Life in the Digitalized Era.....

 

At the dawn of the millennium came the news that the whole world is now more a global village with the advent of the WWW. It was once in a lifetime revolution that spurred the digital era into its golden age. This fetish of staying connected… in a web ironically, is supplemented by the smart phone and associated gizmos.

Nowadays, it doesn’t matter if you are awake or asleep- but, if you are online or offline. 

I can sense that the greatest debate among the youth of today is the choice between Android, iOS or Windows.

I also wish to trace to roots of rural India where

A farmer can nowadays strike a deal with a multinational company with the press of a button,

A weaver in Pathamadai can sell his products on e-commerce platforms. and

A Fisherman in Toothukodi can assure a better catch with several weather inputs.

All of these are the gifts of a digitalized society.

Today in a world where Twitter has made everyone into a reporter, I can know what is happening on the other side of the world also…

India has decided to go electronic with its courts. I welcome this humongous initiative. Finally, the millions of cases will get heard and verdict delivered in short time cutting the now avoidable transport charges, printing charges and the carbon footprints associated in the whole process.

I can book a meal right from the comfort of my phone which prioritizes my gustatory delights based on my previous orders. I get it now, why is was named a ‘smart’phone.

Education through the Internet is really a boon for many students. E-books.. though they take away several joys of reading; are great as one may store as many as thousands of such books in a small phone. Earlier, people used to travel millions of km to far away universities to learn science and arts. But nowadays the professors of those universities are available with the click of a subscription!

Imagine how astonished Columbus would feel if I say that he can today navigate to literally anywhere on earth without getting lost! How would our dear Ramanujan today feel… as his theorems are getting proven by super computers within a fraction of a second…

…..or how would  CA aspirants would feel if I say that  all the calculative scrutiny of accounts that they need to do can be done with the help of a robotic assistant. And that too for free !          

                          Quite an amazing world we live in….!

While I’m all praises for this Digitalized lifestyle, let me on the offset remind you of how it has re-shaped our mode of living.

I sense that most of us are de-evloving !  …Right now many are with hunched backs like our great apes!

Not to forget how we forgot meeting our friends face to face this pandemic.

Let me also bring in here a proposition that a large proportion of us are getting ‘virtually blind’. I see many people crossing roads with their heads facing their phones in hands.

I fear someday that those precious prayers to God might be sent to Him with the click of a button!

Or what if electronic agarbattis fill our rooms? Not to forget how youngsters are pleasuring themselves in digital media, while they must be out there exploring the world, anchored in adventure.

When was the last time you penned a letter? Ages ago?? I say with a slight profound insight, that we have lost the thrill of ‘waiting’ for a letter.

In a world where people already wear societal masks, I observe a rapid flux of emojis. So,

we merely ‘exist’ in a digital world. We don’t ‘live’.

Let us for once, feel the warmth of the sun rather than the heat of our phones.

If given a chance, I would support natural stupidity over artificial intelligence. I say this because I am of the opinion that in today’s world, Brains are becoming bigger, but hearts are becoming smaller.

Friends, I recall reading this somewhere..

“In case of fire, please leave the building before posting it on social media !” 

I get the joke now, with this being a necessary placard in many buildings across the world!

The digital economy which aims to be cashless, I feel, is good substitute for large transactions. But the idea of a fully digitalized economy is far from reach even to the so-called highly developed nations. I support an economy, where paper usage is largely reduced and recycled.

I understand the glorification of this digitalized era, but I am more concerned of its cons rather than its pros, because, the former, leaves a more profound impact in our minds and emotions, and if I may say, our bodies also.

I wish the computers don’t invade us in every sphere of life, as it cuts us from the union with other life, as one gets stuck in the world wide WEB. Let us start to think again and limit the computers from doing all the thinking for us.

To sum up..I see digital media as a fire. We can use it to light a lamp or to burn the house we live in. We must use it just as a tool for effortless living, not living in itself.

….Let me……. sign out…….. for now.  

Grey Power : A 19-year-old’s Perspective

 

 

 

I had written this article around two years b4....... for The Hindu Open page Section 

(It didn't make it through the screening process though... 🤷🏻‍♂️ 

Old people have something that I call, - "Innocent Wisdom." 

These unsung heroes and heroines are in their penultimate or ultimate ‘stages’ in their lives. The knowledge garnered, the experiences established and their own understanding of the purpose of life lies dormant in them. These ‘flash upon their inward eyes’ from time to time.

As you grow old, it is said that your intelligence would be hijacked by your hormones! This decreases after a saturation point (=old age). So, the only humans who are actually intelligent are children and old people. The adults...... have no clue where they are! 

This is not to say that adults are unscrupulous but the fact on hand is obvious. 

