It was the first day of college. After the introduction speech, the principal asked us, ‘how many of you have an email address?’ In a crowd of 60, around 10 raised their hands, mine was not one of them. He then asked ‘how many have a computer at home?’ I did not move. The principal then started to lecture on how computers would revolutionize life with the help of internet and how email was going to be our new digital address. ‘What the hell was an email?’ I asked myself. ‘In the future’, he continued, ‘people who dont know about computers would be termed as illiterates and not merely the ones who are uneducated’. I had studied computers in my school – BASIC, LOGO & Lotus 123, never even seen a GUI, or an email. I quickly forgot what he said as soon as I stepped out. I was clueless. It was the year 2000.
Archives for June 2013
Legacy
I’m haunted by thoughts of what I’ll leave behind, and I don’t mean in the biological sense of offspring: after all, anyone can do that. Nor do I mean the fond remembrances of family members, which have a limited radius and fade quickly once a generation passes. What troubles me is a compulsion to contribute something enduring, that can speak of me when I’m not there.
- Matt Gemmell
This is why I write. ‘Couldn’t have said it better.
Peace Vs. Violence
We watched a movie the other day – ‘The Attacks of 26/11’ at midnight. I couldn’t sleep for a long time after that. I do know it’s a dramatized version of what happened on that day in Mumbai and that RGV has a flair for violence, but, the chilling truth that 168 people were killed and more than 200 were injured was inescapable. As that ad which (runs on TV) shows a young man sharing photos of all his trips suddenly dies in a bomb blast, terrorism can happen anywhere. No place is safe – be it the streets of Britain, the markets of Karachi, 5 star hotels of India or the mountains of Afghanistan. But, it hit close to home when two bombs went off in Hyderabad a few months back, at a bus stop killing commuters right at the place I used to stand waiting for bus.