LEARNING EXPERIEINCES-3
Maiden drive with GPS
Anna and I used the GPS for our travel to Chennai from Pondicherry for the first time last week end. Anna enjoyed learning to use the GPS to guide us to our destinations. We were used to stopping along the way to receive instructions from people in the street when we we went to new places and it had worked well. On one occasion recently, when someone whom we asked for the location of a street, shouted back saying, 'if you have car, better buy a GPS. Do not disturb me'. Also,we found that in the busy streets when the traffic is flowing, it is not easy to stop to ask. So it was a novel experience to be guided along the roads by this satellite tutor.
While using the GPS in the car, I journeyed back into my memory lane.During my childhood, there were far less roads and people took instructions to reach a place by asking knowledgable people. A few years later, I noticed road signs appearing on the road sides, to guide people to important places. Even then, while visiting a new place, we still needed local people to help us find the streets or houses. The roads and streets did not have sign posts then.I remember seeing a printed city and state Map for the first time when I went to college. I depended on it to find my way to important places in the city where I had gone for my medical studies. By the time we bought our first car in the mid eighties, printed road maps were dependable and user friendly. When the cell phones came in to the market, some advanced phones had a form of GPS which were handy to use. However only major cities were covered in it. Now we have an elaborate GPS that covers cities, towns and villages fairly well. So we have arrived from people guided journey assistance to a machine guided instruction.
The technology gives us several advantages. We are helpless without it. I wonder whether, this convenience we cherish, is increasing our insular living.
On the way back from visiting my mother last week, we stopped at a cottage industry site to watch how fibers for making coir and mattresses are made, from coconut shells. It was an improvised factory with primitive machinery, but well run. They showed us the production line and talked about their experiences. They thanked us for visiting them and said as we were leaving, ' people have no time for others now-a days. You stopped by to meet us and watched what we do'.
This resonated in my heart during the rest of the journey. The informal human encounters are decreasing. My colleague told me at a farewell dinner for her at home, that it was the first time she was invited to a home during her two years of stay in the campus. There is no lack of formal meetings. Sometimes the formal meetings leave us stressful. The informal social occasions contribute to build relationships, family ties, neighborhood links and shared living. We create loneliness within ourselves and in others by pre-occupied living and neglect of leisurely human encounters.
A seven year old girl, who is our neighbor, asked me, 'Uncle why are you always walking fast. Look at my new bicycle. Look at the flowers. They look fresh even in the summer sun'. Others are calling our attention to give time to them. We grow in stature when we do this.
M.C.Mathew
Maiden drive with GPS
Anna and I used the GPS for our travel to Chennai from Pondicherry for the first time last week end. Anna enjoyed learning to use the GPS to guide us to our destinations. We were used to stopping along the way to receive instructions from people in the street when we we went to new places and it had worked well. On one occasion recently, when someone whom we asked for the location of a street, shouted back saying, 'if you have car, better buy a GPS. Do not disturb me'. Also,we found that in the busy streets when the traffic is flowing, it is not easy to stop to ask. So it was a novel experience to be guided along the roads by this satellite tutor.
While using the GPS in the car, I journeyed back into my memory lane.During my childhood, there were far less roads and people took instructions to reach a place by asking knowledgable people. A few years later, I noticed road signs appearing on the road sides, to guide people to important places. Even then, while visiting a new place, we still needed local people to help us find the streets or houses. The roads and streets did not have sign posts then.I remember seeing a printed city and state Map for the first time when I went to college. I depended on it to find my way to important places in the city where I had gone for my medical studies. By the time we bought our first car in the mid eighties, printed road maps were dependable and user friendly. When the cell phones came in to the market, some advanced phones had a form of GPS which were handy to use. However only major cities were covered in it. Now we have an elaborate GPS that covers cities, towns and villages fairly well. So we have arrived from people guided journey assistance to a machine guided instruction.
The technology gives us several advantages. We are helpless without it. I wonder whether, this convenience we cherish, is increasing our insular living.
On the way back from visiting my mother last week, we stopped at a cottage industry site to watch how fibers for making coir and mattresses are made, from coconut shells. It was an improvised factory with primitive machinery, but well run. They showed us the production line and talked about their experiences. They thanked us for visiting them and said as we were leaving, ' people have no time for others now-a days. You stopped by to meet us and watched what we do'.
This resonated in my heart during the rest of the journey. The informal human encounters are decreasing. My colleague told me at a farewell dinner for her at home, that it was the first time she was invited to a home during her two years of stay in the campus. There is no lack of formal meetings. Sometimes the formal meetings leave us stressful. The informal social occasions contribute to build relationships, family ties, neighborhood links and shared living. We create loneliness within ourselves and in others by pre-occupied living and neglect of leisurely human encounters.
A seven year old girl, who is our neighbor, asked me, 'Uncle why are you always walking fast. Look at my new bicycle. Look at the flowers. They look fresh even in the summer sun'. Others are calling our attention to give time to them. We grow in stature when we do this.
M.C.Mathew
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