Personal Electronics’ (R)evolution

As a child, I used to wake up to the alarm of an analog clock. Now, like every other person, I wake up to a selected song playing on my mobile phone. What’s more? If I feel sleepy, I snooze and sleep a little longer. How convenient? A feature not available on the analog clocks and probably that’s why they were more effective in waking us up. This way without realizing we have grown intimate with electronics around us. Our personal computers, MP3 players, mobile phones mean much more than real people. We share our most happiest and saddest moments with our personal electronics. We turn to our iPods to cheer us up when we feel down.

These changes mean a lot to the human race more than we care to acknowledge because these have already begun to dictate our behavior, social interaction and expression. For example, many abbreviations have become a part of our verbal vocabulary like FYI, BTW.  We often hear our earlier generations complaining of shrinking social boundaries. We hardly know or interact with our neighbors. We, in-fact, prefer to use the leisure time to listen to songs on our iPods or network on ‘social networking’ sites (unless the neighbor is some very hot girl). The definition of ‘Social’ is changing by the day. Our neighbors no longer by default become our friends just because we stay close by, as it used to be in our childhood. We choose our friends. We choose who we want to be close to. Now, the question. Is this good or bad?

This is good because it gives us a choice. This is dangerous because it restricts our interaction to similar minded people of the same profession of the same age resulting in a very narrow perspective about things. 

With the advent of the personal electronic devices we are increasingly giving importance to privacy. We prefer talking to friends on mobile phones in private than participating in a family discussion. 

We have also become dependent on these devices and they have begun to determine our mood. Imagine your computer crashes or you lose your mobile phone. You start to feel lonely and are depressed till that problem is fixed. Does this mean we have started to react to devices emotionally? 

Apart from all these, these personal electronic devices have induced a sense of competition and craving to own them. With many companies releasing newer better products by the month, the craving is only increasing.

I wonder if using these devices for a long time will bring about changes in the human anatomy too. I am talking evolution here.

To sum it up, the personal electronics have begun to change the dynamics of individuals and society.  If too many changes happen, then probably our children and grandchildren will read about the “Personal Electronics’ Revolution” like we did about the “Industrial Revolution.” While all the changes are being welcomed in the name of change and modernization, it would only be wise to understand and estimate the impact and the repercussions before giving in to them.

Living in the age of Instant Marriages and Honor Killings

Life is always a paradox. A contradiction. On the one side we have so much technological progress that our gadgets are shrinking by the hour and on the other we are struggling to break the shackles of the age old traditions that have essentially changed their meaning in today’s world. Why is this so? The answer is a straight and a simple one. Let us try to explore as we go on.

The world has recently taken to a fascination for everything “Instant.” From Instant Noodles to Instant Upma to Instant Photos. So, is the case with marriage. Let me first explain the Inception of Instant marriage. In the late 90’s (Y2K fever) when there was a huge export of skilled labour (read software professionals) from India to countries such as the US of A, a new trend of marriage emerged. The boy who worked out of India would manage to take a month off and fly back to India. His family had only a month to get him married and that included selecting a match for him and completing a million other traditions and pujas before finally packing off the couple to whichever country the male partner worked. Almost everyone got married in this fashion in that period. In some circumstances, the engagement was even conducted, while the Groom was still abroad, with the Bride alone.  Mind you, I am not exaggerating. Such marriages probably made sense, in whichever proportion, at that time.

Things have changed now (not that there is a lesser export of software professionals but otherwise) but little on the marriage front. Not very long ago a few of my friends marriages were fixed in a matter of minutes and the nuptial knot tied within a month and that too with both the bride and groom staying in India (no offense meant guys...). What’s the hurry? Marriage is the union of two people for life. Isn’t it only fair to give both the people a decent time period to learn about each other and decide if they want to live together?

The things that get the most attention in these weddings are the family background, the balance sheets, “dowry” (Don’t even get me started on dowry), groom’s job and salary, bride’s look and a few others none of which can effectively reflect upon the person. Effectively by the time they get married, they are still strangers to each other. However, no one in the society has any problems with this. Not even the parents of the bride and the groom. Everybody takes comfort in the fact that both the bride and the groom are from the same caste. (So, What!?)

On the other hand, when their offspring marries the person he/she loves who is most naturally outside their caste (There are so many castes in India that it is practically impossible to fall in love with someone in your own caste), they have no regrets or second thoughts in hacking them to death. Welcome to Honor Killing. Parents and brothers have no qualms about cold-bloodedly murdering someone in their own bloodline and that too in the name of the honor of their caste. When has caste become bigger than our siblings/offsprings? 

                                 Instant marriages and Honor Killings are different edges (extremities) of the same knife (caste). While Instant Marriages gratify Caste, Honor Killings glorify caste. Or, do they?  Caste is nothing but a tradition passed on from ages. An impediment. Caste made sense in that age when a barber’s son became a barber and a washer man's son became a washer man.  This is the age of barber’s sons topping the IIT and IIM entrance tests (don’t you read the newspaper headlines?) where caste has a very little meaning except for reservations and dirty politics. I came to know about my caste only when I was appearing for EAMCET (Engineering entrance test) and later got admission in a good college on reservation. Just take a minute here to recollect when you first came to know about your caste. In which circumstance? 

Caste is the biggest example of tradition passed on for ages without questioning. Let us begin to question our traditions. We, Indians, take a lot of pride in our traditions and this is what stops our questioning. Whenever somebody starts questioning, he/she is comfortably tagged “spoilt” or “western.” It’s time that we act maturely and stop taking everything for granted. It’s time we question the status quo. It’s time we upgraded our traditions or, our kids and their kids will waste their childhood learning about our evil-practices like we wasted ours learning about “Sati” and “Untouchability.” 

It’s never too late!

P.S: Even today caste is the major determinant of the election results. The leader from the most populous community wins the election. Is caste a merit on which we chose our leaders? 

I am aware that there have been many articles on this subject but, this is an attempt to vent my frustration and probably make more people think.