Invasion of technology in our lives..

..daughter sings,’ 1 2 3 4 5, once I caught a fish online‘

When virtual has become more real…. … She was about to go to a birthday party at bowling place, and she explains to her dad,’its a real bowling place, not the bowling you do on your phone’. Husband has a bowling game on his phone.

..when in doubt, you can always google, says the 6-year-old.

..that black book that is not a book, what is it that Daddy reads? A Kindle! I should just be grateful that she is more excited at the sight of her real books.

.. Can you just pause the TV while I go and get something. Husband records loads of programmes. Watching him pausing whatever he watches, she has developed a fascination for it. One day I mentioned that when I was her age, we did not have TV, and she was stunned – she couldn’t imagine a time before TV.

In fact when I look back, I find that quite amazing as well. So many gadgets that I can’t live without today, was nowhere in the scene just a few years ago. I did not have a mobile phone until a few years after I started working. There was a time we used pagers at work. And today, if I leave my phone at home accidently, I actually feel uncomfortable. So much so that one of my to-do things is to ask my cousin to get me a sim card so that I can have a working phone as soon as I land in India.

People talk about feeling liberated without their phones ringing.. but for me, I find being connected comforting. Knowing that if any of my loved ones need me, I am just a phone call away. For that, I shall forever be grateful for the invasion of technology in our lives..

Wordless Wednesday 30

Captured memories.. Post 21

Every time I browse through old pics, I can’t help be amazed at how different life was even a few months back. So when I think of life as it was when I was growing up, I can’t believe how different it was from what my daughter experiences today.

To just take one simple example, we are so lucky to be able to capture so many memories on camera. I remember how different it was when we were growing up. My parents certainly did not have half as many pictures as we have. The exorbitant costs of taking photographs reduced photographs to a ‘special events thing only’. Most of our childhood pictures are awkwardly posing pictures in photo studios or during some wedding or holiday. Even then, it would not be random clicks like we have today. No options for mistakes, developing a roll, was not a cheap thing at all, was it?

Today, thanks to technology, we just click to our heart’s content. We take all sorts of pictures, of anything that catches our fancy..  We fill up our memory sticks with anything and everything. All we need is a hard disk big enough. Not even bothering to delete pictures that are not taken well. Anything that helps us capture the moments that matter to us. Little moments spent together with loved ones. When I go to India, I come back with so many pictures with random things.. Some of them sweet memories, some just moments captured..

After daughter was born, of course, cameras and pictures took a different meaning. We would have the camera ready at all times.  Especially when she was younger, it used to be a race to capture everything she did. Her smiles, her cries – I actually have videos of her crying – yes, crazy first time mother, I know… Although as I was going through the pictures, I do realize that I don’t take as many pictures of her as I used to. Yes, she is getting bigger. The ‘aww’  moments are different. And not so often, as they used to be. And we have far less time together in comparison too. Which I guess makes me all the more nostalgic..

Now, let me show you the picture that started off this post ….

This was a picture taken in 2008 on our annual holiday to India. Daughter dotes on my dad. She would copy everything he did. One morning, he was reading the newspaper, when she grabbed a paper, and copied him. She sat there, pretending to ‘read’ as long as dad sat there reading his news.

Every time I come across pictures like this, I can’t help be glad that technology has improved to the point where we can capture everyday moments like this, to relive years later..