"A Quiet Provocation" by Vivek Sir (05-07)

While returning home I saw some kids roller skating on the road. They would hardly have been 7 or 8 years old. I remembered my own days as a kid. As kids we would play with tops, fly kites, play cricket or carom. But today its the age of roller skates, skate boards, dirt biking and virtual games.

These kids have been born with these gizmos in their hands. Mobile phone and Internet is taken for granted and is a "hep thing" for an 8 year old to possess. Internet is something without which homeworks are out of question. Google is the present version of the good old Britanica Encyclopedia. You aint kool if you dont have the biggest Bey Blade (most of us dont even know whats that) or if you dont watch, or play or have a set of Pokemon gizmos.

I know I am too young to talk like this but think of the time when our kids will come to this world. Blue tooth enabled appliances will be the norm. Simulated strategy games which will be played in real time would have taken the place of roller skates. The latest version of windows which would run on your palm tops would be the "Windows dont know what". The latest Pentium offering would be Pentium 10^10 ghz processor. The hottest selling toy would be "BOOMLAKUA" and I have no idea what that would be. But one thing thats for sure is that times would definitely change and so would be the Technology and we who think are using the latest technology proudly flashing our high tech gizmos in front of our friends would suddenly become outdated or in terms of an IT professional "Obsolete".

But the million dollar question is that will we be able to instill the same values, the same culture, the same ethics that our parents have given to us? Will the sense of patriotism that I somehow feel is slowly diminishing in todays youth be wiped out completely by then? Will people start becoming obsolete like Technology?

Did you say NO???

Well, think about this.........the number of divorce cases that have been on a rise steadily,the number of extra marital affairs that have been on a rise, the plight of the knowledge worker that is gaining momentum,the number of nuclear family system that on an everyday basis are reported,the deterioration of the amount of time that people spend with their families,the amount of time that people give to their children is decreasing,the number of old age homes that have been rising steadily....just to name a few.

Are we working towards our own doom?

Think about it or one day we might be "obsolete like Windows 98..."