I had just finished my days work and was heading back
home. I quickened my pace as I heard the whistle. I reached the train and settled
down in a nice empty corner. I started to listen to my favorite song and
eventually got lost in the magical world of music.
It was in the second station when I saw here first. A
lady in her late 20’s hustled into the train as it pulled away from the
platform. She took a seat opposite to me and just sat there. Doing nothing.
Something was amiss. I kept staring at her for five whole minutes (trust me I could
have won a staring match) before it hit me what was wrong. She did not have her
phone.
She wasn’t furiously typing something in to WhatsApp/ Viber/
Hike. Nor was she engrossed in a voice/ video call on Skype. Nor was she updating
her status on Facebook. Nor was she clicking random selfies with the train
notice boards to post on Instagram. She just sat there, doing nothing.
She gazed out of the window and let her long fingers
rest on the grills of the window. Her tired face brightened when the evening
wind touched her head and tossed her hair. She started playing with the kid
sitting next to her. I felt a pang of guilt and shame rising through my body. In my childhood days I begged my father to
take me in a train to anyplace we went. I loved the sounds of the train.
Yet here I was sitting in a train, the most exciting transport possible,
listening to some random song, lost in the electronic world.
It set me wondering, had it been a few years back,
this scenario would have not been weird at all. But yet today why was this
weird and out of the ordinary? That’s because we have left our lives be
consumed by the electronic devices. We spend twelve out of twenty four hours housed in the office
room and the remaining hours is expended with the small handheld demon, mobile phone.
I pondered, how many times have we made an effort to
put that 5 inch phone away to listen to our grandparents ranting? How many
times have we looked away from the laptop screens when our mothers called out our names?
It struck me then, we are, unfortunately living at the
mercy of our electronic devices. Times have changed from we controlling them to them ruling us. Looking at the pace we are progressing now ‘Rise
of the Machines’ or ‘iRobot’ doesn’t seem like a distant future to me!
So let us all make a promise. A promise not to abandon
these little mind-controllers but to use them lesser. A promise to devote more
time to that one person who loves us and is currently sitting right across us.
A promise to value a living human being rather than a 5 inch long lifeless
thing.
A picture is worth a thousand words and so is a spoken
word rather than an encrypted message.
So start living your life by enjoying
the intriguing world around you. Love the people in your life rather than
having an affair with you little gadget.
