Yesterday we had a seminar session organized for the newbies in the team. They had to present their perspective on user experience, incidentally that’s the practice that I work for. This was organized for a small group of around 15 people.  The presentation was quite interesting especially with a bunch of eager souls trying to give some alternative perspectives on this term which I have been hearing over and over again for the last 1.5 years. Everything was going great for the first ten minutes. After which I noticed that people around me began receiving calls on their mobile. Receiving a call on the mobile is something unavoidable but taking it during a formal session or a meeting is definitely unacceptable to me. Call me old fashioned, but isn’t it bad etiquette to engage in a private conversation during a formal session? No offense meant, to people who were taking the calls, probably they were trying to save the world through these calls. And I don’t want to classify and hold only few responsible in this. Even I have done this before and I am not happy about my bad etiquette.

The other disturbing factor, is taking others time for granted and calling them at any time comfortable for our “own selves”. We expect people to always respond to our calls. People do not think twice before contacting us for some official work even if we are in a vacation. Just imagine, you are spending an intimate moment with your partner and the phone starts ringing. Trust me, that is a huge turn off. I would probably dump my guy if he did. I cant blame him either, can I? We don’t turn off our mobile phones even in most private times because we feel we will get completely disconnected from the rest of the world. What if there is an emergency! What if my parents or my friends are in some grave danger and they are trying to contact me. These are the questions, which come up in my mind whenever I try to turn off my mobile phone. In the last 5 years, I have probably switched off my phone at the maximum for 10 to 15 minutes.  I often wonder, “How did we manage when we did not live in the world of these techno devices?”

This is now become a universal phenomena. I find this common trait amongst my colleagues, my friends, strangers, people who can afford mobile phones and even who cannot. Being constantly connected on mobile phones, those annoying ring tones and this list is definitely going to grow. Clearly, people seem to have forgotten that they are always stepping on others digital boundary, sometimes grossly uninvited. What I see is a change in human behavior. Ok! That’s a huge term. Can I say that technology is actually turning us into this ill-mannered, less tolerant weirdoes? Actually a “weirdo” who is always connected on a digital leash.

I guess that would be slogan chanted by all the high school students who are in the brink of knowing their fate/destiny/career path, wonder why all these terms are so tightly coupled in our education system. I was reading the newspaper last week and was completely flabbergasted at one of the news pieces that I read. Crux of the content was “random numbers” were used to decide the rank of students for engineering admission. The last time I remember playing with random numbers was during one of the boring party games called housie. I was thinking the plight of all those students who would have put late hours of studies and hard work to crack the exams and finally all they get to do count on their luck. When I had completed my boards, I had 1001 entrance exams to write. I don’t remember how many exams I have written so far till I got into a state where I am in currently. In fact I remember for one of a Pune based college entrance exams, I was so bored writing the paper that I walked out in between. And the irony of life, none of these exams are relevant to what I am doing currently. I am sure it is the same case with most of the people around me. If that’s the case, then why do we have such mindless exams which seldom test what people are good at. I guess some noble soul heard this repeated cries and he said to hell with all these entrance exams let us award students based on their performance in their board exams and lets make it more interesting. How? By adding a random number round. This is the round in which random numbers are generated to decide ranks in the case of students having a tie in their scores. The whole education system is turning in to a practical joke! Is it because of the high aspiration of people to either turn into an engineer or doctor? I wonder who aspires to become a teacher, or musician, or lawyer or to become a civil servant. Probably, one of the loosers who didn’t get their lucky numbers. In that case, I guess I am also one of those loosers ..i should say one lucky looser.

This is what we hear from people who have fancy, swanky names say to those people who have not been so lucky during their naming ceremony. I often wonder, what really inspires people when they name their kids. Do all people, take the time to find a meaningful, yet fancy name? I went through a big dilemma when I had to name my dog and my cat. Ultimately I ended up calling them with names which I don’t like now. If this is the case with my dog and cat, what happens to kids like Gogol, whose names get etched on a lead plate and they are screwed forever.

What is more surprising is, in the desire to retain the Indian tradition; Indians who live abroad end up naming their kids with long convoluted names which is a complete misfit in their society. With all due respect, I completely understand the zeal to live as an Indian especially out of India and not name their kid using western names but names such as Gollu, Mollu, Bhubey, Venkatanaarayana subburajulu, Govindaswamy are going to do nothing but further cause a dent in the kid’s perception towards their identity in a society. It is a different matter that kids eventually convert these into short western names but I am sure they would never forget those years when they would have got bullied & out-casted because of their name. I was all along thinking that this was only prevalent in Indian societies, but I was completely taken aback when I was reading an article about actress Gwyneth Paltrow who named her first born as Apple. So what next, do we have watermelons and cucumbers in the making? 