But yes, children can be very uncontrollable at times and so are old people. Notice how beautifully God/Nature (or whatever) has created this divine connection between them. One could naturally wonder why such a covalent bond exists. 

To relive childhood you say? 

- What about the possibility of playing actively with friends? 

This remains dear reader... a cosmic mystery.

There is an alluring paean of Sudha Murthy titled ‘How I thought my Grandmother to read’. It narrates the story of one ‘illiterate’ Krishtakka who learns the Kannada alphabet from her Granddaughter. She learns it with gusto and then she touches the feet of her Granddaughter on Saraswati Pooja, as a mark of respect to a teacher. 

Our Scriptures tell us to put teachers before God. This is religion, this is culture. What more beautiful can a culture hold?! 

Your knowledge is a treasure that no one can rob. The reason for such a declaration is that knowledge is one of the most powerful tools to empower minds. This knowledge becomes fundamental in reaching greater heights in life. This thinking forms the basis of your character. 

As Dr.Abdul Kalam, a great teacher and seeker himself puts it; ‘Righteousness in heart sowed by teachers germinates and blossoms into a handsome character’.

Old people hate to be dependent:

This stems from their innate desire to be respected in society. But they also expect something. That is.... constant love from people encapsulating them. 

Don’t you think that is also being dependent? 

Well.......

The reason why old people are mysterious to comprehend is that they wish to be treated as peers by younger ones. They like to be poked jokes upon, like to gossip (very much!), but they demand a certain amount of respect also; though they don’t say it right across your face!

Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem, ‘The Brook’ metaphorizes the brook’s course from its birth to its confluence into the river, to a human’s life. At the end, the brook assumes a peaceful demeanour just like old men and women who know that the best way to win a quarrel is to avoid them.

Old people understand everyone:

 The simple fact is that they have seen all the ‘stages’ of life. They know what the priority becomes at each ‘stage’ (an allusion to Shakespeare’s ‘The Seven Ages’.) As an ensue, they may aid in solving problems that arise due to the generation gap between people of different age groups.

It may sound ironical, but old people are the ones who feel the least generation gap. Think about it..... It will seem obvious. 

- They understand the romance during teenage,

- They understand the struggles of an adult trying to strike a balance between career and family.

 So they have an iota of literacy in comprehending human emotions. Some might be technophobic but they understand the immense importance of these gizmos.

Final Thoughts:

The darker side is scary. 

Old people tend to get depressed as some of their own families wash their hands off them. Old age homes spring up like grass every day. 

This needs to change. 

We need them. We need them to guide us, to lead us and to show us that every dark cloud has a silver lining. 

Trust me, the world needs grey power!

 

An Educational Experiment … Unschooling the mind

A spellbinding read!

Taking a year off from school after 10^th class, may seem ‘out of syllabus’ for many students in India. But that is exactly what a 16-year-old Sagarikka Sathya had done. 

It was during those months that Ms.Sathya adorned the hats of a traveler, a learner, a blogger, an investor, an intern (to name a few). She chronicles her disciplined repertoire in her book - My Unschooled Year.

 

Not a ‘brake’ but a well-deserved ‘break’:

Let’s admit - this would not have garnered attention in the west, as taking a year off from school is as common as arranged marriages in India. And in India, taking a year off from school is as uncommon as arranged marriages in the west! 

Well, that being said, the book encapsulates the unusual journey of an erstwhile happy-go-lucky student. It is a journey worth sharing with your friends and family, a journey that can be safely introduced to your child and a journey touted to continue even after it terminates.

If Dora and Bujji look into a map to guide them in their path, Sathya’s map was handy too, only that it was prepared along the way! The journey was prepared hoping to elicit the 21^st century skills in her. Peppered with twists and turns, it was an adventure worth of Robinson Crusoe. 

So, does she reach her destination? Is it one year wasted, or several years gained? Read out, to find out...

The Content:

Keen observations of myriad kinds by the author, classified into seven chapters is followed by her suggestions. ‘Notes from Parents’ constitute a good guiding tool for parents who should be reading this book. Name the subject you study in class, she has used them during these sojourns. Mathematics, Commerce, Accountancy, Stock marketing, Travel, Cinema, Climate, Biological systems- all became a hands-on experience for the author.  Her confident intervention during her car accident (which she describes briefly in one chapter), shows how much the young girl has evolved from her previous self. As for the craftsmanship of the words, fastidiously structured with the usage of rustic simplicity coupled with a droll sense of humour; her choice of vocabulary is commendable for a novice writer(though it can be improved at certain places).

She starts her book with a discussion on ‘Discipline and Time Management’, without which her unschooled year might have been a disaster. She ventures into the business world in the next. This is ensued by several travelogues written during her travels to various places.  ‘Meeting people’ emphasizes her frictionless camaraderie. She ends personally, with a note where she elucidates her bent of mind. All these constitute this one-time read.

