Mr. Computer do not be proud !

Like vegetarians and non-vegetarians, we have now 2 kinds of people existing today! Those who do not use computer and those who cannot stay without computer. On my part, I find myself in between- just like the eggetarians! Which means my computer usage extends to just typing a blog and sending e mails. Nothing more and nothing less. Nonetheless I spend my time in two strikingly different worlds each day.

I start my day in a non-computer world where I make tea, chop vegetables, clean house, scrub clothes all manually. No computer exists there. And so right click, left click, double click, etc look as meaningless as an incoherent chatter.

It's after packing off my husband to office that I rush to my two computer dominated places-Firstly, the university department where I teach and secondly, the ad agency where I write 'creative junk'. Frankly, there have been several moments in the department when I have felt like calling it quits. Particularly, after seeing some male colleagues showing slides and creating an atmosphere so very hi-fi.

Ditto in the agency! Writing lines is a fine job. But the computer jargon scares me to the core. And so it was last saturday, when a college principal landed with a request for several copies of a leaflet in just one day. Inspite of severe downpour and next day being Sunday. And my, wasn't I glad when the director and one senior visualiser took over to discuss 'pdf', 'cdr', 'jpg' and so on!

But all the insecurity is in my head I suppose. For immediately next moment, I was given a creative assignment which as per the director I alone could do! The same happened in the department this week, when some students gushed and said they enjoyed my class. That makes it much ado about nothing?

But I still don't know how to react to this. Maybe I should allow things to go as they are. That is for sure that I shall beat Mr. computer when it comes to doing household chores, riding my 2 wheeler through knee-deep water, giving impromptu examples to students, coming up with some very good headline, or catching a mistake like-'then' and 'than' or for that matter 'their' and 'there'.

In that case, the match is draw! Or shall I say -Mr. Computer do not be proud?

Not exactly arrogant. This younger Generation.

The week has ended with this sweet feeling that all is not wrong with the younger generation! They are an aggressive lot alright. But they do make efforts to understand people like me.

Remember, I had talked about this young executive in my last blog who had messed up in the college magazine? Well it was nice to see her put in extra effort this week. She continues to be a little distant. But then I have decided not to hold any grudges against her.

Talking about the college magazine, it was great fun working on it this week. There were articles on 'Mother', 'Childhood', and so on. Some guys in the agency got down to helping me get good images for the articles. The camaraderie shown was overwhelming to the core. The only problem being that they constantly came up with pictures of 'an ever-sacrificing mother' for the article on mother. And when it came to finding a suitable image for childhood, they only thought of infants in mothers' arms. And so I told them to look for pictures of children playing .

The college magazine contained the Hindi translation of Robert Frost poem,'The woods are lovely dark and deep..' Vikas, our photographer and Graphic Designer liked it so much that he took down the original poem from the internet. He also listened to me when I spoke of the poem 'Good fences make good neighbours' written by the same poet Robert Frost.

And so there was this 'Feel Good' factor through out the week making me forget issues like 'generation gap'. I think it is finally showing patience to one another.

Happenings.

Sorry for the delay. I somehow had nothing to say. Things around me were happening all too fast leaving me breathless.

Just when I was looking hopefully at the new government, the Air- France plane crash shook me through and through.

There were however moments, when I felt upbeat. The results of competitive exams such as IIT-JEE, AIEEE, AIPMT etc. had me thinking on so many issues! As a part- time copywriter I had a busy time writing ads to promote various coaching institutes. " Great Results" etc, etc. But that's my bread and butter. And so, I must say no more. However, I feel sorry that schools have got sidelined by coaching institutes. Further with meagre budget, every school has to think several times before releasing ads!

Alas, the result excitement was short lived. There was this terrible case of burglary in Indore, where a doctor couple was attacked in the night. While the husband died on the spot, the wife is in the hospital with serious injuries.

And so this is what Indore is now. In an attempt to acquire a 'metro look', the place has lost much of it's peaceful nature. The traffic has increased on roads. And the inhabitants have become as busy as their metro-counterparts. So much so, that talking on cell-phones has become the order of the day. Or is it a fixation? I know not. Naturally, this has led to several accidents. And while it has become a common practice to blame the youngsters of today for all the chaos on the roads, I of late found that 'my age' people were no better. Infact, I found my tribe people using mobiles more often on the roads.

And thus, much as I want the rains I am worried about what will happen during the rainy season! Especially with the road repairs being in full swing.

And so this is the phase I am going through. Confused and uncertain about everything around.