Wednesday, August 14, 2024

A Happy 78th year of independence. Really?!

A few years ago, Bollywood celebrity Aamir Khan shared a personal conversation with his then-wife Kiran Rao about feeling unsafe in India and considering relocating. They were harshly criticized, labeled as traitors, simply because they were public figures. Yet, many Indian families have similar discussions daily.

As an ordinary citizen, I'm proud of my culture and heritage, but I find the country increasingly unbearable. I'm fearful for my loved ones—my daughter, mother, toddler, and friends.

On India's 78th Independence Day, I question whether we truly deserve this independence. We’ve always been told India is the world’s largest democracy, but is democracy even functioning anymore? Theoretically, yes; practically, no.

Inhumane behavior is escalating daily. Rape. A crime which in itself is gruesome. There was a time when the 'girls' were labelled as reasons to call for rape as they would wear 'provocative' cloths and mingle with men. Can an infant be wearing provocative cloths? Can a wheelchair bound 80 years old lady be wearing provocative cloths? Can a little boy be the reason for the 'invitation' to sexually molest him? Can a doctor on duty be calling for a brutal rape? Not just that, but with glass shreds, needles, cigarette butts and what not in her private parts? I mean, what goes on in the minds of such perverts? The cruelty is unimaginable. As I write this, I'm trembling with anger and fear after reading about yet another rape case in Kolkata.


Despite celebrating Indian women's achievements, many still consider daughters a burden and uphold regressive traditions like dowry. Educated or ambitious women are expected to bear the sole responsibility for home and family, while men are allowed to rest because they "provide." We are in 2024, yet these archaic mindsets persist. We worship goddesses but continue to oppress and harm women in real life.

"How dare she is fulfilling her dreams."

The roots of our problems lie in two areas: India's history of colonization and an uneducated population (not just in literacy but true education). Years of being ruled have embedded a "hoard money and power" mentality in our DNA, something that can’t easily be changed. Those with access to money exploit it, while others, desperate, resort to inhumane lengths to get it.

Our uneducated population believes in endless reproduction, preferring male offspring regardless of the consequences. This has led to a severe imbalance: more people, fewer jobs, and a growing number of egotistical, unemployed males who feel entitled to act out violently.

In our 78th year of independence, India has become an angry, unhappy, unsafe, and corrupt nation. Concrete jungles replace green ones, and jealousy and perversion are rampant. Yet, those who speak out are labeled traitors.

I’m immensely proud of my country, but I am also a stressed and sad woman, still striving for a safe, successful, and happy life here.

Thursday, April 4, 2024

Just how much is too much?!

A couple of months back I had joined an online course on Digital Content Writing and our trainer decided to have an icebreaking session by throwing in a topic for our discussion - AI: can it replace the writers/authors and content writers? My take on it was that any creative field will always look for the human, emotional touch and cannot and should not be replaced by any technology. The hardcore writers still prefer to pick up their pen and paper to write. For non-creative fields, it can definitely be a big helpful technology.

Though I had zero idea about AI or ChatGPT till that day, we had gradually been introduced to this tool to keep ourselves upgraded, with a caution: always be a writer at heart. Use AI as a helper.

However, there are few who would use caution. In a competitive world, I know those in this field who blatantly use AI to 'create the original content' before anyone else does. Still, creating content may seem like a harmless usage of AI. It gets ugly when those with the criminal mindset grab any latest technology to rob people of their hard earned money and respect.

We were all enjoying AI generated images of celebs - the cast of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. if they wore Indian ethnic, Avengers on Indian streets, Ed Shereen enjoying Indian street food, 'living' Ram lalla idol, and so on. But it soon turned out to be a nightmare for celebrities and several people when their morphed and AI generated images were used for not-so-pleasant purposes and obviously, without their consent.  A few months ago, a well known music composer of the Indian music industry created a duet song using the AI generated voice of two late veteran singers and though divided reactions, but a lot of people were in awe of what this new technology could do.

"We could literally keep on getting blessed with new songs in the voice of our favourite singers even when they are long gone. Being made 'amar' in true sense"

Now the same technology is creating havoc when people with criminal bend of mind are generating voice of your loved ones begging to save their lives by giving money to these impersonators!

I read about it a few weeks ago. One morning, I just watched a reel by the Tech expert Rajiv Makhni on how criminals are posing as CBI or Narcotics officers and claiming that your family member has committed a gruesome crime and if you want them to not get tangled in the web of police and court hearings, pay a certain amount of money. I downloaded this reel to share with my family and guess what, my father told that my first cousin just had a narrow escape with his quick thinking. Another cousin of mine had also got such call about his son. Luckily at that very moment, his son was sitting right next to him. But they were lucky. Everyone is not. Criminals have siphoned off lakhs of money by misusing this technology.

Many months back I had watched a video where the man removed the SIM card from his mobile and even switched it off and roamed about in the entire city throughout the day. Still, at the end of the day, his phone had the entire details about where all he went.

Can I just throw away my 'smartphone' which is literally listening to me all the time? Probably, smartphones are better listeners than our husbands! Jokes apart, even if I would want to throw it away, I don't think I can. Every communication whether it is from banks, schools, offices etc are on Whatsapp. People are being discouraged from 'crowding' institutions. Do as much online as you can. Even the artists now have to use the social media to reach out to the larger audience. On one hand, government is encouraging digital transactions. On the other hand, well known and some of the biggest companies in the world are selling our data.

'Once you have created a digital footprint, you become a part of the web. You cannot escape. Every movement of yours is seen, every word that you speak is heard, even every thought in your mind is being read.'

Its like a few extremely intelligent people all around the world work really hard to solve the problems of the world using the technology and even before the world could start seeing the benefits of those inventions, the criminals start working on the crimes that they are going to commit using these latest sophisticated technologies. We step on those marshy patches to use these advancements and by the time we realise that we are getting trapped, its too late to come out of it. Who knew that mobiles which were extremely bulky and expensive and owned by the exclusive set of people would one day enslave the entire world?

Sometimes I just wonder about how much technology is too much technology?