Well, this is not a mistake. I'm not talking about Man 'vs' Machine here but Man 'and' the Machine here. I don't think machines are bad and shouldn't have been there at all but I'm also a part of the clan who fear that too much mechanization may overpower Man.
Machines and more n more automated machines are ruling our world like never before. The amount of advancement Technology has done in past 5 years, it hasn't happened in even, perhaps, ten years before that. Just look around you and you'll see yourself so submerged into it that you've started doubting that life existed otherwise. We are the generation that grew up without telephone(even landline, forget mobile), cameras (forget digi-cams), for some of us, even cars.
Today, almost all of us are aspiring photographers who talk of DSLRs and camera modes on our pictures. We don't have just telephones but our integrated with Android et al. Well, as long as this technology was keeping to technology domain, it was fine but now, it has started inter-mingling with our day-to-day lives too. We're moving into the times when automation is creeping into our lives. The most innate part of our household is kitchen and to name a few, every kitchen which any of today's generation woman sets up has - a microwave-oven and a food processor...at the least.
Now, you would ask what's wrong with having a MWO or an FP? Well, I grew up in a house-hold where my mom used to spend hours in the kitchen to give us various stuff. Namak-paare, Aate ke laddoo, Til ke Laddoo, Gaajar ka Halwa. Ohh, I used to get the first share every time Mom cooked Gajar ka Halwa in the season. She would not make it unless I was home. Even today, when I visit her, she makes sure she makes it, even if it is in less quantity.
Now, in my kitchen, where I'm the cook, with all these amenities at my disposal, spending two hours in kitchen seems like a big head-ache to me. I don't feel like doing it. I feel the difference in the taste of my food when I cut the vegetables with my hand, and when I cut them using slicer of FP. You would call it foolish but I've actually felt the difference. I would never admit it if anyone else in the family said that to me, but no one else says it...I myself feel the difference.
Our generation has got so impatient because of these automations that rather than making any sweets at home, we prefer buying it from outside. Thanks to the IT Sector boom (which again is attributed to Automation), our salary has gone so high that we need not worry about small expenses like sweets. Our parents used to cook at home because that saved cost. We couldn't care less.
I don't know if any of you feel that way but I've always felt that the food gets better when the feelings go into it. If someone cooks with love and care, the food is bound to taste better. More Attention, Better Results. And if someone cooks half-heartedly, the dish can never taste good, even if it's cooked by an otherwise-expert.
We're on the threshold of the times when moms not only stop cooking sweets but also stop cooking at all, and keep maids to cook. Do you ever think maids can bring that love, that health that 'you' could? I am myself on the point where I am tempted to get a maid for cooking but from within my heart, I know, I won't be doing good to my family, my child especially.
And, this is not just for cooking, it holds true for all things that are mechanical yet have manual intervention. I feel the snaps that were taken by expert photographers were taken by manual camera. Even today, serious, passionate photographers are suggested to go as manual as possible for improving on their snaps.
I wonder how long will I be able to keep away from this automated-world.
Machines and more n more automated machines are ruling our world like never before. The amount of advancement Technology has done in past 5 years, it hasn't happened in even, perhaps, ten years before that. Just look around you and you'll see yourself so submerged into it that you've started doubting that life existed otherwise. We are the generation that grew up without telephone(even landline, forget mobile), cameras (forget digi-cams), for some of us, even cars.
Today, almost all of us are aspiring photographers who talk of DSLRs and camera modes on our pictures. We don't have just telephones but our integrated with Android et al. Well, as long as this technology was keeping to technology domain, it was fine but now, it has started inter-mingling with our day-to-day lives too. We're moving into the times when automation is creeping into our lives. The most innate part of our household is kitchen and to name a few, every kitchen which any of today's generation woman sets up has - a microwave-oven and a food processor...at the least.
