Digital India

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart” ― Helen Keller

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s deep interest in the digitization of India with a view to revolutionize the country into a digitally-empowered knowledge economy has been welcomed by one and all. It would not be wrong to say that  the  positive influence of this move has been felt in the Indian society.  People have lauded the Prime Minister for being close to most of the Indians after he began his tenure  owing to his technological spirit. His mail to everyone on Mann Ki Baath keeps us aware of every move of his.

In reality times have changed. Digital India is perceptible and perceived  by every one of us. Yet I  intend to take you to my realms of perceptions. At a distance I saw the toddler.He held a mobile in his hand, it was silvery, new and had a five inch screen, his eyes gleamed as his tubby fingers found it hard to balance, the father feared the child would drop it but the little one refused to give it. The mother looked on proudly for the little one was a representation of digitized India. She felt amazed that he could handle the mobile astonishingly well, for he did give a few swipes with saliva dribbling on the mobile. The toddler sat on the green lawn, under the blue canopy amongst the little kids, wind blew gently caressing the young one, green twigs bent gently to greet him, but he never glanced, he did not recognize people as he was in his own world…, a contemporary world.

At the other end of life was this five year old girl, beautiful and intelligent for she could operate the tablet. She did not fear staying alone as her mother would respond swift as a shadow when a phone call was made. She did not miss the company of her parents as the phone was supported with WiFi, she could browse cartoons,  lessons on YouTube, blogs and many more.  Cooked food could be heated in the microwave, lessons learnt through compact disk, and internet. There were the other gadgets like television, and video games that compensated the absence of her parents.

Then I saw this twelve year old  who was unable to understand his teacher, he said his teachers lacked knowledge, and made their teaching class uninteresting. He did not appreciate their ways of pronouncing words as the smart classroom had the lessons better explained through the digital memory. He and his friends hung around to switch on the smart board and learn quickly as it did not accompany the drooling saga of their teacher. The teachers found it beneficial as the digitized lesson plans reduced their ability to indulge in imaginative thinking. The digitized classroom spared the teachers of writing and rewriting  notes every year. It was more concrete and precise. A smart class did not mind  the passing  pranks of children, it would not nip a child or fall asleep during spare time. Students could always revise it and the student needed no amazing powers to imagine and waste time in reading lengthy text books. A standardized answer was sufficient to pass sparing the student of the beautiful phases of reading like the skim and scan.

I saw these college goers,  there were four of them, tall striking and self-assured.  They were  attractive, dressed in the latest fashionable apparels. Conceivably they lived in a hostel or had trendy parents who believed in empowering their kids with the essence of liberty and independence late in the night. They casually pulled themselves and staggered as it was indeed tiring to walk for  a dinner to an amazing, exquisite place like this hotel. As they were late, they were made to wait in the lounge area with soft cushioned sofas. The girls slipped into it. They were carrying expensive mobiles which had large screens, it is a common sight in digitized India. They needed to share the status on Facebook or wasp and other social sites… to let the world know while  sharing the status that they were blessed in the company of friends. They were indeed good friends for all the four clicked selfies, quickly shared with family and friends. When eight to ten pictures were clicked they realized that they needed a  change. There you are wrong in assuming that they changed their position, they were not ingenious, they did not budge, but asked a guest who was sitting on the opposite end to click their photograph. 

The next was this loving couple, who was newly married and were out for a movie. The husband told his young wife that the next time they would download the movie, have dinner and wine in white wine glasses in the flame of  a stout candle… 

They could share the status on social sites saying 'feeling loved'. Both were busy updating the status, indeed they were blessed with similar interests.This set of grandparents kept saying it was boring staying at home performing routine chores, the son asked his parents to change with times, a new mobile for both was presented for the wedding anniversary. The grandson took the initiative of installing the latest apps. Now they sat in different rooms, they never felt bored as they have the company of friends and social sites. They  could watch the modern versions of epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana on YouTube, they could choose their own channels to entertain. They refrained from talking to each other and indeed there was no time to quarrel.

Undoubtedly it is a digitized world, students are able to study with the help of search engines like google, friends are able to chat on google talk, ladies no longer ogle or deliver their judgement at the appearance of their friends as they can multitask with WhatsApp and e’ commerce. The young and the old are able to live much more independently.

Undeniably  digitization has empowered Indians. There is great power involved in foregoing small, amiable wonders of playing with the toddler, watching him run, and play. It  requires great influence in cooking scrumptious food and indulging in empty talks with your kids. It no doubt requires a supremacy in sitting together, holding hands and connecting with people through the kindness in the eyes. It requires a force of strength in thinking about others and sharing the days talk with the family, loving the older generation and feeling loved. It requires a brawn in taking pains to talk to your growing kids, to depict affective fallacies through imagination which involves deep love and feelings for fellow people. Yet we say strength lies in Digitalised India. Cloud computing, artificial intelligence that will soon mimic intelligence, e commerce...online shopping, instant messaging… WhatsApp and much more are  undoubtedly great strengths when   man is driven by values and does not digitize emotions.

“The heart is a strange beast and not ruled by logic.” ― Maria V. Snyder