The world is moving at a hectic pace, with changes taking place every second. It is often said that all change is for the better, but that may not always be true.
Let me cite an example, of letter-writing. The charm of writing letters has lost its sheen forever with the e-mail coming into vogue.
Worst still is the intrusion of SMS. Good morning, a common greeting, has been transformed into ‘Gud Mrng’ in short messaging service lingo. Of course these days one good change that one sees is that instead of the formal ‘hello’ and ‘hi’, many people take pride in saying namaste .
The death of the telegram is another example.
Good changes are surely welcome. But the not-so-good ones are one too many.
I purchased a colour television set in 1996, which is still in very good condition after 18 years. With things moving at a rapid pace, the world of television hardware has undergone many changes. Nicknamed the idiot box, it has become an integral part of our lives. The old sets have made way to LCDs, LEDs, Plasma, OLED...
Like many others, I too was tempted to go for an LED television. I purchased one in 2010, paying a princely sum, but to my shock and surprise I found that after two years it started giving trouble. I got it repaired, paying a huge amount. Wondering why my earlier set had never needed any repairs, I asked a few friends who too had gone for the latest LED models. To my surprise, I found they had faced similar problems too.
With advanced technology, durability has often been a casualty. Before the advent of colour television, we had the black and white television sets which incidentally also had great cabinets that could be locked after the day’s transmission ended.
The art of writing is almost lost, and with it originality. The days of writing by hand has given way to the computer, which certainly has its advantages and has made things much easier. But the copy-paste mode is still unable to stop all the flaws.
Homes of the past had fewer problems. Despite the use of advanced technology, construction today does not guarantee error-free results.
Trees are felled mercilessly, giving way to majestic roads, which look beautiful. But the soul is missing. The shade of the selfless tree knows only to give and not take.
Alas, in the ever-changing rapid era, such sentiments have few takers.
Great men say plant a tree, lesser men say chop it for it’s an obstruction. Had earlier generations thought that way, where would we have landed? Where would one rest under a hot summer sun?
> balasubramaniampavani@yahoo.com
