate about the gig economy, but few will ever witness the perverse and desperate outcomes of such innovation beyond the classroom.<\/p>\n

Humility helps us grow. It expands our range of consciousness beyond our worldview. Yet, few of us venture outside our routines and our people.<\/p>\n

Making a familiar moment unfamiliar, by engaging with our surroundings, may be a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Payal Arora is an Associate Professor at Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t

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