Nirmala . S .Varrier, a prominent educationist based in Trichy says that retrospective introspection is needed for students. The year proved to be an inward journey for the author (as she learnt about herself) apart from discovering her outside world. All this is evident from the excerpts she gives through the course of her book

Miscellaneous thoughts on the book:

Somewhere near the middle of the book, I wrote limericks concerned with the constitution of the book on its margins; the words came too fast for my racing pen!

Here is one such attempt:

“ One year off, the risk is a constant ache,   

   but that’s the best risk you’ll ever take!

  Problem over problem- be it a quake,

  But you learn only through a mistake.

  It was anything but a ‘break’,

  So, students give this a try, for God’s sake !! ”

While reading, it would evoke in an adult reader, a certain feel of positive dwarfism about Sagarikka’s opportunity.

Her personality radiates through her paean. The book also works at a rather curious level of achieving its objective. This is starkly evident by the first read. To harvest the optimum benefit from the book, I suggest you to look through the lens of a teenager, as the idea of a year off may be dismissed as a deviation by the child’s parents/guardian. 

This book seems to be written for the affluent children only. Think about a child, who falls below the poverty line, taking a year off from school. His/her only way out of the vicious cycle of poverty is through education. If he/she were to ask for such beneficial internships at a star hotel or a saloon operating for the rich, I am sure that child will be driven away. 

Sad reality, but it’s time we think inclusive education for all. You may reciprocate in thought with this. 

Undoubtedly, she has taken the ‘road not taken’. The indomitable pressure of higher education, she would have gone through in her later years is evident as she would have been automatically pushed into the rat race that our country’s children are sent into. 

As she says, instead of running or crawling in the race, she chose to create her own space.

In a nutshell:

The book is an absorbing read that I would recommend to any student who wishes to transcend the limitations of being a part of the throat cutting competitive arena that our country (or our planet, for that matter) really is.

 

I give this book a 3.5 out of 5.

Happy reading!

The Solitary Reaper - William Wordsworth

Celebrating the Ordinary.... 

Beauty !

This is how one can best describe this sacred piece of art! 

Placed at the Peak of Romanticism, by English poets, this paean scales new heights when imagery is addressed. It's aura being strange yet soothing, the description of English Landscape being blissful and the rhyming words are like icings on a cake. In layman terms, this poem functions to appreciate the beauty of music.

Composed in four stanzas containing 8 lines each, Wordsworth introduces us to a damsel singing and reaping in Scotland vales. Without commenting upon her physical appearance, the poet shifts our imagination quickly towards the song that comes out from that heavenly being. The words of the song are not comprehendible to the poet, so he begins naturally to examine its tone. He concludes it to be a melancholic one, but fails to understand the reason behind such a rendition. Judging by the song's strain, he suggests reasons - war/battles, recent calamities and disasters, loss of a person and the like.

Wordsworth places her sound over the nightingale chant and is in lavish appreciation of its beauty as he thinks..'A voice so thrilling never was heard'

'What'er the theme the maiden sang', he was spellbound experiencing an iota of complete bliss.

The poet would then visualize the scene later in his life as to cherish 'those' moments of strange yet beautiful aura.

If Oscar Wilde is the doyen of personification, Wordsworth seems to be his counterpart in imagery!

Blissful, is what I'd say about the apposition of beautiful landscapes with the mental frontiers of the human mind. The lines are rhetorical. Each succession of words elicits the scene, the poet has witnessed in Scotland. For example, the poet says,'...for the vale profound is overflowing with the sound'. This conjectures musical notes and ethereal vibrations that loiter the picturesque valley.

Receding a few lines back, the poet who says us to 'to stop here, or gently  pass'. Here, it is understood that William wants to share his experience of trance with the passerbys. Such a selfless soul! Auditory imagery is also something not to be missed in this discussion.

True to his ideal of using 'common speech', Wordsworth uses words of rustic simplicity which have great evocative power. The words used by the poet engulfs our consciousness and we stand at the edge of infinity. Thus, the poem has delighted its readers in this manner.

 

Solitude is often perceived to be a dull moment in one's life. however, it is during these times of life when the clock seems to be ticking slow; that one's true self surfaces. It is buoyed by innate abstractions. Loneliness brings negative emotions only...Solitude brings out important decisions and/or ideas. Why? Well, God/Nature has created us in such a way. 

There ought to be a release of happy hormones one's body while skimming through poems of this level. My personal advice is to read the poem while listening to some sad music as they are the most thrilling ones.

In a nutshell, this poem reminds us of the eternal spell that Mother Nature has cast on mankind - something that lures him always. i.e, wondering at the feminine aspects of 'Her'.