The question of the week is: “who are Uber drivers always talking to on the phone?” It’s one that regularly surfaces on Reddit threads and social media and even, on a couple of occasions, in the office. It’s not my question (I know who they are talking to), but I think the fact that many people are so baffled by it tells us a lot about the separate worlds we occupy. When you get a cab on a ride-hailing app, the chances that your driver will be on the phone is high.
The conversation is almost always quiet, containing pauses so long that it often seems they are actually no longer on a call. But then comes a rejoinder, a laugh, an interjection, and the marathon continues. For anyone of an immigrant background, the question of who they are talking to is absolutely no mystery.
They are talking to us; their siblings, parents, cousins and friends. Sometimes the person on the end of the line is back home, other times they are in a western city also navigating the dislocations of immigrant life. The long phone call is a regular feature of diaspora lives, and even more so for those employed in long, solitary work such as cab driving.
These conversations are about nothing and everything. This is not an exhaustive list, but based on the calls I constantly field from friends and family, the content I receive in a follow-up call, and familiar themes from chats with drivers in Arabic (which I sometimes get drawn into), the subjects are remarkably consistent. The range includes family gossip, wedding updates, complaints about the cost of living in the west, advice on navigating complex immigration systems, extremely detailed health updates, and political analysis of whatever crisis is unfolding.
These conversations can broadly be sorted into one of two categories: “serious technical resolution of a problem” or “shooting the breeze”. In my experience, these beast mode long phone calls are between someone on a long shift, commute or drive, and a mother cooking in the kitchen. There is a languorous quality to the call.
Time and conversational convention shift to accommodate long silences without explanation, as one person or the other breaks away to get on with something – dismount or park or blitz something in the food processor. Because the point is not the actual chat. It is a broadly phatic – that is to say language used for bonding – form of communication, an exercise in yearning and homesickness.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
