Skip to main content

Google’s instant


More than 30 years ago, I walked up proudly to a stage before a few thousand people in the city of Ernakulam and received a prize, a good cash amount for a student in those days, from Justice Subramanian Poti.  I had come first in an essay competition organised by the Corporation of Cochin.  It was Professor Primus Perincheri, one of my Malayalam teachers in St Albert’s College, who urged me to participate in the Malayalam essay writing competition.  I had to write 2000 words on a topic that I can’t now recall.  “I’ll help you,” said Prof Perincheri. 

A moment with Justice Poti
There was no computer, internet and Google in 1983.  Being a member of the Ernakulam Public Library, I had access to the reference section which possessed a fabulous collection of encyclopaedias and other reference books as well as back issues of newspapers and periodicals.  I spent two entire days collecting the material for the essay.  I wrote the rough draft of my essay which Prof Perincheri edited before I wrote the final version.

Three decades later, as a teacher of English when I give assignments to my students, what I get is instant work copy-pasted from the internet via Google search and printed out without even being subjected to some basic necessary editing.  When I question the students on the material submitted by them, I get the rude shock: they have not even bothered to read it.

What has Google done to the world?  I asked the question to myself when I saw the latest discussion topic at an Indian bloggers’ community website.*

I rely heavily on Google for a lot of information so much so Google is the home page on every electronic gadget (four in number) I use.  Google literally makes information available at the fingertips.  I don’t need membership in any library anymore.  The arduous journey to the temple of wisdom is unnecessary.  Google is my threshold to that temple now.  The temple travels with me wherever I go.  So life without Google (or any such efficient search engine) would be unimaginable now!

But I’m not sure whether Google and the internet are made proper use of by the youngsters.  Secondly, hasn’t the internet with its bewitching accessories like chat-sites and social networks undermined real relationships?

Two years back, i.e., almost three decades after I had my last encounter with Prof Perincheri, I spoke to him on phone.  A classmate of mine who visited me in Delhi from Ernakulam gave me the professor’s number.  I was reluctant to make the call.  I didn’t want to face the possibility of having been forgotten by one of my favourite teachers.  “He remembers you,” assured Joseph Henry, my classmate who is now a Jesuit priest.  I dialled the number reluctantly and was thrilled beyond words when Prof Perincheri recognised me as soon as I mentioned my name. 

Such surprises and excitements are sure to vanish from the world run by Google and the internet.  In the world of instant links and instant clicks, the soul is left with a longing, a longing for a stirring, a stirring somewhere deep, deep below the instant gratifications.


* Prompted by #worldwithoutgoogle of Indiblogger



Comments

  1. Google is my home page as well. All your points about its misuse is valid. But as is the case, every coin has two sides. It depends on the use we put it to.
    I am glad that Google is here to stay. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Google is a politician-cum-father and its upto us how we make use of his power.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations for winning the award in those days...!
    More than 70 percent of the internet is misused.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The most interesting thing, when I look back, is the award made little difference except to the professor perhaps. Life was very subdued in those days especially for people like me who didn't know how to use opportunities...

      Not 70% ?

      Delete
  4. Rightly said.. Google is my homepage too but I agree with you regarding the abuse of it .. copy-paste is like a rot in thinking ability but children as well as their wards are actually proud of it !

    PS- I have to stare at the image for a good 7 to 8 minutes before believing it was you and not 'The Shashi Kapoor' accepting the award !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A colleague of mine made a similar observation about the photo. How time changes us!

      Delete
  5. Sure, Google has its advantages. But sometimes I think one of the main reasons for my terrible memory is Google! I don't feel the "need" to remember things and that's sad if you think about it!

    Wow, am I the odd one out here cos Google isn't my homepage.. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Technology has affected the younger generation in more ways than the memory. How many people bother to learn the mathematical tables, for example? How many can work out problems mentally? Mental agility is being lost due to over-dependence on the electronic gadgets.

      Don't worry about being the odd one here. You belong to a generation apart :)

      Delete
  6. Beautiful write up....I agree with Preethi that every coin has two sides :)...Not only Google, but Whatsapp, Facebook too have positive and negative effects..... :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad to see you here, Madhumita.

      The two sides are unavoidable. which side gets more chances in the flip is the question :)

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. True Google has brought temple of wisdom at our doors. No matter what topic I can always refer to Google and get some informative piece in just few secs. Moreover, since I stay miles away from my family the social media helps me to keep in touch with my near and dear ones without spending huge amount. Without these advancements life would not been so easy.
    Just like said earlier every coin has two sides so its true if the same tools are not used appropriately they can hamper ones standards.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think we shouldn't be surprised if the younger generation tends to use one side of the coin a bit too much. Weren't we like that when we were young?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Two Nuns and two questions

The nuns kept in custody  Two Catholic nuns were arrested on 25 July 2025 at Durg railway station for allegedly trafficking tribal women from Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh to Agra in UP. Today’s newspapers in Kerala have expressed their contempt of the act more vehemently than I had expected. It seems secularism has hope yet in this country. For those who are not aware of the incident, two nuns were arrested because some criminals of a depraved organisation called Bajrang Dal in Chhattisgarh chose to conclude that the nuns were committing the crime of human-trafficking. Since that charge wouldn’t stick, because the women confessed that they were going voluntarily to take up jobs with the help of the nuns in order to raise their families from miserable poverty in a country that claims to be a $5-tillion-economy, another charge was fabricated that the nuns had indulged in religious conversion. Now let us look at certain facts. Though I keep questioning the Christian churches for...

Missing Women of Dharmasthala

The entrance to the temple Dharmasthala:  The Shadows Behind the Sanctum Ananya Bhatt, a young medical student from Manipal, visited the Dharmasthala Temple and she never returned to her hostel. She vanished without a trace. That was in 2003. Her mother, Sujata Bhatt, a stenographer working with the CBI, rushed to the temple town in search of her daughter. Some residents told her that they had seen Ananya walking with the temple officials. The local police refused to help in any way. Soon Sujata was abducted by three men, assaulted, and rendered unconscious. She woke up months later in a hospital in Bangalore (Bengaluru). Now more than two decades later, she is back in the temple premises to find her daughter’s remains and perform her last rites. Because a former sanitation worker of the temple came to the local court a few days back with a human skeleton and the confession that he had buried countless schoolgirls in uniform and other young women in the temple premises. This ma...

The Chhattisgarh Story

Deforestation in Chhattisgarh Kerala’s Catholic Church is teeming with rage these days because of the arrest of two nuns in Chhattisgarh on false charges. No one seems to understand the real politics behind the Modi government’s enmity towards Christian missionaries in Chhattisgarh as well as other backward states in its neighbourhood. Modi is selling the tribal areas and forestlands to the corporate sector part by part, his friend Adani being the chief benefactor. The Christian missionaries are a severe hindrance in that commerce. Let us get some facts right, at least. The Adivasi villagers allege that Gram Sabhas (local governing bodies) were forged or manipulated under pressure from Adani and the BJP government officials in order to take away their lands. In Hasdeo Aranya, minutes of the local body meetings were altered to show the villagers’ consent for land transfers. Also, the Chhattisgarh Scheduled Tribes Commission found that Panchayat secretaries were detained and coerc...

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...