A double edged sword called technology.

The dilemma of the generation.
Is technology  good? Or is it bad? Can something that's good for someone be bad for somebody else?Or  is it all a matter of perception?

Faced with these questions I decided to head out for answers, and this what I found..

Life saver.

His eyes looked dead.

 He sat there in one corner, hunched over a book, occasionally staring out at the emptiness that the window of the train offered.

That’s how I met Dr.Arpith Patel, everything about him suggested that he’s a doctor.

The formal clothes, the shining shoes, the expressionless face, everything.

He caught me starring at him and smiled.

And then he started telling me about himself.

He was working in a Tejasvini Hospital at Mangalore. He specialised in orthopedics, which involved the correction of deformities or functional impairments of the skeletal system.

I don’t know how but our conversation somehow twisted and turned and reached a topic so disconnected to our conversation yet very much attached to our life, technology.

Dr.Arpith Patel respected technology. He believed that it could change lives. infact he used it to change lives every day. Technology saves millions of lives every second he told me, conviction visible in his eyes.

Earlier it would take us hours to identify blood groups, now it takes only seconds, it saves time like magic and in the case of an emergency every second matters. What used to be hopeless cases once could be easily being taken care of now all thanks to technology.

There were machines for everything he said, for joint replacement surgeries they had machines that would specify even the angle in which the bone has to be cut, Major surgeries could be conducted through a tiny hole, Heart,liver,lungs everything could be replaced.

The term saving lives had been taken to whole new level.

When the main doctor is not available at the hospital , X-rays and scans could be sent to his computer so that he could advice his juniors about what to do, while earlier you had to wait till the senior arrived and by that time the patient could die.

After I listened all this I couldn't help but ask," Do you think all these facilities could be accessed by all?"

He thought for a while before he replied, he looked down for a while, and then looked up, his eyes expressionless again.

He replied his voice strained, Most of these new stuff are pretty expensive so...

He trailed on, his voice replaced by an uncertain silence.

I couldn't help but ask, "So what do you think is more important for a doctor, the economic gains or his humanitarian values?"

He looked down again and looked up, he replied, his voice hard.

"It takes 30 years and half a crore to be a doctor, so what do you expect?"

With that he turned away and started staring infinitely. I stared out of the window.

Emptiness swallowing whatever the window lit up, like the lives of the thousands of poor people in my country, the narrow beam of light that escaped out of the train window didn't stand a chance against the vast darkness around it.

Technology was magic for the doctors, but does everyone get a share of this magic?

My question remains unanswered.

Teachers tales.

 She shook her head and said they’re never going to use it just in the right way, no matter how much you educate them, there will always be some who would use it in the bad way, and there will ALWAYS be some.

I didn't know what to expect as I walked in through the gates of the Sanskrit College, Udupi.

The ancient building stood sky high in front of me. Children were playing tennis with badminton racquets in a makeshift court in front of the college; I dodged tennis balls and entered the college.

Towards the right was the staff room, I walked in to find a lady dressed in a blue saree,

Bend over a bundle of paper with a red ink pen in her hand and a curious expression on her face.

She nodded at me through her square framed spectacles, 

“How can I help you?” she asked.

I explained my intentions to her, I explained to her how I was there to talk to her about her views on technology.

“Technology....”she trailed off.

Technology is something good, but not as good as everyone thinks”, she said “I mean yes technology is making our lives better but it’s all in a way taking away its foundation. All the moral and cultural values that our society was based on are getting eroded slowly. Children are losing even the basic moral values, they are so much influenced by that they don’t respect relations and responsibilities anymore. And then they say that we don’t understand life as we are 'outdated'."

Students are getting more and more distracted everyday from their studies because of mobiles and computers, and God knows what they’re seeing in those mobile phones” she said shaking her head.

I nodded; there was only so much I could tell her.

She continued, “What about their parents? Do they ever think about it?

And look at the library, nowadays I find people using their mobile phones even in there; they have no more interests in our books and culture.

“What if  you educate them properly?” I asked.

She shook her head and said they’re never going to use it just in the right way, no matter how much you educate them, there will always be some who would use it in the bad way, and there will ALWAYS be some.

Her words echoed in my ears as I walked out. A sea of children came running into the college and I stood there amidst them thinking, was this all that technology was doing to them?

Or was it all a matter of perception?

Again, my question remains unanswered.