mark zuckerberg is my god, facebook is my religion!

The signpost read Mountain View, California. Nestled in the breezy environment of the Charleston Park, the five hundred thousand square feet compound was the Promised Land for any software techie. To the dim-witted postman, it was 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway. To the rest of the world, it was Googleplex. With all esteem and veneration, the Googleplex! Or the worldwide headquarters of the Google Corporation! And ruling it was technology czar Larry Page.

Tonight, he was a proud man. His Google Earth research team had improvised the existing software such that users could now view the planet as it had been 24 hours before…A MERE 24 HOURS PREVIOUSLY. A perfectionist by birth, Larry was determined to ensure that this application turned out flawless. He typed his first query “Vatican City” and two seconds later, he could hear the bells outside St.Peter’s Square clanging twelve. Great! His second request took him to the Ashes at the Lord’s. Fantastic!

To triple-ensure the infallibility of the software, he keyed in his last and final query “Maryland Sports Centre” and two seconds later, the image beamed on Larry’ desk. Larry’ brows furrowed. His smile creased. He zoomed into the image and the frustration persisted. He had expected to see youngsters cycling; playing baseball, working out and so on but what stared at him was empty courts, rusty sports equipment and a few solitary trees. This set Larry thinking. Was it a technical glitch? Possible. Or did it convey something more serious? Are playgrounds becoming more and more desolate by the day? Are kids no longer playing?

Brussels, New Delhi, Jakarta…the playfields in these cities wore the same deserted look. It confirmed Larry’s hunch that this situation went beyond a common software glitch. Children were indeed keeping off parks and race tracks. The software proved it beyond any doubt. But why?

Could it be studies? Feasible…but 24*7 marathon studying would drive the most sincere and fanatical of students crazy! Parental coercion? One kid, yes, ten, possible, hundreds, might be…but thousands across the world? Preposterous!

Or was it simply that youngsters no longer cared for the dust, sweat and blood of the play areas? Has the progress and advancement of the modern era come to mean an age of lethargy, inactivity and indoor imprisonment? Have adventure, exploration, sports and games taken a backseat? Three Olympics down the line, will we ever have another Michael Phelps, another Nadal or Usain Bolt? Will we, ladies and gentlemen?

Orkut, Connect, Myspace, Friendfinder, this is how the world communicates today. With the world going digital, our lives have increasingly become computer-centred. Computers at home, computers at office, computers at school, life seems to have been redefined to running from one silicon box to another. The joys of love, the bloom of sunflowers, the frustrations of road-side traffic, are our kids missing them all? With the coming of the Internet, our games are hosted on online servers; our conversations communicated over Skype, our sleepovers on Yahoo chatrooms…all from the comfort of our bed. Ought we ignore the loving care and affection of our family and seek instead the pokes and testimonials of strangers? Must our gaiety be dictated by number of notifications we receive? Should our popularity be determined by the number of profile visits we have had? Have we started leading two lives…a physical one on Earth and a more fascinating demanding one online? Are we slowly sinking into this virtual quagmire which we have created? Are we?

No, no and no! Ladies and Gentlemen, the woeful stinking stories that we’ve heard till now is a classic example of the human mind’s ability to make a mountain out of a molehill. Stay off the net, lose out on its countless advantages, let’s go back to living in caves and living off trees…surely, the words of a dogmatic individual, bigoted, parochial and obstinate. Furthermore, it represents our inability to utilize the benefits offered by science and technology and our nagging predilection to blame everything around us for our failures.

Freidrich Schiller once opined “Time flies on restless pinions - constant never”. How very true! Amidst our fast-paced lives, rushing from one place to another, meeting one deadline after another, we rarely find the time to socialize or spend time with one’s family. The fact that we live in nuclear families scattered across the world does little to help us. Enter social networking! Emails, instant messaging, tweets, connect with the world anywhere anytime. All this and more, just with an email! And the icing on the cake…it can be done alongside homework, assignments, and school projects. Calculus and Classmates can be real compatible!

