The little things which matters the most

03^rd  of October,2012, any other normal day for me, returning from college, met my friend, had a great little chit chat at his place, talked all sorts of crap-o things with him, in-short had a great time as usual, boarded the overly crowded metro, it was like standing on everybody’s heads, overly crowded in the sense that I was stuffed in a way that I can’t reach even my own jean’s pocket and fetch my cell phone. After some stations the situation eased a bit and I was like huff! And took out my cell phone and called my mom coz dad usually never answers my call at this point of time, why I don’t know and it’s like pure co-incidence that whenever I call at this point of time, his phone is kept at place where no one can hear its ringing. So, coming back to, I called my mom and asked if dad can come and fetch me from metro station and she said yes, I was glad on hearing that. Reaching the metro station, I waited impatiently about 15 min and in that impatience I bought shades from a local hawker and my parents arrived and literally jumped into the car and felt like  I have been standing from eternity and now I get or earned a chance to sit down and relax. During commuting back home, we stopped at a chaat wala and stood in the long que for our number to come, being impatient, again, I just started to walk to a nearby market plaza, searched for a washroom, got relaxed there…aah!! And moved into the Dominos restaurant to check if they had that new offering for which advertisements were coming on television and remembering that my mother wanted to have that particular dish. So I decided to surprise mom and moved-in for ordering, while approaching the billing counter where a overly smiling attendant was gazing upon me like I am some kind of messiah coming to save her from the target completion sort of situation but on reaching the counter I got a kind of gut feeling that I should check my wallet first, being an gut-feeling believer, I checked my wallet and alas! it had only Rs. 40 only and in denomination of ten rupee notes. I gazed upon it for some seconds and those seconds was like eternity for me. Returning back to senses I closed my wallet put it back in my jean’s back pocket, raised my head, feebly smiled at the overly smiling, now suspicious attendant and in a turn I swiftly walked out from the restaurant to that  chaat hawker where my parents were standing and enjoying gol gappas. I went to my mother and in her ear I told her about that new dish she wanted. In that small fraction of second, my eyes met hers and saw a small gleam for a fraction of second from which I sensed that she wants to have that dish, but being a parent and having a wiser thinking, she was reluctant to go to the restaurant, but I managed to persuade her and took mom and dad to dominos, where proudly and stomp-marching with my chest doubled in from its original size, ordered that dish and a butterscotch moose and sat with my parents. While sitting and chit-chatting and them asking about what i did in college today….not again!!! I simply deflected that question on countering them by asking that where you guys went today and getting the usual answer. In that convo I saw my mother smile and felt that she was actually happy from inside which is getting reflected in her smile. On seeing her happy from inside I also felt happy and relaxed and all my tiredness was gone in a flick.

We got our order, moved back to our car and started again on the way to home. While going back we were chatting as usual and from where, I really don’t know from where the word “movie” came in and we decided to for a movie called “OMG oh my God”. Mom right away dialled my sister’s cell phone number and asked her to check the timings of the movie. As I was driving, I turned the steering and headed towards the multiplex. We got there, luckily got tickets for the next available show and headed back to home.

 On reaching home we all ate, while eating I asked mom, how’s the dish and she was like it’s okay-ish but not great, but while having that I sensed that mom is enjoying that dish not by its taste but by the emotion attached to it. I was like totally happy and satisfied in seeing her happy and offered my own piece to Dad coz I was then kind of not-hungry not in the literal sense. We all then moved out as we were already late and my Dad’s usual way getting decently dressed for going out of the house. We reached the multiplex just in time and the movie was, in my words AWESOME and on which I will share my thoughts in my next blog….so bye for now and a small song which comes in the Vodafone advertisement might suit this particular situation. Here it follows:-

 

“The little things you do for me and nobody else make me feel good, the little things you do for me makin’ me smile when no one else could”

 

Are human beings, MASTERS or SLAVES?

