Radios, phones and some random thoughts!

Srama · Mar 25, 2016

I type in a message on my phone and you all know what happens. The phone decides to have a mind of its own and the message that goes out is something I cannot understand myself. I am big fan of radio, public radio in particular. There are always interesting things happening there that keep me mesmerized. The day I am ruminating on my phone's mind, there is a talk on hand writing and its importance. I make a mental note of how to inculcate more writing for the kids I interact with and look at my phone at the signal light. I make a decision. No, not to throw my phone away. Oh I remember the day I forgot the phone and went out. I have come a long way with my phone and I need it. No doubt about that. How else will I go to places I need to go? I am reminded of my growing up days. I wonder about my parents and how they survived, without a phone handy I mean. I guess it is "Ignorance is bliss". Talking of my parents, I am reminded of an ad on the radio that goes somewhat like this;

"Who doesn't like drama? .........Here's some drama for you!(some dramatic music) "

Oh you say you have enough drama in your own life and don't need more? Well then, here's what's happening in the world for you.....(plays some news segment)

Oh you get to read that and all you need to do is relax, okay, here's some comedy for you" ending with a "No matter what you are looking for gather your family around the radio and enjoy!"

Gather your family around the radio? I go from "Who does that" followed by "I wish I could!" Gathering around ended with my parents' generation I think though wishes continue. Now now don't tell me you didn't do that? I remember kneeling down near the radio with chin propped on my palms listening to that drama that I was following every Sunday. The amount of concentration and involvement I had to show! People talk of uni tasking now. I did that clearly back then. I was reminded of those days again yesterday when I was watching a theatrical presentation of Emma. I have not worked that hard for 2 hours in the recent past to stay focused and understand like the way I did for that performing group! Anyways coming back to radio and gathering around, how many Sundays we have spent making chapathis around the radio each one of us doing their assigned job quietly and efficiently listening to that radio? I think of that old radio that is lying somewhere in the cupboard that my dad had brought with his first salary and worked so well for many years and all I can feel is a longing to touch that knob and turn the stations. Perhaps I should just do that!

Anyways, coming back to my problem on hand literally, I decide that my text messages are going to be complete words and sentences. You know how I speak often of what you seek is seeking you? Well just as I make that decision I read a news item which says that a group of people were protesting in Germany to bring grammar back. Oh I am with them and feel even better about my decision. With a broad smile on my face, I begin using my new found way of expression - complete words and sentences in a text message. But then guess what begins to happen? Ah! you have heard, haven't you? Man proposes, God disposes? Well my phone unable to change my words, decides to change the proper nouns I use. Oh My G is all I can say. "You just need to have an upper hand don't you my phone? You just have to be my boss! Now that I start typing words, you think I am typing to the wrong people." Grrr....Once I calm down, I realize I have a lot more to teach my phone than it thinks it knows. You know, I am talking about all those Indian proper nouns. I know it is a battle I stand to loose but I am going to try nevertheless.

Talking about smart phones and their ability to read minds and do your work for you, I wonder as to how come that is not enabled on my computer. As I type that document out, wanting to express my thoughts, all that Word does is show those squiggly lines in red or blue or green, reminding me that I need to go back and make sure I make those changes. You must be kidding me right? The one place that I could use auto fill, it refuses to do so and I am forced to check my two letter words too for spelling and the other place where it really matters how I express especially when I am communicating with someone on an instant basis, it decides to have a mind of its own! What can one do other than do one's job properly either going full word way or dealing with consequences and explanations which reminded me of "Karmanye va...." You know the famous shloka from Gita? I think I have figured it all out. As I sit through the night entering grades at the last minute, I realize the pressure I have been under doing things at the last minute! As I think of Krishna, all I can think of is with that kind of pressure there is no time to think of fruits. I can only think of fruits (read consequences) when a job is not done! I get it. Just do your job, life will be much easier and that itself is a fruit. There is no need to think more.

I like change. No, not really. Not in super markets most definitely and definitely don't like to change my phone. Well at least I understand “change is the only constant” somewhat and look what changes IL brought our way. I am not sure why my mind went all over the place to come back to the change here? Perhaps it helped me ruminate on the changes that keep happening and the see saw world we all live in almost always looking back, almost always looking forward and hopefully assessing our present, reminding ourselves that we are indeed making that future with our present.

If you are wondering out loud "What did she write about anyways?" Don't worry. You are not alone. I am right there with you wondering the same.

kaniths · Mar 25, 2016

Truth in the last line! Now to leave a proper comment I ll have to re read the post but ain't trading this first feedback space with Rihana or Vijima this time!