Cocktail parties, Saturday night sleepovers, beach holidays, Pottermania fan clubs…how many friendships can these forge? Ten, fifty, hundred? Log on to facebook, update your profile, reach out to people, you’ll be astounded by the number of people you meet. Shared passions, mutual friends, common interests…social networking exposes you to the lifestyles and cultures of hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. Cousins at Harvard, dads at Dubai, friends from New Zealand…social networking brings them all straight to your home, to your desk, to you simplifying the distance, strengthening your relations. Just as if we are with them, breathing the air, walking the road, living their lives…

Half our evenings and most of our nights are spent Orkutting and Facebooking. This virtual presence can serve as more than a mere distraction for students. With teachers joining sites such as Facebook, schooling can take to an all-new level. Educators can merge academics with technology and make education all the more worthwhile. Teachers can be more attentive to every student’s needs, attend to their queries faster, and the teacher-student barrier can be overcome. The Oracle ThinkQuest Initiative is an example of how social networking, contrary to popular opinion, can actually aid and enforce education.

“Gossip-machine! Rumor funnel! Needless distraction”…

Ladies and Gentlemen, these are some fancy titles social networking has earned for itself. True, social networking does offer a platform to discuss glitz, glamour and girls. However, that’s not all that there is! Online websites, if properly used, can make people aware, educate them, empower them. Green drives, global issues, health advisories, consumer rights…social networking has carried such thoughtful messages too. Twitter, for example, has changed the destiny of a nation. Not India, not China, not America, but a remote republic in Eastern Europe. Moldova. A nation where governmental autocracy combined with police atrocities threatened to bury the seed of democracy forever. It would have succeeded but for Twitter. Twitter organized the revolutionaries; it lent a voice to them, spread their tale far and wide, and brought international attention to the debacle in Moldova. Thus, a mere website turned out to be the unifying force behind millions exposing barbarism and bringing in democracy. Does social networking still deserve the cheap tags we have coined for it?

What would you do if you wanted to reach out to hundreds of millions of people across the world overnight? Despatch postcards? Make phone calls? Front page advertisements on the Strait Times? Or simply go online? Knowledge is power. Information is the true liberator. In this information-hungry world, social networking sites remain a source of extensive information. From the NBA to the Indian Premier League, everyone remains convinced of the reach of social networking. Barack Obama’s election campaign, NUS’s undergraduate admissions, PETA’s animal welfare plans, social networking is the solution! Employers searching for prospective employees, girls looking for guys, imagine all this and more minus social networking…Impossible!

Opportunities don’t just walk one’s way. They are created. Social networking offers its users a platform to exhibit their talents. Facebook and Friendster combined have discovered more poets in this world than all English lecturers put together. In online portals, the stage is set, the mikes switched on, the audience ready…all that is required is you. Show this world what you can do and you’ll be stunned by the heights it can take you!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we live in an age where it isn’t just what we know that matters. As a matter of fact, who we know, who knows us are frankly more important. And social networking sites do exactly that! They create a new world around you. A world of countless opportunities, a world of infinite friends, a world of limitless knowledge, and a world beyond cultural and national divides! Let not the fears of couch potato-ism deny social networking its true worth! Let us welcome the opportunities of the 21st century with a broader mind!

Mark Zuckerberg is our God, and Facebook indeed our religion!

doctors' day speech

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’m R.Sathish and I stand before you on this glorious evening to speak a little, well, not so little on the vital doctor-patient relationship prevalent in our society.

Last Wednesday, after much cajoling and threatening, my mum coaxed me into taking the much-feared medical check-up. I confess, medicines and I have never been best of buddies. Stray dogs, screaming dads, poochandis, paiyes and chandramukhis have never frightened me, but a tiny little prick with that needle can, to use the popular phrase, “beat the hell outta me”. I don’t know why, but it takes me 25 litres of water and double that amount of courage to gulp down a simple Crocin. At my dear old paati who has the pleasure or rather the horror of taking half a dozen pills a day, I can only stare in awe and amazement. Bravo, paati, bravo, I’m proud of you!

Half an hour later, amma and me valadukal-edhutufied into our general practitioner’s clinic and it was no different from what I had imagined. Plastered to the wall was this huge poster, “Cigarette Smoking Is Injurious To Health”, surrounded by tiny adverts singing the glories of half a dozen pharmaceutical wonder drugs. And of course, there was the 27-around receptionist akka, the TV on top with the funky hair dude on Sun Music, thathas and paatis complaining of “kannu mangala irukku”, mamas and mamis about BP and cholesterol, and to add a tinge of life and animation to this otherwise boring scene, were the little kiddos of all ages and sizes moving around restlessly.

