To think or to google

Just came back today from Mumbai after a really eventful weekend. Lots of development on the personal and the professional front. Anyways that comes later.

On my way back I read an interesting article by Andrew Sullivan in the Times of India, something which talks about how Internet has been effecting our thinking and reading habits. It was a great read, especially when I had no Internet connection handy and I had deliberately left my cell phone switched off.

Some things to ponder upon

• How many times do you really go watch a movie or read a book before you have read its review somewhere on the net?
• How many times do you bother to pick up a book to research a topic
• Do you read a restaurant review before you head out there for a dinner
• Do you also keep clicking on every link you come across a web page before you reach the end of the page

Internet has been one of the greatest tools for disseminating information but also at the same time we are becoming used to a kind of life where we hit the Internet for any curious thought. We are unknowingly becoming more and more impatient when it comes to reading or applying some original thought to any event or occurrence.

Andrew Sullivan writes in the article ” The experience of reading only one good book for a while, and allowing its themes to resonate in the mind, is what we risk losing. I would carry a single book around with me for days when younger, letting its ideas splash around in my head, not forming an instant judgment (for or against) but allowing the book to sit for a while, as the rest of the world had its say — the countryside or pavement, the crowd or train carriage, the armchair or lunch counter. Sometimes, human beings need time to think things through, to allow themselves to entertain a thought before committing to it.“

With a deluge of information we are slowly building up enormous capability to scour through it but at the same time we remain detached and quite often unaffected.

Quoting from the article again “Right now, we may be maximally overwhelmed by all this accessible information, but the time may come when our mastery of the new world allows us to gain more perspective on it. Here’s hoping. Shallowness, after all, does not necessarily preclude depth. We just have to find a new equilibrium between the two. We need to be both pond-skaters and scuba divers. We need to master the ability to access facts while reserving time and space to do something meaningful with them“

To the questions I have listed above, I do all of it. I read reviews of books before I buy them, the same goes for visiting a restaurant or going for a movie. And quite often while browsing I end up at pages totally unrelated to what I had started from, all because I clicked on most of the links I came across on the page.  And when I have an opinion, I go online to check what others feel about it and I do get influenced by  the opinions of some unknown people out there. I sometimes wonder if so much of information available so easily will take the fun out of the small surprises life has in store for us. Quite often before I visit a place I know which restaurant to go , which route to take, what to buy and what all places are there for sightseeing. Because  I had googled for it the previous night.

Yes, I Google quite often then I think or explore anything…..what do you do?

Off and on

Last couple of days have been a mixed bag for me. After a lot of planning I could finally take a break from my not so hectic schedule( I have seen worser days) and what a break it has been. I first decided to take a train to Mumbai. Bangalore to Mumbai is a full 24 hours train journey. It took me back to my college days where I would travel for 52 hours to reach home from college.The  only thing you could do was sleep ,eat and sleep again. Well hats off to Laloo ( and his team at rail mantralaya) trains are comfortable and cleaner. And with functional charging points available in plenty, I could very well enjoy long stored movies on my laptop, a good amount of sleep and treat myself to some greasy but tasty grub which they sell in the trains .

With crude hitting new highs every other day , the airlines tickets are becoming more and more expensive by day. That’s still OK when you compare the time taken to travel but when it comes to flying out of Bangalore I would prefer taking a train for shorter journeys. It takes approximately two and half hours from my place to the airport. It makes no sense to fly to places like Chennai, Hyderabad and Mangalore .I was wondering why can’t we have a dedicated rail track to Airport from the City railway station. We can have check in counters at the railway station itself. Imagine you can go to the railway station, check in there, hop on to a train and reach the airport in less then an hour. And also imagine the amount of fuel saving possible.

Anyway before I digress further, the main reason why I am off blogging is the painfully slow and intermittent connectivity offered by my reliance data card. This is the second time I got taken in by this piece of s*** sold by Reliance under the garb uninterrupted connectivity. Couple of things which I have observed with Reliance. They are very prompt when it comes to reminding you to pay your bill. They will never mail you the bills and expect you to pay on time.Its only when the due date is over they will inundate you with reminder calls and SMSes. It has the worst customer care you will ever come across. Nothing gets resolved there ,its just that you end up wasting your time and keep talking to some ten different people every-time you call them.

Well till I get back to my regular broadband, I will have to bear with this and so will I be (Off and On)-line , at the mercy of datacard.So before I get disconnected again, I am hitting the publish button.