Agatha83 · Mar 25, 2016

Dear Rama,
It was a pleasure to read your random thoughts about your experiences with smart mobile phones and old radios together. I hope I have understood the essence of your thread without going through it a second time.
During our school education, we had to memorize multiplication tables up to
18 and daily we had 5 minutes exclusively reserved for mental sums in our maths class. These things paved a good foundation for our mathematical abilities and stood in good stead through out our life. Nowadays, most of the kids grow up with a calculator, leaving no work for the brain and many children lack analytical skills. Radio was an integral part of our life, our entire work schedule revolving around it. Life was simple, minus Head phones or speaker phones. Technologically we have evolved far ahead of times but mentally we are far behind.
Agatha83

shyamala1234 · Mar 25, 2016

Dear Sabitha,
When life was simple with gadgets like radios....sitting around it on sunday afternoon Telugu children's programme Balanandam, following radio plays etc....going back to nostalgia. We had all the time in the world. Now to save time we have many gadgets. But do we really have time? Everyone busy looking at the screen...any screen.
Smartphone...I too have a problem as yours. The phone has a mind of its own...we want to say something and it says something else. We have to constantly verify and revise what we have typed. Never revised so many times even in exams in school and colleges.
This time no dew drops, no scenic beauty, no snow flakes, no Bach quotes.......unlike Sabitha. This is also a change. Isn't it?.......not ghar ghar ki kahani but kahani of smart phone which is in everyone's hands. Relearning English.
Syamala

satchitananda · Mar 26, 2016

Hi Sabitha, "I hate changes" (read it in the same way as "Pushpa, I haaaate tears"). How true. I hate it when anyone changes things around on my table, in my cupboard .... I hated it when I had to change my lifestyle from being all over the place to being relatively stationery. I hated it when the maids do things differently despite my telling them how I want it to be done. I hated it when life forced a change two days ago on all of us and took away a young life from the family.

However, there was one common feature I saw in this thread of yours and most of mine and could not help smiling. It was how the mind hops from one line of thought to another and ends up in some strange landscape and yet ..... when you think of the thread from beginning to end, it is all very logically tied up together.

Talk of smart phones. They would probably have been better described as 'smart ass' phones. They call whoever they want, whenever they want, change the content of what we wish to type and tell us what to say.....

BTW, could you please give me the address/link of any group which has realized that Grammar is beautiful? Would love to send them a huge bouquet with the message "Glad to see you back".

kaniths · Mar 27, 2016

Radio...? What Radio...? The 'radio' that my mother tuned, to listen retro film songs and even tried to sing along? The 'All India Radio' that read morning news and cricket updates to my father? Or the 'FM Radio' that played western music and Carnatic instrumentals to my aging but young at heart grand mother? 'That same radio'? Nope! No idea! I only know about the 'no feelings attached' digital version.... Is that right Siri?

'Radio' - Did you mean rad? rod? rodeo? rogue?

Really....? Thats what you are Siri, thats what you are! A rogue, for trying to correct my thoughts with a mind of your own! Grrrr

Lol a good weekend read, funny too... Your thought flow reminds me of Chaos Theory in a way... Here there everywhere, from radio theatre grammer to gita, your mind jumps randomly yet in the end everything falls in place, making us wonder, What this is all about indeed but in a good way as always! Thanks for Sharing, esp the last few lines! Change is inevitable isn't?

Kamalji · Mar 27, 2016

Dear Sabs,

What did u write ? Ah u mean the blog above, yes yes, i read and understood.HAHA

Well , the mobile has a irritatiing mind of uits own, and gives it own version of what we type. it is damn irritating, and there should be a option, that wheter u want the auto suggestion or not.

Radio i still listen the FM, and i enjoy specially sundays when all teh stations here play old songs of the sixties and seventies. TV the less said the better, i just use it to watch cricket matches, like todays one, for which we have my whole gang of friends coming over today to watch till midnight.So its drinks dinner and cards, and shouting , and giving galis, to brush up our vocabulary , u see. These cricketers if they drop a catch or are bowled, we brush up or voc.HAHA

Regards

kamal

Balajee · Mar 27, 2016

Frankly I prefer dumb phones that do my bidding than smart phones. You are not the only one I am often clueless about what I write.

Viswamitra · Mar 27, 2016

Dear Sabitha,

I found the connection among your random thoughts. When the world didn't have global connectivity and television, our only means of connecting with the world is to look at the nature or socialize with the friends and relatives or listen to the radio to know whatever was happening around us. Now, we have the technology at our finger tips but it has a mind of its own, communicating whatever it likes to communicate and bring whatever it wants us to read. Semantic search engines are smarter to tell us what we are looking for only when we are precise in our key words and similarly, we need to be familiar with smart phone language in order to read the textual content.

I remember the days when we were patiently waiting to hear the news, listen to our favorite radio programs on the side while we were paying our full attention to our day to day work schedule. If power was not there, we still continued our life without any complain. Now the technology has spoiled us a little bit more. The technology has taken over our lives and we can't live a second without internet. We even procrastinate our daily routine to spend that little extra minutes to look at our text messages or interesting news or even social media posts. We can't even drive to our destination without help.

Quality of our life suffers a little unless we become mindful of it. We are missing our quality time with the family, our ability to speak and write proper English and even miss socializing with friends and relatives in person unless we are very disciplined. We even began to enjoy looking at the photographs or videos of beautiful places in the world instead of looking at the nature right outside of our home.

For example, there was a beautiful shelf cloud a few days back in Florida and most of us learned about it only through social media. You are the right person to write about these random thoughts and keep writing. Your thoughts make the creative mind work and connect the dots.

Viswa

Scorpio707 · Mar 28, 2016

Hi Sabitha,

Honestly I was confused . Thank god for the last line,I feel so much better now . "Change is the only constant thing in life" reminded me of someone I so dislike and that was the first time I heard it as well years back.

As for radio, I enjoyed tuning to different stations during my college days, some good times back then.