The tragedy of an ignored king

So once lived this person called Content. Content was always told that he’s the king. Wherever he went, he was told that he is an important person and also a versatile person. Content dressed as words, video or audio and in any form was still the king. And Content appeared all over the place; newspapers, websites, television, documents and everywhere and helped strangers communicate without meeting or relay important messages and information over different mediums.  

But then people ignored him.

“What kind of a king am I?” thought Content, “always ignored and left alone. I’m always told that I am important but hardly feel important. People grapple for me when needed and then as easily forget about me when not needed. I am so powerful that I can change the fate of people, organizations and even countries. I get created in minutes and last beyond my creators and I travel as easily. I know no boundaries and take seconds to get from one medium to another. To be understood, I only need the help of a language but that too is my closest ally with the help of technology now.  I can affect the masses, change trends for the lasses (there, Content gets carried away) and ensure, over generations, history passes and still I am ignored.

People don’t know have the skill to create a wonderful me and still are creating me. They don’t realize that creating me is serious business. They create me without knowing the power I have so they copy me from here and there and put me together haphazardly. I can make such great impact if only people knew my value and handled me in a mature way. Managing me requires  logic, structure, understanding, articulation, creativity and thought. And most importantly, one has to build me for the intended audience and not for yourself. Create me intelligently and skillfully and then see what impact I have. I am all pervasive, so any field (no matter how critical) which fails to capture me skillfully, fails. I need skillful management and clarity. Treat me like a king and I can promise astounding results”     

Impatient, restless, aggressive or just expecting more?

It is quite amazing how impatient we now are. I am not here to discuss the hazards of technology on the human race but I can’t help but notice. And I notice this each day... 

I impatiently hit the ‘end key’ on my Blackberry the moment it starts to misbehave. Few seconds of its inactiveness is enough to get me impatient and restart it. And as soon as it restarts, I want it to be working perfectly or I could restart it again. I want calls to instantly connect. A few waiting tones are enough for me to assume that there has to be something wrong with the network or the telecom ministry.

Not that laptop is the favored one. The reason could be any hefty application but the laptop still bears the brunt as it is made to forcefully shut and come back to life as fast. And the rate at which the tapping of my fingers or feet tap increases is directly proportional to the time that the machine takes to restart. I want websites to open at the blink of an eye and if they don’t then I am quick enough to repair my internet connection or restart my router. I quickly disconnect and connect LAN cable and log calls with the IT team. And till the problem is resolved, I feel I shall miss something critical, work shall suffer, I will miss my deadline and my entire world will come shattering down.

I have lost the patience to see fancy flash websites. The F5 is the most exploited key as I ruthlessly vent my impatience out on it. I want google to throw intelligent results. I want banking transactions to happen with a click and wish that there weren’t as many passwords. I want quick music downloads and the favorites I have on my laptop should get transferred on my mobile as fast and what is on my mobile should effortlessly play in my car. I want to browse the net and check my mails while am on the move. And I want to click pictures and upload them right away (as if it were milk which could be stale the next day). I wish I could have an ipad for books, music and videos at my fingertips, anytime, anywhere.

I want all channels on my television. If I don’t have the 432^nd channel, then my digital TV operator is obviously crappy (even though that 432^nd channel is not expected to get more than 34 seconds of my divided attention).

Call it impatience or expecting more but what I am wondering is whether we control technology or is it the other way? 

Humans are Complicated

Humans are complicated, have always been.

So my name is Twitz and I am a splendid sparrow. I am free, free to breathe, free to fly wherever I want, whenever I want. I have my palatial palace nested on one of the sparse trees in an industrial locality of Gurgaon. The city is supposedly called millennium world class city but I fail to see why. All it has is tall towers, unmanageable cars and traffic, smoking generators, broken roads and frustrated people. Not that the humdrum of Delhi is any better. But in Delhi we share one tree between 5 bird families and here I have it all to myself.

And my nest overlooks one of the cabins of a swish office. The cabin, with all the modern day amenities, seems like the most comfortable place. If only it didn't seem so confining, perhaps I would have liked to stay in it. There's this middle aged man who's, on most of the days, quite well dressed already occupying the cabin. It must really be comfortable for he spends more time there than his nest. But I don't understand, if the cabin happens to be so homely then why is this man frowning all the time? Early morning, he walks in, with the most grievous expression and has it glued on his face all day. He screams at all the seemingly meek young people and is shouted at by some more grievous overpowering men and women. He screams on his telephones and even screams at the person serving him coffee. Why should he be so unhappy? What is so troubling in his life? Doesn't he have the power to change what makes him unhappy? I can't imagine waking up to so much bitterness each day and taking it back to my nest only to come back next day with it.

So on one of the fine evenings, it started to rain and with it nature exuded its fresh fragrances. I lay warm in my nest with my family drawing in the freshness, the innocence and sheer liveliness. And then I saw him but this time with a different expression. He was leaning by the window, and staring longingly at my nest. He was almost crying and had sadness in his eyes. Did he envy me? Was he wanting to feel the rain, freedom or just be happy? Why wouldn't he do something about it? Did he dislike the confines of his cabin or swish office? Did he not like the people around him? I wish I could ask and help him but I dare not. 

All I would say is that humans continue to remain truly complicated.