Wednesday, September 20, 2006

When did all this become so complex?

Believe me, these trips from office to home can be maddening. Particularly if you live in this corner of the world called Bangalore and you happen to be an "IT" guy (aren't we all, here?) and your office happen to be in Electronics City. It really doesn't matter where you live in Bangalore, because it takes quite a lot of time to commute from EC to any residential area in Bangalore.
You try to read, but then soon give up - bad light and the bus constantly jerking. And tehn you sleep. And wake up, look at the watch and panic that you might have crossed the stop. But hey, fear not, you are still on that monstrous road called Hosur road, which by now must be a constant nightmare for a amjority of the EC populace. Mom's can even try telling their kids - "Beti, Khaana kha, nahi to hosur road mein daal doonga". (Forgive my Hindi, but believe me I am working hard at it).

It was on one of these sojourns that I wake up suddenly, and listen to the radio babbling.
There was an ad going on, and a mom was asking, "Beta, are you still on the Internet? First finish your homwork."
The child, sounding about 5 years replies "I have already finished my homework mummy. I am now working on my own project on Artificial Intelligence, on machine learning for robotic systems".

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Now I was WIDE awake. I expected it to be a spoof take on one of those nutritional supplements that promised to make us more intelligent. Or an MTv stunt on radio.
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Then the dad enters the scene and bursts out laughing.


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I am relieved. My suspicion turned out to be true. It was the dad and son playing a joke on the poor mom. Phew.
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He says, with a whole lot of awe in his voice, "Wow! The internet has made our soon a GENIUS!!"


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Hey wait!! This is all a bad dream!!
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The ad turns out to be that of a broadband provider.

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I gasp for breath. Am I getting outdated, or is this what the child was supposed to reply? Should I be envious of that little creep? Should I feel sad that my young cousin takes about ten minutes to decide (correctly) between two websites for her class project, but that she still cannot fold a paper boat? Or is it some kind of ecstacy of the triumph of human intelligence? Right now, believe me, I am just very very confused. When did it all turn so very complex?

2 comments:

gradedexposure said...

hmmm...yet another reason y i wudn wanna marry cos i jus cant stand my kids doin AI for summer projects when all we did was play all day long in a mud puddle..my sister upgraded herself to videogames...n now its some xbox stuff..man i alrdy feel so outdated..maybe u got a sticker on the bak of ur head madhu.check!!i only wish i was born 15 yrs earlier..even the things these kids do r so unacceptable to me.i am rigid.i'd rather be the old stick in the mud...Bless,sabbath n floyd n led zeppelin.Music doesn wither in age...but how so i wish to have been this old in the 80's...hmmm.sighhh...

Suraj said...

Well Aarthi you do not have to stop getting married for this .... :)