New technology

Growing up,our biggest concerns were the kind of writing books that we had,the fountain pens we used,the shoes we wore and the books we owned or read. A pilot pen was a must have for most of us but to own a sheaffers pen was like owning the latest iPhone. Out of reach for most of us it was the most sort after gadget of our time. When it came to books the girls who owned the entire Enid blyton collection were several notches above is in the pecking order. These status symbols stayed very much the same through out my childhood. Somewhere towards the end the ball point pen made its appearance. The fact that we didn't have to have ink stained hands or forget to fill out pens,incur the wrath of our teachers seemed too much of an advantage not to have. But again they were expensive and most of the kids who had relatives abroad would come to school with new ones from shores afar and be the envy of most of us lesser mortals. Fast forward a few decades and I have embraced technology and smartphones,emails have replaced all those long letters I wrote to friends during holidays and various other forms of communication have replaced the simple ones of my childhood. Our biggest fears in those days was being busted by inquisitive mothers who tried reading our diary when we were not at home but today the fears are so much bigger. Complete strangers can get access to my emails and anything I do digitally. Now inquisitive mothers I can deal with but the thought that some random stranger will read about my life is a bit disconcerting (not that my life is that colourful either) . My digital interaction border to the inane or to downright boring,after all why give anyone a reason to "follow"as its called. It was rather amusing then to watch Sony and a whole host of Internet users talking about ditching emails thanks to being hacked to the tune of millions of dollars. They were actually talking of going back to pen and paper,to writing things down etc....full circle almost. Amusing because I have a real low tech phone which when I went in to exchange for a seriously hi tech iPhone ,caused some consternation among the retail staff. Most of them had never seen a phone this old ( I rolled my eyes in despair,after all this was a ten or fifteen year old phone for crying out loud). Most of my friends find me old fashioned because I still have a physical address book that has everyone's addressed and phone numbers written down,I am not on a social network that all my friends are on and getting me to respond to phone calls is a bit of a challenge as I don't have my phone stuck to me like an extension of myself. And here I was actually buying an iPhone whic is the sheaffers of my day.

Clueless as I am about the many uses of the new phone,I have the distinct advantage of having grown up in a world where everything wasn't available at my finger tips or should that read Google?. And that being the case I have no issues reading all the stuff I can about the various experiences of phone users,I have no issues in asking my tech smart nephews on how to navigate my way around the phone and before you know it,my age and generation not withstanding,I will become pretty comfortable using the device but it's after all the fuss,the world goes back to the good old days,well I can't complain can I?,I would still be comfortable reverting to it,despite what my smart younger relatives may have to suffer.

The old order changes

It's many years since I was a young school student but as I look back on the world as it today it seems a world away ...well it actually is. For starters we simply had to speak in English and our teachers all being Anglo indian would insist on pronunciation being perfect queens English. Grammar was my nightmare but I managed ok with that too. We always spoke to friends in English and to speak in any other language was unheard of in those days despite all of us knowing atleast two other languages and being able to speak fluently. So today we have our imagination coloured by Enid blyton books and stories set in the english countryside. Slang was unheard of and God forbid one of us got hold of some slang,it meant a trip to the head teachers room and a sound dressing down.

Today some thirty or more years later I am eavesdropping on some conversation between two teenagers. They both go to English medium schools but speak in Tamil to each other and I suspect in school too. No harm ofcourse but we have over the years become a lot more regional and with it perhaps a lot more insulated from outside influences. How else would one explain why some kids don't get a joke when one is cracked or can't understand what I am saying because my pronunciation is different. Reading has been replaced by smartphones,conversations have also been reduced to chats on smartphones so while my kind still meet for tea and conversations most of our kids wonder what all the excitement is all about. We are more conscious of religion but not in a nice way,we have become more intolerant of differences and we are rules now by people in power who have no business to be in power. Crimes against small children and women have increased in a country where we were unaware of differences of gender and culture or religion. Yes as kids we were pretty cruel to others who couldn't get along with us and like all children we could be mean and downright nasty at times ,but we also made solid relationships,we valued friendships and our interactions with the opposite sex was healthy and uncomplicated. Today more students study abroad than in my time but do they know the culture of the countries they visit or do they stick to their kind even there. Do they adapt and change without giving up on their roots or do they just stay confused?. I don't really know except to say that we had to learn a lot of things and the emphasis on character building was far greater than the present stress on marks and getting into engineering or medical colleges. But well like they say...the old order changes yielding place to new