Now, you would ask what's wrong with having a MWO or an FP? Well, I grew up in a house-hold where my mom used to spend hours in the kitchen to give us various stuff. Namak-paare, Aate ke laddoo, Til ke Laddoo, Gaajar ka Halwa. Ohh, I used to get the first share every time Mom cooked Gajar ka Halwa in the season. She would not make it unless I was home. Even today, when I visit her, she makes sure she makes it, even if it is in less quantity.
Now, in my kitchen, where I'm the cook, with all these amenities at my disposal, spending two hours in kitchen seems like a big head-ache to me. I don't feel like doing it. I feel the difference in the taste of my food when I cut the vegetables with my hand, and when I cut them using slicer of FP. You would call it foolish but I've actually felt the difference. I would never admit it if anyone else in the family said that to me, but no one else says it...I myself feel the difference.
Our generation has got so impatient because of these automations that rather than making any sweets at home, we prefer buying it from outside. Thanks to the IT Sector boom (which again is attributed to Automation), our salary has gone so high that we need not worry about small expenses like sweets. Our parents used to cook at home because that saved cost. We couldn't care less.
I don't know if any of you feel that way but I've always felt that the food gets better when the feelings go into it. If someone cooks with love and care, the food is bound to taste better. More Attention, Better Results. And if someone cooks half-heartedly, the dish can never taste good, even if it's cooked by an otherwise-expert.
We're on the threshold of the times when moms not only stop cooking sweets but also stop cooking at all, and keep maids to cook. Do you ever think maids can bring that love, that health that 'you' could? I am myself on the point where I am tempted to get a maid for cooking but from within my heart, I know, I won't be doing good to my family, my child especially.
And, this is not just for cooking, it holds true for all things that are mechanical yet have manual intervention. I feel the snaps that were taken by expert photographers were taken by manual camera. Even today, serious, passionate photographers are suggested to go as manual as possible for improving on their snaps.
I wonder how long will I be able to keep away from this automated-world.
Knowing that you are juggling between, work, motherhood and being a wife, celebrating a little part of being a human, woman no matter how and why you indulge yourself doesn't matter. Even if we are becoming mechanical, let it be! That's one reason why blogging happened to us. The good and the bad both happen, concentrate on good....ignore the bad and move on.
ReplyDeletesometimes we need to give up on certain things if we want to hold on to ourselves even in small fragments...it is sad but true. The days when my cook goes for leave, I cannot blog, teach with ease or even manage to sit till half the day is done. I'd rather have him than me being lost....
ReplyDeleteThanks Ashwini. You are the only one agreeing to my view point I see. :P It's perhaps because you're still a bachelor while others are married :) :P
ReplyDeleteMaybe you also switch sides when you come to the hot seat. If you still maintain your position, I would appreciate the comment much further :)
Unable to put a reply in the 'Reply' tab. Something got into the website or my company's internet policies @#$^$%!^#
ReplyDeleteAnyways.
@Chintan: How do you differentiate b/w good and bad? How do you differentiate b/w selfish and self-less? My basis, my life's parameters, base-lines are all screwed up. I'm almost daily reminded or showed that I'm a pretty-relaxed lady who does little of house-hold work, and rather, likes to shun it. So, I don't know if bringing in any way of reducing my work-load is my attempt to further shun work, or it's really an honest attempt to get some more time for the woman in me. I've stopped understanding what is my right, what is their right, and what is the real right. Seriously screwed up!
@Suruchi: You get closest to the ordeal I face. That is perhaps because you live in somewhat the same situation...with family, child, being wife....being someone when you want to be someone/something else...much more. I agree that cooking or any kind of automation gives you some more time for yourself. But, I think what I need more is the freedom to use my free time, than free time. I'm rather happy to be occupied now than to be free, and being constantly scrutinized on how long am gonna take time off. There are times when I wish to do something of my interest but I never get to do it. Not because someone stops me, but because I want to do it peacefully, 'alone'. I am dying for some 'alone' time. And then I'll decide what are the activities I keep in my timetable and what all I chuck, to take out time for the woman in me. You can't do that with yourself being under constant vigil.