Infotainment Kaleidoscope

My journey in the world of computers started back in the early 80's when I was about 7 years old. That was the time when an occupation related to computers was considered extremely rare and specialized. Among those few early birds of the time is my father. He used to work in a company called "XLO Machine Tools" and had been selected as a young and bright candidate to learn and adopt the new technology that would one day take the world by storm. I vaguely recall seeing him draw diagrams of boxes and lines on paper, which made me curious because they did not make any sense to me. When I asked him what he was working on, he responded saying that he was learning "programming". It was only several years later that I learnt those diagrams were flowcharts. The first computer I saw was nothing like the PC, latptop, tablet or mobile we see today. The concept of a monitor or display as we see now did not exist. It was a huge machinery instrument that my father was work...

This is an attempt to describe my imagination of what I will do when I am 64 years of age. First let us understand why I have picked up this age for discussion. To put it in simple terms, though the stipulated retirement age in various work sectors differs, it would be safe to consider that by 64 years of age, most people of our generation would retire from whatever professional work they have been chasing as a full time career for their lifetime. In today’s fast paced world, no matter what profession one chooses, life presents itself as a continuous evolving and ongoing race with various stages of the career path. The common milestones in most people’s lives are survival, growth, stability, and finally sustainability in terms of health and wealth as old age approaches. After all the struggle through life, one may actually look forward to that retirement day and start thinking that it will put an end to his worries. Alas! This perception is far from true. While a small break of a...

Like other life forms, we humans depend upon nature for our survival – food, water, clothing, shelter etc. Nature has enriched us with many things, but due to our selfish desires, we have misused nature’s blessings in many ways. Man required energy for fulfilling his basic necessities and ensuring safety from the animal world. Firewood was his first source of energy. Trees and forests remained a long-lasting source of heat and energy. The sea, river and lakes provided constant sources of food and water. Later on, man discovered metals and elements. The discovery of coal and petrol was a big leap in the evolution of human civilization. Over a period of time man used the gifts of nature to develop advanced discoveries and inventions to improve his life style. Some such examples are electricity, railways, ships, aeroplanes, telephones, mobiles, radio, television and computers, all of which have immensely helped mankind. But then, the materialistic desires of man took over. He starte...

Today, I am going to share some of my thoughts about something that every one of us have heard or said at some point in life. Sometimes our parents say “I want you to score more than 95% in your exams, and I don’t want to listen to any If’s and But’s”. At other times, our teacher says “Everyone must complete this project by Friday, and I don’t want to hear any If’s and But’s”. Well, everyone wants to keep the “If’s” and “But’s” out of their earshot when making a demand. And yet, the same people find themselves making up these “If’s” and “But’s” when being accountable to someone else. The other day, I had been to my friend’s house, and her father was scolding her for scoring less in one of the worksheets. He sternly added that he wanted to see her get more than 90+ percentage marks in the next exams – no if’s and but’s would be acceptable. After some time, I unintentionally overheard him discussing work with his boss over a conference call – and it seemed like he was making up his o...

My daughter Vrutti won the 1st prize for this at school… Let’s begin by asking ourselves the question “What does growing up mean to me?”. I am very sure that the answer would differ vastly from person to person present here. For some, growing up may mean ageing, for some it may mean moving from school to college, for some it may mean running a household like their parents do, and yet for some others, it may mean getting more mature than they are now. Each one of us has a different perception of growing up in the future, and nobody seems to be right or wrong. Now let’s look at the other side of the same question. Often, when talking among friends we say “I want to be a small child again.” Why do we say this? It’s because we miss the carefree and fun filled life we enjoyed when we were toddlers. Probably twenty years from now, we would wish we got back our school life that we have today. This behavior, we as humans, exhibit is because we always relate the term “growing up” to pas...