The inevitable reconciliation
By: K S S Pillai
With new technologies invading different spheres of human life, it has undergone vast changes. It is now impossible to imagine people without the internet, smartphones, Facebook, WhatsApp, and other inventions. The fierce objection to mechanization by trade unions and others concerned about employment has taken a back seat.
Interaction among the immediate family members has been a victim of these devices. It is a common sight in households to see most members, including children, busy chatting on their smartphones with their friends or using them for other purposes, even while eating absent-mindedly from plates before them.
It is futile to try to dissuade the new generation from using them. Parents have come to terms with the situation, and even poor ones do not consider it a waste of money to spend on such devices.
It is a fact that these devices have made life easier. Years ago, while appearing at an examination that had a paper on general knowledge, I had to visit libraries and garner information from current and past newspapers, other periodicals, and moth-eaten encyclopaedias that had not been opened for years.
All that has become a thing of the past, as information on anything is now available on various platforms simply by clicking on some machines.
There was a time when automation was considered a threat to employment. There was violent resistance when even manual calculators were introduced in financial institutions. Machines were also not allowed in agriculture, road construction and similar venues where they could replace men to work much more quickly, cheaply and efficiently.
People have realized the inevitability of mechanization in different spheres of life. They are convinced that even the entry of much-feared Artificial Intelligence that would take the place of humans is only a matter of time.
The aged people are, naturally, uncomfortable when they find the ready acceptance of modern technology in all fields, but they prefer to keep mum, secretly longing for the impossible in the form of the return of the old days.
I remember pensioners looking forward to the payday in the past as they could meet their ex-colleagues and spend hours with them exchanging all kinds of news. There was no way they could contact each other easily. It was the time when even getting a landline telephone connection was a Herculean task.
As an added incentive, Members of Parliament were allotted some quotas of telephone connections, which they used to favour people or to pocket extra money from the aspirants.
The oldies would get ready for the bank even before the banks opened. The withdrawal of money was not as important as meeting their friends. Chatting would continue while they sat in groups, even on culverts outside the bank. At times their eyes would be misty, remembering a colleague who passed away recently.
They knew they were living on borrowed time with many age-related diseases, but were realistic enough to forget what was in store and interacted with their friends as much as possible.
It was the time to forget the irritants in their lives for some time, reliving the moments they relished. They had their problems, but who didn’t? At least they had lived their lives, and nothing much was left.
They enjoyed the time with their ex-colleagues and would leave with a heavy heart when their stomachs grumbled. Who knew how many would be alive on the next pension day?
With the modern technology of payments, all those scenes have disappeared. Currency notes are not welcome in fuel pumps or many other retail outlets. Several devices and online transactions have made currency notes an unwelcome burden.
Banks are no longer overcrowded, and even ATM kiosks have become deserted. Cash is not exchanged during transactions, and even children have become adept at various ways of payment.
(The author is a retired professor of English. A regular contributor to ‘The Kashmir Vision’, his articles and short stories have appeared in several national and international publications)
