Technological Revolution

Time and tide wait for none. I still remember the day when I bought Konica film camera, my happiness knew no bounds. It was in the year 2005 that I went to US and I took lots of pictures with the same camera until I bought a new digital camera. I printed all the pictures and sent them to Nepal for memories. I have photo albums with those printed pictures which give me blissful tour of my life every now and then. Now, we are in a digital era and after digital cameras were introduced in the market, the printing pictures got diminished. I no longer print the pictures.

Though I was already using emails five years ago, I received so many lovely hand-written letters from my students in Nepal. I no more get such letters now. Similarly, I do not use the film camera any more. It lies in the cupboard of my house as a show-piece as in the museum. Similar is the case with walkman. Who would prefer to use jumbo walkman when one has tiny ipod which includes-what not? Desktops are immensely being replaced by laptops.

I can never forget the day when I was able to chat with my family members through internet. All my family members as well as relatives were so happy to see me on the computer screen for the first time when I used webcam.

I used to get lots of ecards from my close friends especially during the big festivals like Dashain and Tihar; not to mention the birthday wishes. The surprising thing was that I did not get a single ecard this year during these festivals. However, I received wishes for Dashain and Tihar in a different form i.e. through facebook. One of my friends tagged me along with many friends in Sel Roti picture in the facebook and suggested everyone to share Sel Roti. Instantly, I saw the video posting in the facebook about the Deusi and Vhailo in Adelaide, Australia and Laxmi Puja pictures from London. Interestingly, one of my friend’s aunty in Israel watched Bhaitika in Nepal through skype and her brothers received etika from her through skype. Though a person is far from home, he/she is still connected with everyone and everywhere in the world due to the technological revolution. It reminds me of the online pooja system of worshipping Pashupatinath in Nepal which started few years ago. 

Some years ago, it was hard to find online Deusi and Bhailo songs for those who had been living abroad and missed Nepali culture and tradition during Tihar. Now, that has not been the case anymore. Youtube made it possible for all finds of videos and songs. The only thing is it needs an internet connection.

I wonder a lot thinking that if the size of the super computers could get minimized up to the size of laptops and even smaller those within less than a century, won’t it be possible for the time to see the password protected invisible electronic goods floating in the air as in the Sci-Fi channel? Scientific technology is presenting us with even more slimmer and smaller inventions. For now, all I can say is- ‘Everything is possible’. We just need to wait and see.