IF HE WAS THERE WHEN GOOGLE IS HERE…

                                      

                      

Born in the nineties, from television to Alexa, most of us have seen it all. Waiting for more, with AI and what not, catching up. About two decades of technical progression and he hasn’t seen any; because, he couldn’t. He would have loved to. Excitement and wonder would have prevailed after using his first touch screen phone. In his eighties, he would have been an expert in handling the latest phone and iPod may be, which his tech savvy son would have got. Gaana and Smule would be the mandatory apps. I haven’t heard him sing. But he was a member of his college Arts club. I discovered an old photograph of his from his diary and unearthed this fact about him. Photographs do speak a lot of the time gone by, and that stage of your life preserved for a lifetime.

A voracious reader, would he have adored Kindle? I doubt. The wooden shelves in his house hosted books from all genres brought from the very day he received his first salary. Neatly covered in brown paper and with his name sealed on the first page, I’m sure he enjoyed the arrival of every new book to his house, the scent of those pages and reading it again.

He liked entertainment. The ‘Illustrated Weekly’, which they subscribed, was the perfect substitute to what now brings the world to your living rooms. I haven’t had the opportunity to lay my hands on it. I have heard about it, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, photo-illustrated in the magazine. He hadn’t completed reading a few books he had bought after his retirement, for he had bought a television along with it. Fascinated by it and engrossed in the live details of Asiad and Olympics and a little more that the weekly couldn’t have bought home.

It would have been the same delight we would are having when we see a demonstration of Alexa. But the delight would be momentary just like ours now. Buying electronic goods without a second thought is not advisable. If you prefer reading books on your own, if you are not an avid online shopper, or prefer listening to the songs played in the radio than from your iPod then Alexa is not for you. And I don’t have a clue who is it for, either. 

It is good to embrace change and be enthralled by the diversity these gadgets offer us. But being virtual doesn’t always count. Your presence is seen but not felt. All of them own this problem of not being felt. Having a book in your hand smelling those pages before you read is the sentiment allied to reading. Which, these cannot offer.

So the proposal of buying an e-reader would be declined by him and would rather buy few more books online instead!