On The 40th Anniversary of Internet..!

              It was just a couple of days ago I have uploaded my latest blog, thought that it would satisfy my scribbling urge, but bemused to find that my discontented soul forcing me again to pen down my wavering thoughts. I was just seeking out for a suitable topic, and the news caught my attention in yahoo homepage; today (6^th November2009), its Internet’s 40^th anniversary. The statistics is saying that one third of the population is trapped in this web of technology and there would be a radical change in internet five years from now. In my essay, I would not enter into the technical and statistical jargons as I do not intend to utter a word in which I don’t consider myself to be an expert.

Precisely, ten years ago, I knew nothing of internet, in fact anything of computers. Unexpectedly, had chosen a field where I was a novice, if it was any of the science subjects or any field of literature, it would have been more familiar to me, but things do not happen sometime as the way they should. Anyways, I was introduced to internet merely a decade ago. In those times we were not allowed frequent access of internet as there were some pre-notions in our parent’s mind , that it would surely spoil their children and above of all it was expensive. Sometimes, in a week or in a fortnight, I used to get the privilege of surfing. However, as time changes, the situation also have changed. The amount of opposition I used to face still leaves me in awe. It’s not only my parents but the majority of people have got the same mindset and of course there are specific reasons for this kind of attitude.  Lack of knowledge leads us to any sort of fear. People in India are still in darkness that what exactly the internet is useful for. If I agree to the fact that internet is proving itself malicious to the society, then it is just because most of us do not know where exactly to draw the line. In recent years, World Wide Web is expanded its root so robustly that most of the young generation has become dependent on it and some people from the elder age group as well. Our elders blame mostly the social networking sites and the chat servers for spoiling their offspring, and they are right up to a certain extent. Everything has its own share of pros and cons and there is no exception in this matter. Some mishap mainly occurs when people fail to notice any kind of inconsistency in any particular profile where they cannot distinguish between original and the fake one. On the contrary, I am a vivid user of internet and hope no one will question my originality in this regard and even our friends and familiars are accessing through the same medium. There are some more reasons why still people do not believe in the authenticity of internet, mostly in India. There are some educational institutions that have launched their official websites and claims themselves as technically proficient. Ironically, when they announce any kind of important notification, say for example, the results or the exam timetables, the specific page never opens on the very crucial day. Same goes to the online shopping sites, I have got some personal experience regarding that, I opted for online shopping and selected one latest novel, after the shipment, to my surprise, have found that some pages of the specific book is totally blank and never the less the book looks like a paperback copy! What a shame!! No wonder why some people still cannot trust internet. Some stalwarts working round the clock, researching on the cyber security or the threat protection of internet, trying to represent this latest technology as an authentic and accepted medium of communication and at the same time some are reluctant about the matter and ruining their every effort. We need to know that at this era the technology has reached to a certain scale where each and every individual has to be well acquainted with the every bit of it. When I have started with this article, I have made sure that this should not sound like a well formed school essay about internet. According to me, it is a good medium of communication, which has made our world small, precisely a Global Village, where in no time we can connect to anyone of any part of the world. If I consider myself to be a tech savvy, in no doubt I would find many followers of my path. The positive aspects of internet are endless, but on a tragic note, very few people are aware of that. If we put a little effort to make our elder generation a bit more knowledgeable and our next generation well informed, then it might ease our life to a certain extent. Our elders need to understand that days are gone when people used to send letters through pigeons, and the kids should know how to use technology very intelligently without causing any harm to anyone.

The truth which I believe in is, we cannot force anyone to change their mind but we can bring the change to ourselves to show the world that change is always not bad. With my due respect to our traditional values, it’s always nice to accept some change; sometimes acceptance makes our life simple. Change can be depicted as good or bad but improvisation is unquestioned, and I think we can always welcome improvisation, because it is going to benefit us in every way. It’s well said that “Every innovative mind always faced tremendous opposition”.  Be it the case of first electric bulb or the telephone or airplanes, nothing was accepted in the first count, but today, these stuffs are mandatory in our lives. Same goes to the invention of internet; hopefully it would be wholeheartedly accepted to each and every generation. As a concluding note I would like to add “First be the change you want to see”!!

A Simple Question

‘Professionalism’, ‘Career Oriented ’, these are the few over spoken words nowadays. In my opinion not only over spoken but also over hyped. This time I have promised myself that, this article of mine would not stretch too long. If not sounding like an ancient geek, then I would like to divulge my opinion on this matter. None of us can truly recall when exactly these terms came into the picture. As a kid, our one and only one intention was to score high in school exams. I still remember, how dreadful those annual exam days were, those syllabus used to appear like never ending stream of punishments. That was not the end of the story; first time appearing for the board exam seemed scarier. It was sometimes tough to differentiate who was exactly appearing for the exam, we or our parents. On a serious note, that was just the preliminary part of the journey. Exam is the word that never fades out from our life but what exactly changes is the time and situation. There is just one minor difference, in schools or colleges we had to appear for some specific set of exams and now in work places we face it in every step we take.

Now I have reached such a stage where those frightful school exams seems heavens to me. Our parents tried to provide us with sufficient education and we have more or less utilized those resources. According to the convention we are leading a very successful life, somebody has become doctors, some engineers, some marketing head or some are HR professionals. Everyone is working round the clock, satisfying their superiors, finishing their projects on or before deadline, just for the sake of the heavy pay packet at the end of the month. A perfect picture of our life explains from getting up early in the morning and coming back late at night and this is the process by which we can accomplish all the amenities needed for our perfect life. It doesn’t matter if we lower our self esteem every day, doesn’t matter if we need to be tightlipped after seeing any misdeed happening in front us, it doesn’t matter if we deprive our family (after all, where our family will stand if we run out of money!!), it doesn’t even matter if we cannot see our parents at their very last moment of their lives, after all we are professionals! We should restructure our self as a person with no emotions present, no personal life existing and last but not the least with no sign of self-respect and of course none other than a money vendor , doesn’t matter even if it seems like slavery. If you have such signs present in you then be very proud of yourself as you have bagged the title of a ‘Professional’, ‘Career Oriented ‘successful individual.

If I try to fish through the ocean of mass, then I must fail to single out a person who is not following the convention and living a completely altruistic life. You cannot make everyone happy in your life, so we people, end up making our superiors happy and sacrifice our personal life. This is just my personal experience, things might be different for others, life might be a cake walk for some people, but the truth is that at some point of time everyone feels that some way or the other they have turned into a robot, where only you should be dedicated to your work and nothing else. Correct me people if I am wrong, but can you deny to the fact that, in this era we are more successful at our career front but a complete failure in our personal lives, if everything is well balanced then why are the Indian joint families disintegrating, why are people facing relationship problems, why a bulk amount of people suffering from depression? The true definition of happiness is hurriedly diminishing from our lives. I am neither a social activist nor a person in limelight but I have always learnt that “A pen is mightier than sword”. Here I do not want to act as a trendsetter or want to bring some change because I, am myself trapped in that same whirlpool and acting as a hypocrite but still I want to ask you a simple question, is everything justified? If I do have the remedy I would have initiated but in this case may be a radical change is needed.