Sunday 27 December 2009

Zaijian, Ni hao (Goodbye & Hello)

It is customary at this time of the year to look back and reminisce about the year gone by. This year, its also the end of the decade – the “noughties” as they are curiously called. The media, traditional and new, is dominated by the recounting of events of the past decade –the horror of September 11, the tsunami, the Sichuan earthquake, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the wonder of the Beijing Olympics, the rise of China, the global financial crisis, and so on.

But take a step back, and by far, the greatest event of the decade gone by has been the unbelievable development of the Internet. Just picture the dawn of the new millennium. Google had just been started and most people still did not know of that term. Blogging was virtually unknown – the word blog itself had just been coined in mid 1999. More recent phenomena such as Twitter, Facebook and the like were not even on the horizon. Even e mail was not ubiquitous. Dinosaurs like AOL and Alta Vista ruled the world.

10 years on and the on line world has dramatically changed. If even a tech savvy Rip van Winkle has gone to sleep in December of 1999 and woken up today, he would be completely lost. Such has been the pace of change. That Chotu’s great grandmother can see and talk to her great grandson who is thousands of miles away, for free, is a miracle of immense proportions.

What amazes me is that as a society we have embraced this change so well. Disruptive change of this nature usually comes with cataclysmic implications on society. Large numbers of people are very slow to accept such changes – when the first railways were introduced in Britain long long ago, most people would not travel on it as they feared the health consequences of high speed travel (20 kmph. But today the online world is rapidly changing every month and even Chotu’s GGM adopts it gleefully.

What does the next decade hold for us online ? Only one thing is for sure – everybody who predicts what the change will be is going to be wrong. But at the end of the coming decade, we are surely going to marvel at the immense changes that have taken place. And probably reflect back on how unthinkably backward 2009 was !

We will, no doubt, plunge headlong into the changing online world. But change as it may, one thing I shall pray remains the same. The lovely community that we have come together as bloggers, le embrouille blogueur, Adesh, Zoobie, AJCL (still sticking to your old name), Savitha, Sri, The Thoughtful Train, Gils, Sandhya, Preeti, Reflections, Deepa, Dave, Priya, Rads (please come back) and all ye yeomen, I hope remains the same warm well knit online community. And perhaps some of the lovely people who comment here and are very much part of our wonderful community – Dada, Kiwibloke, J, Satish, Hansjoerg, Durga, VA, LG, Sabareesan, Mahesh, Kotla, Aashish, Exkalibur, et all, may become bloggers themselves.

Raising a toast to the wonderful friends who inhabit this space.

Happy New Year.

22 comments:

Durga said...

No doubt we will still be a part of this community! Cheers!

A journey called Life said...

awww.. thanks so much Ramesh... its been great being a part of this nice circle.. u have a wonderful new year too..

Athivas said...

I was reminiscing of the changes in personal life in the past 10yrs and was wondering how much technology has become an integral part of our lives, and lo, here your post!! Couldn't have said better...

It is indeed a joy in being a part of this blog community, despite being miles apart physically! Thanks to all the blog friends. Waiting to see what the next decade has to offer! :)

Sandhya Sriram said...

10 years from now, the visionary Ramesh would be like a Ratan Tata in which ever field he decides to choose (whether business or social service). His followers on twitter would cross the count of Obama's tweets and his blogs would be the one of the most visited and commented websites on the cyber world.

Ramesh - this is not a vision but a wish as visions may or may not come true but wishes from the heart always come true.

zhù nǐ jīn hòu shí nián dà

VA said...

Thanks for the wonderful thoughts... Ramesh! I join Sandhya in her wishes and definitely pray that this wish come true much before end of 10 years from now.

It has been a privilege to read about several diversified subjects which become even more special when penned by you. I look forward to new decade with the same level of excitement.

