All but Numbers !!

Scorching sun, this February afternoon, and we were walking down to our towers after lunch. Anitha and me...Vatsala auntie(I fear to call her by single name! ..though many of my colleagues have told that I should do so..because I am just not comfortable with that idea..she being my Mom's age!)found her way to the bank behind the office. We strolled till Anithas's tower counting things that life had to offer during the weekend; her family..mine..and the problems associated. With a heavy heart left for the work, she to her and me to mine. Walking down few steps Vatsala auntie came and patted me, I was quite astonished to find her back so early, or were we talking so long..time flew it seemed!!

The she came up with the entire story of the work she had. She had locked her account by forgetting the PIN no. at the ATM. She had requested for it and got the same processed.Ohh..that was it! I wondered; So many PIN nos., passwords, account nos, driviling license no., PAN no., house no.,employee no., what all and what not! Then I really wondered, what place - a mentally-ill person or a person terrifically struck with tragedy in life, got blank somehow - at all had in this world full of numbers; she agreed; said its as good as been dead. Then she validated the point by exemplary illustration of the US Security system wherein if one does not get oneself enrolled in there, its just analogous with one not existing at all; If not all is over then, we have that mobile company 'idea'- wherein each one of the group is refered by a mobile no; "what an idea Sirji"!!We are all but numbers ..she lamented!! (I duly thanked her, there and then for giving me this caption!)


I just reminded her, of some time back when we had a good laugh over the mechanisation and the thorough computer literates that we all had become. We were just using the computer terminology for very simple things in life. The other day I was telling her about the girl who had got locked in the restroom in the dormetry; and how I rescued her. No big deal; but felt sorry for that girl and again for myself along with the entire human race; she expressed my emotions in one precise phrase- "loss of human touch" she was humourous; "what should be done in such kind of emergencies? Log a call in the HRweb/Raise a request/Goto a question of answers/Search in FAQs..????what? " ..So true. she had put it exactly.


Taking liberty of divulging from the topic, I dont know how come I take pleasure in the company of matured people. Some-one of her age, or the friend I made at the German class, or Anitha(though 1-yr senior to me!!..she has enough maturity)..or even before- the college times when I used to enjoy with the aged Physicist and go round with my lecturers and seniors rather than wasting time on the 'kuttas' with a group of friends. I always seek fulfillment and comfort in older, senior people; don't know why..perhaps..they called me 'grannie' in school too! I never minded!!

Coming back to where I left, I conclude- the human touch is lost, though not entirely, but on the verge of annhilation. I worry we don't call each other by numbers as shown in the advertisement! "what's is their in name?"..the lord of literature Shakespeare quoted! though true; I feel that's what make us humans; or for that matter living things..Or if not, then why is it that a toddler often refrains from uttering its name to some stranger- I guess when it utters its name, it feels as if it is giving out a part of itself. Yes we are all abstract creatures and I believe our names hold the most of us...!! Something which cannot be measured in NUMBERS !!


"Prisoners of their own device do not really deserve names;
Long live the rebels!!!"