I watched Madarasapattinam movie this weekend. It was a nice movie. It was wonderful to see Madras (Chennai) in 1945. And also the film shows the difference between old and new madras with popular landmarks such as Spencer Plaza, Central Station and Thames of Chennai “Coovum”. We have come a long way. But the post is not about that. It’s about technology :).
There is a particular scene in the movie, where the hero and heroine will search each other in crowded Railway station. Quite a tense moment in the movie. Suddenly I heard a whisper near me, the person next to me was saying “give her a missed call”. I laughed aloud. It was a period film actually.
In a different note, this is one example of how the technology has imbibed into our lives. And I guess it’s quite fast. I can say a few examples and people older than me would have a lot of things to share.
First one I would like to say is Internet. It was 1998, when I was first introduced to internet. A new browsing center was opened in our neighbourhood. They ran an offer to attract people to web. That is I can create a e-mail address for free with them and to check e-mails they will charge. I created my first e-mail address in 1998. When I went to school, and shared my e-mail address with my friends they didn’t believe me as it did not start with “www”. It was the time when my cousin brother went to Singapore on business. I vividly remember accompanying my uncle to browsing center with the letter he had written to his son, to dictate and therefore bring down the browsing money a bit. It was a rupee per minute then.
In 2002, when we bought a computer, we applied for an internet connection with bsnl. It was 56 kbps. I just can’t believe I just used that internet connection speed. I can remember, we would click the login button and go for tiffin and when we come back we will still see internet is yet to connect. And now we have got instant access that too at least with 256 kbps.
The next big thing is mobile phone. Cant imagine how people lived in the era where there is no mobile phone. I mean I am yet to find whether cell phone had increased our stress level or it had brought it down. I remember patiently waiting for a friend in theatre before i had cell phone and now punching his number every 5 minutes to know his whereabouts. When I was watching “The Davinci Code”, I can’t just understand the part of getting information through mobile phone. I thought that guy was also a part of the movie who saved everything in mobile :).
I can bet you that, in 1995, if you had said to anyone that a circular plate when inserted into a machine, will play that movie which released last week with crystal clear quality, people would have called the lunatic asylum. Hmm those were the days, we used to roam to get a video cassette that too yesteryear movies to play it in VCR. And the audio tapes, I can reminisce the amount of planning that goes in bringing audio tapes for school tour. Or we would be bored to hell with 2 cassettes. Now we have MP3s. We don’t bother bringing any cassette or to have Reynolds pen to rewind incase it gets stuck.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any experiences where you felt this sudden shifts?
Comments
The biggest shift, to me, was graduating from the no-phone brigade to having a cell phone. Now I wonder how I used to step out of the house without a phone in my pocket! It’s one of the few new things we’ve become SO attached to that we can’t believe we did without it!
Hah Chinkurli!!! Glad to have your comment in my blog. As you said, mobile phones has become inseperable part of life. Back when it was no-phone days, I was in school and i remember very little now its like a hand broken when you dont have a mobile with you when you step out 🙂 Thanks for dropping by.
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