Technology without a human touch!

Now, technology isn’t a bad thing, you see. It has helped man;to fly around the world in an armchair, check if water exists outside the earth despite three fourth of the world is submerged by it,
gather information with few mouse clicks,  also create a mouse that can be clicked!

If information is wealth, the last few hours I had spent with wikipedia has almost made me a millionaire. From wiki I've discovered where Bangalore is situated - on the Precambrian Deccan Plateau!
Wiki was generous enough to allow me to check if I’m really staying
in Bangalore (it said, it doesn’t know; which I don’t feel is a bad answer either!).
It also told me what emails are used for -to send and receive messages over an electronic network!. Again, not bad at all!
Boy! learning stuff during office hours was never so easy!

My learning spree came to a rather abrupt end as I noticed that Mr. "X" had invaded my cube. Alright, my cube isn’t any special. Its just another cube, if anything, its little inferior compared to other's. While most of the other cubes boast of white boards with complex system architectures, awe inspiring database structures,
milestone lists, to-do tasks and few even have think positive posters, all that mine have is
a Pizza Hut phone number and doodles of flowers which will evolve to look like a flower one
day. (I am a firm believer of Darwin’s theory of evolution!)

I realized X wasn’t just standing beside. He had been reading through what was on my monitor as well.
Now to talk about X, well… I would rather let X speak for himself.
X: So you are into new email specifications eh?
Me: hmmm...!
X: Buddy, the specification u reading is three days old! There is a latest version of this.
Me: Oh! Didn’t know that... what's the change in there?
X: Well, the specification version number is italicized in the new one!
Me: Oh! Really? It would have been terrible to miss that!
X flashed i_am_the_up_to_date_dude smile, 
while I was reduced to he pleading expression of please_spare_me_will_you?.
Though, knowing X, I realized the chance of that happening was as big as finding an internet café at Bangalore’s Kalasipalaya market.

X was now frantically looking for the next best thing to bluster his knowledge.
To my scare I sensed he was on to the magazine which was lying on my table.

X: See, these days magazines have very few pages!
Me: hmmm...!
X: You know why is it so? In fact, the magazines have lost their relevance.
Me: hmmm...!
X: All the info that man would ever need is available on internet, why would one ever read a magazine
Me: [Fail to hold on to my hmm...hmm… pledge] See… the reading convenience that magazines offers may never be available with a comp.
X: Well, if you are a serious reader, you should be prepared to trade convenience for consistency.
Me: aw?!!!
X: .......................................

[few minutes and a mentally tortured me later...]

X got a call(it has to be from some one who thrive on inflicting wound on self! )

Thanking that selft wound inflicting soul, I turned back to my comp only to see wikipedia still active. No! I can’t take any more for now!
X has assaulted my knowledge reception system into abject submission.
I closed the browser. Over!

That’s when the thought occurred to me,
"what if wiki just come over uninvited and start telling me that Bangalore is on a Deccan Plateau and how the emails are transferred over an electronic network etc... ?"
I realized, thankfully, it can not! And hopefully never will!

Now, X isn’t a bad thing, you see. In fact it is X and his tribe who help one appreciate the fact that technology without a human touch isn’t really a bad thing, after all!

How Saas Got Banned… Got Wild...

Basically, there are two types of people in this world. Those who think there are two types of people and those who don’t!
Err… rather… those who watch the Saas Bahu(s-b) serials and those who don’t!
I know lot of beautiful things have been already written on s-b serials. So why me too?
Well, all I have seen people just whining without proposing a workable solution around!
(There is a wonderful solution here though, which prompted me to think of more!)

Whenever I expressed that s-b serials are a collective psychological disorder, I was often countered by the addicts, predominantly women apart from Eldo, Biju and Suresh(my ex roomies -;))
"If men can watch cricket all day long, can’t we indulge in few hours of harmless tear shedding too?"
Well, as for cricket, though Arun Lal, Sreekanth and those hindi commentators(who pops out from nowhere and pour out nonsense) are hell-bent on bringing it down to the levels of s-b or even below, that cute looking mute button on the remote can restore sanity.

But what about these serials?
The government can do much more than helplessly watching (the bahus).
No! I’m not for an outright ban. Coz if you ban “Saas bhi kabhi…” today, they might come up with a new title tomorrow, like “How Saas Got Banned… Got Wild... And Got A New Name” and will continue polluting the air with gusto. Instead, what I have here is few practical and extremely workable suggestions!

So…Here we go…!

1. Introduce a new tax called GAT (Glycerin Abuse Tax). C’mon guys! glycerin has lot more practical usage like medical and pharmaceutical preparations, personal care, foods and beverage and more, than acting as a tear stimulation agent for baahus and saas and all those who are paid to cry.
GAT should make glycerin prohibitively expensive and the money generated here should be used for, no! not to fund those mythological serials, but to provide highly qualified psychological treatment to the Writers, Directors and the Producers of s-b serials (strictly in that order).

2. Enforce Uniforms for the leading ladies in the serials. This will definitely take the sheen out of the serials. As there is as much talk among the serial junta about what the leads wear as much as the stories.
Talking about uniform, the variety that Veerappan used to wear would be a good starting point.

3. And yes! the flavor of the season! Why not introduce reservation for the leading ladies?(Of all the suggestions I get the hunch, this will hand the death blow… but for the fear of courting controversies, am holding my fingers back-;) )

Now, if any one can give these serials a run for their money for delaying the inevitable, it has to be, am afraid, the governments. We all know there are truck loads of suggestions/recommendations (some are not as qualified as these) which have been pushed around various ministries and departments for want of actions longer than these serials themselves.
So… as the government gets their act together, rather than heaving a collective sigh of desperation here are few things all the serialphobes can try out...

1. Stop using soaps; these soap manufacturers are the major funding machines for serials.
2. Subscribe for voluntary power cut between 5-11 PM.
3. Send that serial addict in your home to Brunei for serial rehabilitation. (I read someone commenting Brunei doesn’t show serials yet!) Be warned though, withdrawal symptom can include turning into blogging and start whining about serials!

4. And if nothing works.. Just join them...and irritate them to the bits so as to force them to swap the channel. If you are not so good at irritating, well, here is the trick(I know I’m giving away far too many things here. But, all for a cause!)… just keep predicting the story line before they unfold (you will be amazed how well u can foresee the coming events after enduring couple of episodes!)
I shall tell you, this has worked for me! There is a danger though, serials are perilously addictive and they can get on top of you when u least expecting them to -;)