Where are we headed to / Hum kis Gully jaa rahe hain?

(Originally published on 23 March 2019 on another blog which is now deleted)

As I sit to type this post on my laptop, this question reminds me that my first poem was written on a notebook with a pencil- it was after all my first writing piece without any worry of assignment or task in the school, just plain flow of words!

I am luckily unlucky to be born in a generation of transitions that changed the way we live our lives. Machines were slowly becoming macho! But then as I almost head to spending an entire quarter of my life, I often ponder over many little things and ultimately come to this question- Have machines made us lose the humane connect?

I was born in the early nineties, and the late nineties were, therefore, my wonderful, curious years of growing. The television was turned on at night after I came back from the park or the gully playing with other kids. The Tom and Jerry show still remains my favourite cartoon series.  My parents had adjusted the telephone at a clever height- I could pick the receiver in case of an incoming call, but could never see the dialer. I am talking about the age where BSNL and MTNL were the telephone service providers, there existed something called "trunk calls" and both incoming and outgoing calls were billed, so that was a well thought out plan by them indeed! One day, my height grew finally enough to see the dialling number pad and smartly, I dialled to my father's office only to hear after 5 minutes of waiting, a formal "hello" change to a pleasantly surprised "hello Betu".  I don't know if the kids these days would ever know of such joy after patience and persistence in the age where newer generations of technology are 'for those who cannot wait'.

When education came into the pictures, rhymes and stories were often taught to me by my family members. Each rhyme, story, lullaby had a tale of its own. My mother would tell me how my grandmom taught her "Twinkle twinkle little star", and when she would recite it properly, she was rewarded with a slice of the pound cake famous at her place. So she would reward me sometimes with another story or a poem or a small bar of Dairy Milk depending on her schedule since she was a teacher in the early years of my childhood. Now, when I look at kids commanding " Alexa, play Twinkle twinkle little stars!", I can't stop myself to think, are we losing out on the human connection, the memories and on a deeper level down the lane the little connect of the oral tradition of learning that was once said to be a pillar of the Guru-Shishya Parampara?

I miss those diaries of contacts, where few pages would be dedicated just to write down the birthdays and anniversaries of our special ones. Most of the people around me at that time were blessed with a good memory of remembering the many birthdays and contacts- okay, now Facebook these days is indeed a saviour from that awkwardness of forgetting such days. However, somewhere down the line, many of those handmade greeting cards got lost in writing a "HBD" on social media sites. Recently a few birthdays back when one of my best friends and a little cousin brother gifted me their paintings framed beautifully, I was in tears-their creativity was priceless to me! Now, is it all becoming about the GIFs, memes and story views? Oh and also, don't make a meme of this post, please?

I got my first mobile towards the end of the fifth standard, which was still pretty early than those of my age group. It was an Ericsson handset that my father first owned during the late nineties. But I had only one simple use at that time- just calling my parents after my dance classes got over. Admittedly, at times, I would play the simple games too if the battery levels weren't too low!  Interestingly, I have in my own way, witnessed the accelerated growth, evolution and reach of the mobile phone in the common man's life. However, now when I see parents showing youtube videos to feed their babies, and toddlers who aren't even speaking properly posing perfectly for their selfies, I feel sad for those kids. Their screen time will be far higher than our generation and that of our previous generations, but their time with humans and nature?

Sure, lives are getting easier and more personalised day by day due to advancements in technologies and ideas are getting realised faster day by day- thanks to humans as well as Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning and all that. One blog post can't ever be enough to cover the achievements and the progress of technology and surely that the newer generations will be like Abhimanyu of the Mahabharata where they might absorb some of the knowledge about the tech upgrades while in their mother's womb. Oh, a fantastic TVC in this regard (No brand promotion, though please) -

 

However, amidst all this progress, is it time to think about the question that where are we headed to/ Hum kis gully jaa rahe hain,  for the human connection- is it getting lost?