If looks can kill, believe me, the doors in washrooms and those outside doctors’ rooms would be first in line. The fierce horrible looks these wooden frames receive would humble the most obstinate of individuals. The looks of those rushing is best described in my mother’s words as “Usuru pogaramari”, and the looks of those leisurely strolling out can be described as “moksham kadachamaari”.

Eventually, the much-stared-at door creaked open, and the expectations of everyone surged. The receptionist enjoyed her one moment of glory and took her own sweet time before feasting her eyes on me. “Sir, neenga poonga”, she echoed softly. Mr.Sundar and family walked out, relieved and reassured. Sonu, their son, was down with a bout of fever and god forbid, the doctor had diagnosed it as nothing more than an ordinary fever. Not malaria, not typhoid, just a mild ordinary fever. Medicines. Two days rest. No ice creams. 200 Rupees. Sonu’s ordeal was over.

Reality check, ladies and gentlemen! Is that all? Does the role of a doctor end with two worthless pieces of paper? The concern, care and efforts of a doctor, are these menial things bought when required and discarded when not? When a doctor scribbles his signature across a prescription, is he indeed penning it on a divorce application, alienating himself from his patient forever? Beautifully phrased as “vennumna vechhukaradu, illena thookipodaradu?”, are the services of a medical specialist yet another stock on the stock exchange? Are they, ladies and gentlemen?

A doctor’s role is one that is accompanied by remarkable selflessness, sincerity and extraordinary skill. Be it an ordinary paramedic, or a world-famous neurologist, doctors are on call 24*7, ignoring personal commitments, avoiding material pleasures, striving hard to alleviate your disease and discomfort. They are those agents of God, who deliver life from the crushing tentacles of death. A mother cares only about the well-being of her child. On the contrary, a doctor chooses to dedicate his life and career to ensuring the physical and mental well-being of thousands around him. It is the doctor who, with a combination of knowledge, experience and skill, works tirelessly to decode the enigma that is plaguing your body and usher in much-needed respite thus exhausting himself, physically, mentally and emotionally in the process. However, by forgetting this service once our illness is cured, aren’t we, ladies and gentlemen, being self-centered? For a person who has saved our soul from the evil clutches of death, doesn’t he DESERVE a more humane treatment? Should he be discarded from our lives not unlike a used napkin, his purpose served, life outlived? If not as an individual, doesn’t his work at least merit respect, appreciation and acclamation?

Doctors have affected the lives of millions worldwide. From Siamese twins to congenital heart disorders, they have corrected and reconstructed the lives of hundreds and thousands of people. I don’t advocate you worship only “life-saving professionals” like your cardiologist or ophthalmologist, even your family physician, when seen in proper light is worthy of your prayers. Every morning, when you say your prayers, remember God doesn’t come down on earth to save you. The altruistic souls who guide you every time when you are lost, those people who come to your aid when you are in need, they are the true incarnations of God! Remember, your God isn’t in the temples. He isn’t in the churches, nor in the gurudwaras or in the mosques. He is also an human being, racing from one checkpoint to another in this insurmountable race called life. He lives and breathes, like you and me. He is dressed in white, and lives not far from you. He is none another than your doctor!

Ladies and gentlemen, on this glorious day, let’s all promise to lend these gentlemen-in-white the credit they have for long deserved. A game of chess, an invitation to your daughter’s marriage, a surprise birthday party, let us make doctors a part of our family, a soul who attends to not only our sickness and sorrows, but also celebrates with us our victories, triumphs and joys. Let’s take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate the benevolence, magnanimity and charity of our neighbors in white.

To every single doctor in this world, I raise my hand in admiration and adulation. You have played a very crucial role in maintaining the peace and harmony in this world. You have been doing a marvelous job and I urge you to continue playing this wonderful role for generations to come. Great work, gentlemen!

And thank you one and all for being such an awesome audience!

Good day!

<This is the speech I delivered at the Indian Science Monitor organised BC Roy Memorial Award Function at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Auditorium, Mylapore, Chennai on the 1st of July 2010>