How internet shrunk the world and made us global citizens.

We take much for granted today as we race towards a digitally connected world, thanks to the Internet; the internet is less then 50 years old and has transformed every aspect of our life.

The telegram is dead in most parts of the world and its successor the fax machine is on its way out  ; I remember getting my intimation for my job interview in the early 80's by telegram, fitting in a legible message with the least number of worlds in telegrams was an art. You paid per word for a telegram; verbosity was a luxury. Also there was the noisy teleprinter which was a dedicated point to point messaging systems and we needed special skills to operate the telex machines, these were known as telex operators.  Later these telex machines did get electronics and a computer inter-phase, but even that did not save them from extinction. 

In the old days you had to wait for many years to get a land line telephone else you went to a post office to make a call, long distance calls were known as trunk calls and were metered for a duration of 3 minutes, so brevity was the key to save on the cost. Foreign calls were also through trunk calls and it was a major event when a relative called from another country in the old days.  Later on we had in India the STD (Subscribed trunk dialing) which put many trunk call booking operators out of work and you could call anyone by clicking a code from your phone, post office or a STD booth. Then came the mobile revolution for voice and then finally today we have the smart phone and even toddlers have their connectivity. 

Today we use Twitter for real time communication instead of the telegram. We can address the world real time and share our thoughts , ideas and news.  Voice  communication has move to IP telephony, you can do a voice chat for free for hours in most places of the world through a Skype and a keyboard chat on  Google Chat or Microsoft Live and if you like text you have the BBM and  WhatsApp etc... Everyone is available on real time to send or receive messages.

Of course the email too has changed our lives, though it slowly losing its sheen to social media and chat rooms; email continues in business as a mode of communication, But on the personal front Social Media leads the way. Without social media I will not be able to publish or share this blog post. 

Where does this take us next, the world is shrinking and the common man can reach to any citizen of the world on the digital highway, this allows free flow of thoughts and ideas and gives humanity a platform to share, create and agree or dissent.  

This is impacting the world power structure as we have defined it, especially the pace is accelerated by Social Media and one sincerely hopes it will help break barriers, prejudices and makes us all global citizens of one World. 

All this would not have been possible without the Internet and the waves of innovation that have ridden on it as the backbone.

An Indian Engagement in a global world with a little help from Technology

Unlike many parts of the world  the Indian Marriage still take a traditional route whether arranged of the prospective partners decide to marry themselves. With the Indian diaspora  setting their footprint globally technology comes to the rescue again. 

Let us start with the matchmaking, it is more complex then the song in the Movie Fiddler on the Roof "Matchmaker", though the criteria remains about the same. Here are the lyrics to the Matchmaker Song : http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/fiddlerontheroof/matchmaker.htm

After the match making is done mainly through matrimony websites dedicated for this purpose which are complex matching engines and then a number of meetings between the parents and the concerned couple it is finally decided and announce it is an YES. Then come the engagement ceremony, which is today's post.  

The engagement ceremony normally takes place in the groom's residence , a priest is called to first pray to the gods and then a contract or what is known  'lagna patrika' is drawn and announced containing  the date, time and venue of the marriage and is binding on both families. The bride's family brings fruits and sweetmeats and the groom's people in  serve them snacks and dinner and present a sari to the bride. And also the bride then wears the new sari and ornaments presented and then the boy and girl exchange the ring.

In a global world when the boy and girl are in another continent and the parents still want to continue with this ritual there is a challenge and that is when SKYPE again comes to the rescue. 

Skype supports low video and voice and is Free and so here is the Indian engagement in a global world. 

The priest and parents go through the rituals in India and the couple who are not in India then participate through Skype, they can see the event and also they can be seen in the large Television provided for this telecast. Then when the turn comes for the girl and boy to go through their piece of rituals, presto the action shifts to the Television.

Thousands of miles away the girl, boy and their friend and relatives have assembled to participate in this event, they do their bit by changing garlands, changing rings and whatever else is needed all through Skype.

The engagement is over and the food and sweets are served to the guests in India and the foreign location and tradition has won again thanks to technology.

Welcome to an Indian engagement in global world, with a little help from Technology and an matching time to match both time zones for all to participate in the event.  

We all cherish our traditions and why give it up when time and distance can be compressed by Technology. 

 

 

 

Arranged Marriages in the Cloud

India is a nation which is progressive and has a large middle class population who enjoy the benefits of this fast growing economy. But when it comes to marriage most of India relies on Arranged Marriages which binds communities together with similar traditions, language, dietary preferences, dressing , attitudes and more.
In the old days when communities were more local and not widespread Indians had the Matchmaker who would bring families together through marriages.
A good description of the matchmaker is the song from the movie Fiddler on the Roof :

Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match
(courtesy : http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/fiddlerontheroof/matchmaker.htm)

Indian arranged marriages Wikepedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arranged_marriage_in_the_Indian_subcontinent

With an Indian diaspora with global dispersion the Indian arranged marriage has become a challege to deliver.

The finalization of the Indian arranged marriage is  the engagement ceremony  followed by the lavish wedding a few months later, a cooling period between the two  partners to make sure it is all going to work out.

Harmony is essential for Indian Marriages. 

I was in an engagement last week of an Indian arranged marriage and the girl and boy were in fine spirits. They discovered each other on a matrimonial website (maybe hosted on the cloud) and it matched all the criteria set out by them and their families for their future life partners  This was the first step of identification of prospective life partners.
Then it was the Facebook connection, the chatting  and the sharing of the photographs. The girl and boy met only about a week before the engagement. The boy was in the Silicon valley  and the girl was in Mumbai.
But  they  spent hours chatting with each other to make sure they were meant for each other and  their marriage would work for them, the outcome  of weeks of online socializing and online commitment was the engagement ceremony.
The boy sang a song  which was the clincher for the acceptance from the girl, wow how did he do that with 10000 miles of separation. When I asked the couple about how they could sing to each other, hey gave me a quizzical look, have you not used Skype.
The Indian arranged marriage has all its tools for its trade in the internet, the matrimonial website, Facebook, Google for discovery and Skype, everything that is needed for two hearts to meet and culminate in matrimony.

Thank you cloud computing for keeping the Indian Matrimonial process effective in a digital world.