In today’s fast paced world, everybody wants the best things in their life be it a swanky sprawling home, most technologically advanced car, the latest gadgets and many more to make their life simple and AUTOMATED!!. Everything in our life from the smallest of things to the International Space Station is made up of tech which makes our all tedious tasks (as we say in our times), simpler or to be said again, AUTOMATED! at its best.

But really, do we are the masters of our own wilfully created technology or we have just become the slaves of the created!!

General people often make mistakes by relating technology to the computer related stuff  like hardware, software, lines of codes etc. etc., but it is more than that to it. It is for sure that the area we think about today is TECHNOLOGY, perhaps the last two decades in our country is TECHNILOGICALLY driven. As to become a more advanced nation, every country in the world is trying to bring out  better and better results from the tech we use by simply upgrading it, making it work faster, finding ways to make the same technology work in different ways but to get the same outcome or result…or to say INNOVATING.Being innovative is better or being inventive?. From the beginning, the advancement of the human race is entirely technology driven. For e.g. The spark created by banging two stones, using them as weapons, round stones as wheels and the list goes on and on.

There is a big saying  “NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF ALL INVENTIONS” which compels the human beings to find out ways to overcome an obstacle in their evolutionary path, but why this saying is always been connected to technology, why is this “technology” have been the driving force of our entire species?

Technology generally simplifies our lives, our day-to-day work and keeps us safely away from the mundane tasks that we dread, but does it implies that it makes us more intelligent by not doing the things which are supposed to be done by us, which might bring out new ways to do it and also new outcomes or to use a better word for it, RESULT, might be achieved. But we let the “set things” or say “tech” to do it just for the ease of not doing it, or to say not wasting our “precious” time on it by doing it. Really?, Is our time wasted in doing the things which could be done by a machine more efficiently and in small span of time. Alright, I also give in to the point that something’s are more efficiently done by a machine than a human, but what the heck, humans again has created that machine giving in countless time just to make it functional and bringing it out to the whole species to make use of it so that the countless hours required to that piece of work can be reduced. But does this indicate that doing that piece of work, has to be done in the same manner or the way the machine does it?  Or are there other alternate ways to do that kind or work which might lead to different outcomes or results.

Sadly, this has become the way of our life that we don’t bother to look upon the steps of doing a piece or work rather than focus on an outcome or better to say RESULT. If the desired result is achieved then everything’s fine and if not then we try it again and again and don’t see what’s actually going wrong in there. We don’t even try to take up that task, as it is mundane (our perception) for us and work it out in a different way to achieve the result which might be better or effective than the previous one. We just sit there blindly, helplessly and wait for the technology to solve that for us.

Have we not become the slaves of the technology that we have created to simplify our lives?

Have we become too dependent on technology that we can’t move a bit without it?

Have we become too blunt, dull, helpless, lazy and blind, that we can’t survive without it?

YES WE HAVE!

Because we need technology to get us the information we need, when we need it. Over the years, we have blended or to say moulded our lifestyles around technology in a way that it cannot be removed or extracted out of our way of living. We do numerous tasks everyday be it very tiny, negligible or very important but without technology at our disposal we are just helpless beings. We do a lot of things like making calls, texting, video calling, internet surfing etc. and we do in manner that we have put in an auto-pilot mode!

Automating things and forgetting about is one different thing but to make our life more and more simple, we are giving the power of our minds to the machines so that, it might work in the way we want it to work. But will it really work in the way we want it to be or will it think in its own way like a sentient species of its own kind. As we humans wage wars overs petty differences and kill thousands of ourselves just to make ourselves right….In our own way?  Will this self –conscious piece of tech might become our greatest threat as we have given it power of the human mind which in-turn might make human kind its slave or wipe out completely. Numerous movies and video games have been made to give human beings the hint of the horror of what lies beyond!!

Aren’t we ourselves becoming or have become cyborgs in first place?

My idea of writing this article was simply to explain that make use of the technology as a stepping stone, like a side assistant and not as the crutch to the human kind to discover new and unique ways to enhance technology and human kind. Or keeping it in simple words “STAYING HUMAN”

PS-with help from an article.