Tech handicap

My mom could not switch on her own TV till the time she was an empty nester- everytime she asked one of her resident birds to do it for her until they flew away. Then finally, I don’t know she mastered the process of switching the TV on, using the remote and flipping the channels. The same applied to using the new mixer/grinder. She would be so scared of pressing the buttons to grind/puree her masalas and tomatoes as if the jar would somehow explode on her.She would wait for somebody to come and do it for her, no matter how long her meals are delayed for that.I taught her a thousand times but she would still not do it.

When she got her cellphone, it was as if that small device dictated all her attention. If that commander rings, she would drop anything she was doing to attend to it.It was more like a wailing baby to her who would pass out if left crying for a second. Mom, you don’t have to do that you know, you can check who called you and call them right back. Eventually she mastered the cellphone and I suggested buying a newer model  for her and she put her foot down, referring to all the time she had invested in learning to use this one.

And today I shamefully admit of not being able to switch my TV on. It is just so complicated- cable ON,TV ON, change SOURCE etc etc that I lose my  salt-grain sized patience and yell for Ishaan to come and switch it ON.What mom, you cant even do that?But then he looks at my flaming eyes and demonstrates for the zillionth time the whole process.That  moment makes him feel so intelligent and tech-savvy and indispensable.

 As if the TV wasn’t a load of woe enough for burying me, P shows all of his little pea-sized care for me by buying smart things for me – smart car loaded with GPS,parking assistant, auto wipers  that freak me out by ghost-starting themselves at a single raindrop and everything  else I don’t use and operate; the smart phone whose intelligence bugs me so much that I might break it someday. And then Ishaan tells me every day –mom here’s a cool phone app you’ll love and I give him a stare that reaches his bone marrow and he shuts up mid-sentence. And on top of it-the ignorant me demands from P why he did not buy a car charger for my phone and he says – “Madam, your car has a plug-in for that.” 

That made me feel like an old day looking for her glasses when they are still perched up on her head.

And how can I forget the macbook he gifted to me on my birthday!!It makes me feel like going to a computer basics class where they teach copy-paste because ctrl-C, ctrl-V don’t work on it. There’s no left-click,right-click and there’s no scroll bar!!

There’s only so much I can learn and this gadget requires unlearning which is not my forte.

Also I believe that every woman does become her mother and I am in an advanced stage of metamorphosis.