Google & People

Google and People

Gone are the days when people needed people and teachers were Gods.  Even when people did not like each other they kept in touch or in  close contact, just because “Kadee we lodh pae sakdi hai” as my parents used to say, “ You could need their help or expertise anytime.”
 Many a woman in the process of being ushered into motherhood, made her inevitable journey to the hospital at night, in my father’s car.  Back, then getting a taxi or cab that too in the middle of the night was not easy. So, people in the neighborhood made their bookings a couple of months in advance. “We may need your help to get to the hospital”, they would say, regardless of how well they knew him or not.  Off course, it would invariably be in the middle of the night. And my father felt honored to be able to help.

Teachers were Gods, simply because they decided the fate of the students in many more ways than one. Depending on their mood they could be nice or mean. When in a foul mood , they could beat up “errant” students or choose to spend the entire class yelling at the students. I have not forgotten a Biology teacher who needed absolute pin-drop silence to teach, the minute he heard as much as a murmur in classroom, he stopped teaching. One time, he got so upset that did not teach us for three months.  Then  he made us answer  horrendously obscure questions in our terminal exam and totally relished doling out single digit scores to the majority of the class. Now in a class of 100 girls, isn’t it a fallacy to expect pin-drop silence?

As for now there is Google, who needs people, for friendship or at the time of need? People distance themselves from one an other because of a wrong color shirt or  a funny kind of laugh or talk. In fact, people are looking for an excuse to dwell in “their own space.” My space is a well-guarded piece of treasure and so are the anti-depressants. But who cares when there is Google?

The students can stealthily text when the teacher is trying so hard to make the class interesting. After all is there any piece of information that cannot be found using Google? If you have a headache, ask Google for advice. Use Google to find out how to change your car tire? What brand of mixer or vaccum cleaner to buy? Advice on relationships ask Google, “ How to break up amicably?” or “How to be assertive?” or “How to live happily”. Who needs the advice of wise old men and women anymore?

Yesterday Google came to my rescue yet again! My son who is at college, a couple thousand miles away, called us to let us know we that the E-ticket for his flight to home is to nowhere to be found. So, I ask Google Maharaj (royalty), what to do. Pat comes the reply, in case of a missing E-ticket, call the airlines, give them your email ID and let them know you lost the information.  They will send you another E-ticket.

But there is another problem; he has no Driver’s License to show at the airport. The spare one, that I had mailed him, will not get there until tomorrow, due to bad weather. As the story goes, he lost his wallet a couple days ago. Off course, it had his Driver’s license - ID , Debit card and money. Even if he manages to beg and borrow money from his friends, how does he manage get onto an airplane without an ID?  Just when we begin figuring that piece of the puzzle out, I ask Google again, what to do? Pat comes the reply, In case of a lost ID, inform the TSA at the airport and give them your alternate form of ID and answer questions that will help establish your identity. It may take longer, but it is not impossible to get on the flight without your ID.

The tip on E-ticket worked wonders, he has a ticket now. But as for the ID rigmarole, he does not want to take any chances, after all the advice is a “little up in the air”, so he plans to wait at the mailing office to collect it, hoping it won’t take long. The mail arrives at the post office at 2 AM, but they will not deliver it until well 9:00 AM, they refused to make any exceptions.  And his flight is at 10:50 from an airport 30 miles away.

“It is cutting it close” he knows, but as he said, “There is no other choice.” Had it been only a couple decades ago, oh! Well my father could manage it even now. He would go to the post office in his neighborhood, in India - make a special request, “as an old faithful customer” and have his mail handed to him at 2 AM, by a smiling postal officer who is more than happy to oblige him.