april showers...

let me just start this by saying ... i love computers. i'm sure you realized that from the steve jobs post. but i think we as a society have gotten so addicted to it that we feel like we can't get much work done without it. like today for example. i'm having major issues trying to figure out what to do without my computer. its like my whole world has been turned upside down and there's nothing i can do about it! now every morning i'm so used to blogging that i woke up today expecting to do the same. i literally sat stumped wondering how to go about it when i realized i couldn't get to my computer. wow, vid. huge problems, you might think. then i realized how long its been since i put pen to paper and let me thoughts marinate the page, through the words i write. you've got to see my notebook. you can tell i haven't written in a while because the handwriting is as messy as you could possibly imagine. it feels good to actually write my thoughts out - i think i had forgotten. see computers may make life easy, spell a word wrong and all you have to press is a little spell check button or the delete button but it somehow doesn't give you the satisfaction - the same satisfaction - of writing it on paper.

lets take for example, my grandpa, my mysore thathi. this visit, i taught him all the deets on computers, social networking, etc. - and though he resisted, (not surprisingly), he too had to admit there are so many benefits to it. but simply put, it puts us out of touch with ourselves (even if it gets us in touch with even the remotest corner of the world). in fact, he was so excited, he wanted to go out and get one until he realized how much unlimited internet cost ;)

speaking of the remotest corner of the world, in accordance wit the last two TED talks, i'd like to tell you the story of something i'd heard when i was interning with global connect in estancia, newport. we were publicizing a drive - a shoe drive - for those in africa, who walked miles upon miles to attend school barefoot. we encouraged our own students, 8th graders in our global history class, to donate $1 flip flops to benefit these kids who sought knowledge. you might be wondering though, how we found out about this - about these kids halfway 'round the world, who wanted to study so bad that they'd walk barefoot for miles together, probably with more intensity than they sought food! one of my supervisors had visited africa and befriended their principal ages ago and had given him her card. i know what you're thinking, she was touched by all this and donated shoes to these kids years later. wrong. that principal held onto that card and walked from the school to the village over where they had a computer with internet. years later when my supervisor received his mail, she was so touched that she vowed to fulfill his request. a computer - with internet - in the middle of africa - where people are fighting for basic needs? oh the irony. in any case, i am sure the drive went successfully. that entire story was to tell you one thing - about the power of technology. BUT if there was no power of humanity, people would not travel halfway around the world to meet unknown people to help. my supervisor made this happen through the personal relationship she created wit this gentleman, , who years later, used technology to re-ignite the human relationship. i suppose all's well that ends well. with all the technology in our lives, we seem to have forgotten the power of the written word and the power of human relationships.

let's change that :)

i think i'll start writing in my diary at least once a week (then transfer it on here)


<3