Jun 8, 2010
A thought which has been visiting me now and then since few days is what would happen to the world without Technology?
During my early days in Sixties, daily life was like this. Get up at 0530 hours, attend Mass at 0630 hours, back to house at 0730 hours, morning food at 0800 hours ( no, we did not call it Break Fast then) go to school / college by 0845 hours, come back around 1300 hours for lunch, back to school at 1400 hours, back from school around 1700 hours, play with friends for around one hour after having coffee, bath, studies for one hour, night prayers at 2000 hours, food at 2030 hours further studies until 2130 hours and go to sleep. Ditto next day. Only exception was Sunday. We had to go for church classes at 1500 hours followed by Mass.
There was no TV, at times we used to listen to Binaca Geet Maala, once a week through neighbours radio ( thanks to the technological invention of that time), once a year school picnic and that’s about it. That was our life. I remember going to Bajpe airport from Puttur to see airplane (one landing everyday). I was dressed my best, that day, but after waiting for four hours patiently, we were told, no landing that day. I could only see a picture of airplane and return. What a disappointment?
Back to the main topic, what would be our life with our present day technology. Imagine just for a second can we survive without having mobiles, live TV, chat, reading Daiji, travel by bus, car, train, plane and internet among others. Ask my wife, we have shifted to a new house which is having all comforts but no internet, not as yet, and she says, she does not want anything in life including Gold (yes – GOLD) but she wants internet and for that she is ready to skip even lunch).
We have become zombies with the advancement and comforts, that technology has brought to our life. With in ten hours, we can reach from point A to B anywhere in the world. We have conquered the moon, sun and the stars. Control of ocean is within tip of our fingers. Earth is already under our control with 828 metre massive construction of Burj Khalifa building in Dubai and others talking of even bigger buildings. There is nothing impossible. With massive equipment in hand, human is capable of doing anything. Even Mount Everest is conquered by 13-16 years of age.
With all the medical advancement, doctors are capable of prolonging life by days, weeks and years, but can they avoid death. We can build best of ships like Titanic, but what happened, we have taken the precautions to have safety in our trains but people die every day, Boeing manufactures bring out best of aircrafts and Air India uses best of staffs to man them with civil aviation claiming to have built one of the best runways in Mangalore and still we lose 158 precious human life with in a minute.
What a price to pay, for having technology.
In the scenario that I have explained in the first paragraph, during my life as a child, people still died, but we did not know then it is due to brain Hemorrhage or some other complicated illness. If he/ she has died, mostly it is heart attack if it was sudden death or may be due to old age etc. There were very few accidents then. In fact I remember only one in 16 years of my early life. I was happy to have one landline say in a house two stones away, happy to listen to Binaca once a week, and yes I remember listening to Konkani songs from Goa station every Sunday evening again through neighbours Radio. What a joy, what a peace of mind, what a pleasurable days then. Thanks to technology now I know that I might die of ill-effects due to High Colostral, Hypertension and Diabetes. I know now that with out internet my wife is having no purpose in life.
We all agree, Technology is very important in our life. But even more important is Grace of Bhagvan, God, Allah for no technology will help us, if it is destined otherwise by our creator.
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