Maaaaaaaaaaaaaa...
I am teaching my mom how to use the computer these days. My sister is at the University of Melbourne, studying architecture, and I thought that teaching mom how to use the comp would be a good idea now, so she can communicate with my sister without my assistance.First, some background info on mum-she is quite the quintessential, sentimental mom, loves to stuff me with food till I am on the verge of bursting and then a little more. I think that should suffice for now.
She had her first lesson on Monday. I asked her to start with switching on the machine. She sat there with a pen and paper in her hand, writing down everything I said starting from switching on the machine to connect to internet by clicking on AccessRunnerDSL. Then click twice on Internet Explorer. One of her biggest doubts is where should she click once and where should she do a double click.
On a separate thread, it got me thinking as to how I went about learning to use the computer. I guess it must have been in school, when I was about 10 or 12, in the computer lab, with four of us sharing a single machine and jostling with each other trying our best to get our hands on the Holy Grail- the mouse. Somebody would make a mistake and the other three would instantly scamper towards the computer teacher and complain vociferously about the injustice of it all. At that age, definitions of justice were so much easier to form, rivalries had a very short shelf life and Dean Jones was GOD.
Back to the topic of my mom learning the comp, despite her repeated attempts at pulling the plunger on the right of the page down in order to scroll down, she was unable to do it and suddenly I screamed in frustration. I don't know why but instantly I felt a sickening feeling within me. What if she had done the same thing when I was growing up, trying to findmy way around things, failing a number of times and succeeding sometimes. But she was always patient, always encouraging and whenever I fell and looked up at her, I was greeted with that cherubic smile. So I started again and she sent her first mail yesterday, the excitement within her was palpable and I just stood there smiling at her.
She had her first lesson on Monday. I asked her to start with switching on the machine. She sat there with a pen and paper in her hand, writing down everything I said starting from switching on the machine to connect to internet by clicking on AccessRunnerDSL. Then click twice on Internet Explorer. One of her biggest doubts is where should she click once and where should she do a double click.
On a separate thread, it got me thinking as to how I went about learning to use the computer. I guess it must have been in school, when I was about 10 or 12, in the computer lab, with four of us sharing a single machine and jostling with each other trying our best to get our hands on the Holy Grail- the mouse. Somebody would make a mistake and the other three would instantly scamper towards the computer teacher and complain vociferously about the injustice of it all. At that age, definitions of justice were so much easier to form, rivalries had a very short shelf life and Dean Jones was GOD.
Back to the topic of my mom learning the comp, despite her repeated attempts at pulling the plunger on the right of the page down in order to scroll down, she was unable to do it and suddenly I screamed in frustration. I don't know why but instantly I felt a sickening feeling within me. What if she had done the same thing when I was growing up, trying to findmy way around things, failing a number of times and succeeding sometimes. But she was always patient, always encouraging and whenever I fell and looked up at her, I was greeted with that cherubic smile. So I started again and she sent her first mail yesterday, the excitement within her was palpable and I just stood there smiling at her.
posted by Saraansh at 10:57 PM
14 Comments:
Saraansh old buddy, you're trying to make us believe that your holy grail was ... a mouse?! Yeah right, tell me another one!
And that one click/two click dilemma rings true. I know, but I can never quite explain.
Dilip
You dirty, old man...I can see the urban mint doesn't seem to have had any effect on you.
About the holy grail,well, I have to plead ignorance.I have no idea what you are talking about :-)
The 'Holy Grail' actually did'nt exist in my time. I guess Pentiums were still 'top of the line' when I passed out of School. Ha ha I remember writing crappy C codes in School using a DOS4 C compiler.
Tried teaching my mom a thing or two about the PC, she gets confused if I change the wallpaper!!
Oh that was me
{+}
Dear Mr. {+}
You need to read between the lines to understand the Holy Grail that my dear Mr. D'souza is referring to.
Ha ha.. I don't even want to imagine what Mr. D'souza is referring "The Holy Grail" to.
Guess what... I loaded Win 3.1 for kicks, man did i find it hard to navigate and come to grips with it!! The damn OS obviosly could not relate to half my files. :-)
{+}
I can so relate to that man! I've given up teaching my mom how to use the computer! But she seems to be taking the effort these days to learn. About 2 weeks back, she called me up, while I was at work because the email that she typed suddenly vanished. I wasn't quite sure if it vanished because she clicked the 'Send' button or otherwise. After almost 45 minutes of tutoring, I finally got her to used WORD and copy-paste the email wehn she was done! Aargh.. maybe its something to do with all (previous-gen) Indian moms. Well just maybe..
Adel
I don't think it has anything to do with previous-gen moms.Its just that their will to learn is a little subdued and given enough tweaking, I think they will do fine.For my mum, the only incentive to learn is that she can keep in touch with my sis.So all they need is an incentive and I haven't taken my mom near the cut-paste technique as yet.For now, she just connects to the net, types the mail and sends it and she has also deleted an entire mail after typing it and when I asked her what she did, she said, nothing I just pressed the Enter key.Arrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!!!
Saraansh buddy, there are holy grails and there are holy grails. But a mouse, hmm, I'm not persuaded! But I bet one of these Mr Anonymouses (Anonymice?) really would like to know.
I think I'm getting confused now. Never mind.
Saraansh
Fortunately my mom was more adept with the mouse before I could figure it out.Frankly,I sucked at it initially!This uncontrollable arrow flying across the screen-"It's a BIRD!It's a PLANE!NO! It's just a MOUSE"!I actually managed to teach my Grandpa how to use the computer and well..it was easier than I thought.You need to accept technology first and then laugh at the 'simpler'times.
Dean Jones?!More suitable for a slightly older generation I think.Back then,Lara was my God and he still is..
-Kanishkaa
Dilip
I knew that if there was one person who would not believe that my holy grail was a mouse, it would be you.Don't ask me how:-)
Kanishka
Dean Jones was quite a phenomenon back then in thelate eighties when I had just started following the game.I used to love him take apart bowling attacks, especially Indian.
Saraansh
That explains it. I first started following cricket in the early 90s,1993 to be precise.Desmond Haynes and lara were they guys to watch.And there was Ambrose and Patterson.Teraring our guys apart?!That's not very patriotic!:-))
Kanishkaa
hey Saraansh,
really loved that one....especially the last 'senti' bit, guess it an afetr effect of being away from mum
hey Sanjana
Good to see you here and I know what you are trying to say.Hope you are doing ok. Take care of yourself.
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