-| Curiosity and Conversation|-

The other day, I hopped into an autorickshaw and struck up a conversation with the driver. He shared with me that the government now requires everyone to learn Marathi in order to renew their driving license. Although he was eager to learn the language, he was unsure of when and where he would be able to practice it. Over his 20 years of driving, he noticed that people have gradually stopped chatting with him.

Over the years, he told me, he had begun to notice a difference.

In cities, conversation had become increasingly transactional. People were quick to wonder what the other person wanted, and slow to believe that curiosity could exist without an agenda.

His experience in villages was different. People still seemed to willing to give one another ‘the gift of time’. Conversations unfolded slowly, wandered into unexpected places and often ended with two strangers knowing a little more about each other’s worlds than when they had begun..

I kept thinking about something else he had left me with.

Perhaps the real loss isn’t conversation. Perhaps it is our growing inability to believe that another human being can simply be curious about our lives, with no expectations in return.

Perhaps the rarest thing today isn’t conversation. Its being listened to, with no expectation of anything in return …