I remember the year we created email accounts (which, of course, we used more often than not to send forwards). There was a cyber café at the gate, and we used to go at least once a week to check our mail and feel excited.Every year, we went to Bangalore for our summer holidays. That year, we felt a little lost without our precious email, so we scouted around for a nearby internet centre and found one, fairly close to home. We told our grandparents that we would like to go the cyber café for an hour in the evening."Go where?" asked my grandmother. In Bangalore, we will always be children. Even now, I don't go out without telling my grandparents exactly where I'm going and for how long."The cyber café," we explained. "Internet. For email.""Where is it?" asked my grandmother."Just here, down the road."My grandmother wasn't too sure about sending us there by ourselves, but she … [Read more...]

The other day, I saw that the window of a friend's car had not been raised. She had just parked, and was using the remote to lock the car. Helpfully, I told her that the window was open. She grinned and said, "I know", and proceeded to use her remote to raise the window. I gaped and shook my head. Technology moves too fast for me.Yet, that's just one of many incidents that make me realise how easy it is to become outdated. I find myself sympathising so often with my grandmother, who asked me long ago in utter confusion what a Facebook was.Last week, I went to withdraw money from an ATM at a kiosk attached to a bank. It was a slightly fancy place with two machines, and I confidently went up to one and swiped my card. I was told that my transaction was not allowed. I tried again. It still didn't work. Shrugging at how inefficient banking can be with machines instead of people, I went … [Read more...]