Monday evening 7pm : After lot of persuasion and pleading the 5year old in the house finally sat down to recap the Hindi alphabets. He goes to Upper KG and the pressure of studies is already on him (well that's altogether a different topic of discussion). Next day, at school there's going to be Hindi revision. He starts writing the alphabets, uttering every letter correctly. He goes on till the end and exclaims "Complete !!". Well, he was writing the letters right below the exercise he did at school. Now the real test. Closed book. He raised his objection which quickly got overruled.
He started uttering the alphabets without seeing the book. He got stuck after the 5th alphabet. Re-try...stuck after the 10th...excuses of headache...old trick...re-try...stuck after the 8th alphabet...he gets to read through the book one last time and starts again....stuck after the 12th....stuck after the 10th.....excuse of stomachache...stuck after the 8th....its not working !!!
We got his black board and wrote the alphabets with a chalk in a 5 column matrix and asked him to read through the alphabets written on the black board. He was instructed not to mug up, but to consider it as a picture on the black board and simply try to create an image in his mind. Hearing that, he got up from his chair, stood in front of the black board and started pulling the skin of his forehead, pausing for 2-3 seconds and pressing it back. I was expecting that I will soon hear the words "amar mathata khub betha korche (I am having a severe headache)". Patience ran off and ready to give-up, I asked him what's going on. Prompt came the answer, "Dad, I am taking my mind out, storing the image and putting it back" and that was through an expression of disgust, as if I should have known. I was taken aback and started to wonder where did he get that idea from. I have read about researches in Neural Engineering on chips for the human brain. But never talked to him on that subject, nor has he started reading Calvin and Hobbes. May be he has seen something on the mindless Japanese cartoons or the Power Rangers or god knows what all he sees on TV.
Wondering where will technology take mankind in a few years. These kids are so ready for it already, where as we will be struggling to cope up. Like in our times, internet has become a matter of fact in our day to day communication, where as our parents struggle with it and we expect them to get savvy.
Well, I would not be surprised if at the age of 10, this boy one day comes back home with a USB stick sticking out of his forehead and talking to me in the lost language of Bo or with a radio device sticking out of his head and he is communicating with his friends while talking to me about my health and chewing a pill to quench his thirst.
Endless possibilities......
