Microstory 115 – Digital Education
Digital learning and entertaining is happening all around us and it is influencing us in more ways than one. My wife purchased a course as there was a deal in Udemy. Then she noticed that I can also learn as well. On a particular subject, my daughter also had a similar interest and so my wife bought it as both of them can learn from the same platform. As a family, we are learning to learn together. These days classroom lessons are beamed into our study rooms, livings rooms, kitchens and that make me wonder: did I study all these during my prime days?
Microstory 116 – Act of Kindness
It was a Sunday evening when my wife and I decided to go for a quick walk around the apartment. It started drizzling and so we fastened our pace and took shelter in the grocery store inside our apartment complex. They were the people who against all odds kept the regular supply on during the lockdown days. So we picked some essentials and I was in the queue for payment. I noticed that there was nobody on the other end to receive the payment. To maintain social distancing they normally keep the vegetables and fruits in boxes in rows outside the shop. so that people can just pick them up easily without crowding. Since the rain was in full force I noticed that they were covering the remaining groceries particularly the vegetables and fruits and were carrying the rest into the small van as they had decided to close for the day. It was taking time and I was restless. I had to make a decision. Should I help out or not? I decided to jump in and started picking up the boxes. It increased the pace at which the boxes were loaded inside the tempo.
Later in the evening, my wife shared that while you were giving that helping hand one lady who was standing next to her was feeling good and she also started covering some things which were there, from the rain. It reminded me of a short clip from Simon Sinek. I thought about why I did what I did. I came across these two thoughts. One was that I always felt indebted for their service during those tough times. The other was that my father would have done it as well.
Microstory 118 – Show – Piece
One day my daughter was commenting on how I was typing so fast. It was fascinating for her to see how I could dance my fingers all across the keyboard. She is from a generation where if they want to watch a programme, they will take the remote from me and instead of pressing the buttons on Amazon prime remote she will press one button and say the name of the programme so that it recognises. They prefer voice recognition over typing. I had to tell her that in those days there was something called a typewriter and during one of those holidays my mother asked me to learn typing from typewriting institute close to our house. So I went for a couple of classes. Later, working with DOS commands gave me some command over typing. The best part of the conversation was when she asked, ” Is typewriter some kind of an App?” I told her we didn’t have smartphones when we were born. Her eyes rolled over with disbelief. I promised her that I will show the picture of a typewriter on google. We have come to a time and place when I will have to give a voice command to show the picture of a typewriter!