She was standing on a long queue for the immigration check. Her heart was pounding and adrenalin was constantly rising. She was going to meet him after a year almost. He had gone to the US on work and had not returned for a year. When she got the opportunity to go to Seattle on a project she jumped immediately and grabbed it. She remembered how emotional it was to say bye to him in Chennai airport. Her eyes were moist and so were his. She wanted to hug him and tell him that she would miss him a lot. But his family and friends also had come to bid farewell to him. So she had to hold herself together without showing her expressions. She really wondered how men were so strong and composed all the time. Finally it was time, he had to leave. He came up to her, shook her hands and said bye, “take care“. Her eyes met his, it was like a silent powerful language being spoken between them rather than using their vocal chords. She felt how intense the moment was and wanted to break it off before she broke down, she quickly exclaimed, “hey, don’t come back with a phirang chick!“, she knew she couldn’t have possibly meant it even in the distant sense. He smirked and so did she, superficially. He quickly moved and waved his hand before he went in. 

The line broke into two, and half the crowd moved to another immigration desk when one of the officers got back from his long gossip session. There was lot of commotion in the process and her thoughts drifted back to reality. She was eagerly awaiting her turn and the Indian guy standing next to her was trying to fill her ears with his first trip experiences. She did not want to listen to it, but he did not give her any option. Suddenly when she was getting closer to the desk, she was very nervous. She was not sure if it was her first international trip which was making her nervous or was it the fact that she would meet him in probably 10 minutes time. And all of a sudden, the ten minutes wait started to look longer and drearier than the one year wait.

 After the long wait, she walked up to the immigration desk and the officer said, “What is the purpose of your visit?”  She wanted to say the truth, “to meet him”. Instead she said, “Business visit“. The officer had one good look at her and stamped 3 months on her passport. She felt a sense of relief but now the anxiety feeling was gripping her and she wanted to probably run to see him. But the airport was full of security officers and they were constantly looking for suspicious people. So she told herself that she wouldn’t indulge in such acts of stupidity. Finally, she pulled out her baggage out of the carousel, went through the customs check and pushed her trolley as fast as possible and the same time, trying hard to not attract attention. She walked through the exit and reached the terminal entrance. There were people everywhere, some waiting for their friends, some for their families, some for their acquaintances or business partners. The air was filled with excitement, happiness and she could feel that love was everywhere. She looked around everywhere for her long lasting love. She wanted to say so many things; she had rehearsed all of it on the flight. She wanted to hold him, cry aloud which she missed when she said “bye” to him. But there was no sign of him. Her eyes were constantly scanning everywhere and her heart was beating really fast. She started walked full lengths of the lobby and looked for him. But still no sign! She told herself; probably he is caught up somewhere. After 15 minutes of wait, she wanted to see if she could find a pay phone to call him. She found one but she did not have the change. She sat down quietly. She had a sense of disappointment because he has done this before, made her wait lot of times. But there was fear as well in her heart, not knowing if something bad happened to him or probably he did find himself a phirang chick indeed. She wanted to distract herself from all the strange thoughts. She took the book that she carried all the way from Chennai, which she never managed to read beyond the first 30 words. Nothing was getting into her head. She kept constantly looking at the entrance and then mundanely at the book. Thirty minutes passed, still no sign of him.

The crowd started to clear in the terminal and fresh faces started to come in. She had tears in her eye; she traveled for more than 16 hours, she was tired and eager, and her heart was filled with this weird feeling. She did not know whether it was sadness or too much of happiness. She put her head down, tears rolled down her cheek. She wiped it with her bare hands. Suddenly, somebody tapped her shoulder she raised her head; he was standing in front of her. He was dripping wet; probably caught in one of those torrential rains and there was no phirang chick by his side. He had a bunch of red flowers as fresh as his eyes. And all the anger, disappointment, fear, anxiety started to vanish away slowly inside her. He hugged her, lifted her with his strong hands and said, “Baby, I missed you!!“. She felt like a kid in his arms. Before he had come, she wanted to spill all her anger & disappointment, but now all she said was “Me too!!!… ”