Technology, I hate you!

All things have their ups and their downs, you like them for a reason and you hate them for another.

Technology too has improved our lives in a great way but today I just want to talk about the bad things that it has done.

Gone are the days when we had one landline, one number. Everyone had to call you from 'their' landline to your landline to speak to anyone in the family. Infact the word landline came only after we started having a mobile phone. Now everyone has it, but it restricts us. We speak to only that person whom we have called, others remain out of the conversation. Gone are the days when to speak with a kid, you had to first speak with the elders, then the middle one and then the youngest. That struggle, that patience, is no more.

Gone are the days when to wish someone on their birthday you would either call at midnight and wake up the entire house or wait till the next morning and wait in line.

Now you can set an alarm on your phone, you can pre-load a card on a website and it will be delivered, you can send a simple cheap SMS. The personal touch has gone, the little effort that you had to make to call up a person has been snatched away by Technology.

Gone are the days when with each Rakhi, sisters would send a small letter, a note to say hi and ask about your health. Thanks to the electronic age, we send e-rakhis. Some sisters still send physical rakhis but the letter has taken a backseat.

Who wants to take the pain to jot down a few lines. They think, didn't we just speak to him last night, so what's the point of a letter. Sometimes, you express more in a letter than you ever would in person or on phone. Try it.

Facebook, another invention from the labs of a certain guy called 'Technology'. People leave a scrap on your wall, they peek at your albums, they keep tabs on your status messages and changing relationship statuses. All in the name of 'socializing'. The gossip mongers are beggars now, they hate this subtle stalking websites. They allow you to find about people with the click of a button, there is no strategies involved anymore, there are no rumours being spread, the aunties of the worlds are cursing Facebook, they've ruined their chai-time talks.

Everyone knows everything about everyone. It's become too easy now.

The fun is gone and I don't like it!

The Rains

Love them, hate them, you can't ignore them, especially when you are in a city like Mumbai. It is just the end of July and the city has already had about 75% of its seasons' quota.

It's not been raining the proverbial cats and dogs but yeah, it has not also stopped in a while. If I am counting it right, it's been almost 9 days since the last dry spell.

Personally, I love the rains, the smell of the first drops on the soil, the greenery it spreads, the fall in temperature, the happy kids jumping in small puddles.

Yes, this blog is more about that. The kids in a puddle and enjoying the rains. The smile that they have and the innocence that they carry.

It was about a few days back, I was on my way to my club to play a game of squash with my buddy. It had just started to rain and I was trying to get my wind-cheater out of the bag. I was about to cross the road when I saw an autorickshaw had got stuck in a small pothole. It was full of muck now due to the on-going Metro work in the area. The rick guy came out trying to free the wheel that had got stuck in the hole.

He was trying to get people's attention to help him out but to no avail. Then suddenly out of nowhere these 7-8 toddlers, dressed in a white and biege school uniform came trudging out of the rickshaw and started pushing it. It was a sight to behold.

As I made my way towards them to give them a hand, I realised they were so excited at being able to get wet in the rains in the name of pushing their vehicle that they actually managed to get it out of the hole!

And the next scene was something right out of a scripted children's show. The kids were literally basking in their glory, rather getting drenched in it! They all left their bags in the rick and were jumping with joy and the innocent smiles made the people looking at them remember their childhood when they would find reasons to get wet in the rains and enjoy the weather.

It was one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in a city which is so busy in itself that it hardly looks at people around.

The rains made me realise one thing, if it is summer that gets people's tempers high it is the rains that gets them down...and how!