What a month! I have to say with all the craziness and intense work pressure, it is rewarding to be acknowledged in the media, in my adopted homeland, The Netherlands, and my prior homeland, the United States.
A journalist at the Financial Times in the Netherlands contacted me after reading my article in the NRC critiquing the global utopia celebrity Rutger Bregman. He wanted to just chat with me about my life and work, in an open and free flow conversation. This was surprising to me given what is going on with journalism these days with budget cuts, thin margins and reactive reporting. Two meetings, almost five hours later, and much coffee at the balcony with respectable social distancing, we covered a lot of territory – my move from India to the United States to the Netherlands, my experiences with companies especially after my Next billion Users book came out in 2019, my take on Dutch innovation, European values, design approaches to global users, and more.
After the first meeting, I got inspired and when I usually do, I spar with my dad on Whatsapp about these conversations, that clearly then made its way to the second meeting and formed the crux of the interview. So basically, it landed up being an article that was at once personal and professional, well woven into a fabric that I see as representative of my life. It made me aware of how much my dad shapes my worldview, and how ideas are birthed through these rich interpersonal communications, far from the myth of the aha individual genius moments that typical media loves to perpetuate. It also highlights how us immigrants who come to new countries bring with us these valuable networks, facilitated by digital media tools, enabling for a global approach to what is often seen as local problems.
While this was going on, I was trying to relax with my all time favorite podcast, 99%Invisible. I am such a fan of Roman Mars , the host of this podcast. I listen to the show regularly and it so happened that I was in bed, in the midst of listening to one of his episodes on ‘Freedom house Ambulance Service’ about how paramedics as a profession came to be, when I got an email from him asking me to be on his show. He read my book he said and would love to chat more for his Google sponsored episode on the ‘Next billion Users.’ In our call, he was exactly how I pictured him to be, thoughtful, a wonderful and kind listener and intellectually engaging and full of humor. What a pleasure and an honor it was and not just made my day, but marked this difficult time with a positive halo.
Payal Arora 