All around the world, it seems that I have the same routine for every restaurant I sit in. I’d thank our waiter for the menu then immediately request the Wi-Fi password. It’s not I’m that desperate to check my Facebook notifications. It’s more the feeling that I needed to reassure my family that I was still alive and contactable!
I guess you can trust the generation of “helicopter parents” to need updates as regularly as they need to pee. Being able to track our global movements through our phones is just one step short of micro-chipping us. Nevertheless, there’s definitely a certain comfort to knowing that if anything were to go wrong, contact is only a screen-tap away.
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Just recently, in Singapore, my plan to take the MRT to the gym was squandered by a sudden downpour of rain. I would have just taken an umbrella but a lightning strike just overhead was enough to convince me to book a taxi. I really should have the taxi-booking app on my own phone since I moved back but either way, my dad made the arrangements for me on one of the more popular ones.
As instant as a microwave meal, a taxi confirmed a pick up with an ETA of three to five minutes. We watched the little taxi symbol stutter and glide across the map on his screen until we saw it was entering the driveway. Slipping on my running shoes and dumping an umbrella into my bag (in case I possessed the urge to challenge Zeus’ arsenal of lightning bolts), I skipped out the door.
I didn’t show any signs of hesitation as I dove into the car to avoid the thundering rain and once I was in, I smiled as usual to the driver and told him my destination entrusting him totally with my safety.
The driver was a perky, Chinese Singaporean man with a keen eye for conversation, and I do mean that literally. His face was smiling every time I awkwardly and accidentally made eye contact in the rear view mirror. He began to ask me what I was planning on doing at wherever I was going and so I told him. He joked about how a girl of my looks shouldn’t go to the gym, for fear that getting stronger would only serve to make me unattractive. By saying it in his gleeful manner, I couldn’t help but laugh and smile along rather than resort to my habit of pointing out the faults in his out-dated, gendered attitude.
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The light conversation continued but I could feel myself begin to tense as he began to ask for details about where I was from, where and how I was educated and why I didn’t speak Chinese, “like a Singaporean should”. His tone hadn’t obviously changed and he remained smiling but I guess it is just a personal uneasiness about giving strangers information about me.
Just then, my phone vibrated with a Whatsapp notification from my dad, joking that he could see my exact location because of how the app was still synced to the taxi’s GPS. Though nothing was threatening about my situation, I must admit that knowing that somehow, my dad’s phone remained connected to my whereabouts was reassuring! The only issue is, as much as he’d like to think he is Liam Neeson… he probably doesn’t possess that ‘specific set of skills’ he would need to find me again!
As a young woman in the 21st century, we are raised to feel the need to be on guard all the time, particularly when alone. Though I highly doubt that my taxi driver had any dark, insidious motive, it was a relief knowing that if something were to go wrong, someone would have at least some of the details to piece a picture together.
It’s become something of a force of habit that every time I do get into a taxi, and especially when no one knows my precise location, I send my father the license plate details, just to have it on record. It’s less of the attitude that ‘what can go wrong, will go wrong’ but more of ‘hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst’.
As our journey neared its end, I mistakenly thought that my driver had taken the wrong highway exit and exclaimed “No! Not here!” He giggled, looked up and said, “Ah, you don’t trust me at all… that’s good! You should never trust a stranger, especially in a car!”
• Featured image (colourful cables) credit: bedo/iStock