Of course, internet has been greatest revelation of this passing decade. Coupled with penetration of wireless phones, this decade has plunged us into "world on the finger-tip and foot-step" mode. It leaves me wondering where we shall end up on technological scale by end of 2020!

VA said...

Ramesh - Somehow, I am not able to open the link - Chotu’s great grandmother can see and talk to her great grandson. It gives me a message saying that the page does not exist. Please help.

sri said...

Ramesh

Its been truely a pleasure being in ur circle :)

The changes in the last ten years with respect communication industry/ internet is exponential. The change is so fast that the market and consumers are running a marathon behind it. I can only forsee the future as a exciting and a phase that would unite the basic principles of humanity to that of comforts provided by the technology.

Just watched avatar and I feel somewhere down the line most of us would go back to the old ways of nature bound/bond living i few decades.

Ok shut me up, let me me raise the glass to the man who never ceases to amuse his friends :)

Deepa said...

Thank you so much! Its humbling and more importantly a pleasure to be in this circle.

Indeed the connectivity is second to the invention of wheel in human history. And it sure is amazing how we all located in different places, having different point of views about 'business', and different mindsets in general, love to read and put up our opinions here.

And a toast to technology with this video. I am sure everyone must have seen it but nevertheless... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blBohrmyo-I

Happy New Year to everyone and many more bewildering ones to come!

Ramesh said...

@ Durga, AJCL, Savitha - Xie xie ni (Thank you)

@Sandhya - Oh you've completely bowled me over again - I am much humbled by your wishes. Of course, I'm not in that league and would be very content if I have a small group of friends like you. Totally flattered by your Chinese !!

@Sri - Somehow I think going back to the good old days will never happen. There's only one way to go - forward.

@VA - Sorry; I'll fix the link. Not sure what happened.

@Deepa - Yes, it is almost in the same league as the wheel. Thanks for the link - have to wait to get out of China to read this - my net nanny has succeeded in blocking Youtube even through a proxy !! Darn ....

Unknown said...

This net is just a wonderful thing. And your comment on the impact and speed of change are so very true. I am sitting in my holiday home somewhere far away in this world and reading your blog and being connected to you and your community and the entire world with a tip of my finger. Isn't it great! You mentioned Alta Vista. At the time I thought it is the greatest invention the high tech industry ever made and in some sense it was since it is probably the grandfather of Google Search.

J said...

It has been great to reconnect after all these years. Wishing you a fun year ahead.

LG said...

I am speechless. Thanks so much for including this little creature in to your wonderful community. Indeed, lots of things happened in this decade. I would say, next decade vision - imagination is the only limitation.

I Wish everyone on the planet a peaceful, successful & miraculous new year and new decade.

From the bottom of my heart wish Ramesh go to the heights in whatever he wish / do. God Bless All!

Ramesh said...

@Hansjoerg - Thanks for your comment from your sunny beach in Florida. And yes, Alta Vista was the forerunner for Google. Amazing, how soon it has virtually disappeared.

@J - Lots of fun to you too - sunny Arizona beckons !

@LG - Great luck to you too ; may you soar to great heights in the years to come.

gils said...

avvvvvvvv...en perum listla irukaa!!! u r way too generous sire :) mikka nanri..ur blog shd be hailed as eco(nomix)-friendly :) frontline..economic times..ithulalaam neenga try panlaamay?

//Somehow I think going back to the good old days will never happen. There's only one way to go - forward.//

well said :)

gils said...

gong xie gong xie :)

Ramesh said...

@gils - you have to be star of any blog roll - who else can match your peerless touch. And Chinese too after the thooya tamizh. Wow !

Exkalibur666 said...

Dear Ramesh,

Thanks for the encouragement..
It is a pleasure to read and comment on ur blog. It is as enjoyable as it is enriching.

Exkalibur666 said...

Wish u a very happy and prosperous new year as well..

Ramesh said...

@Exkalibut - Cheers and best wishes.

Half Indian said...

Ramesh Ji,
Thank you for this warm artical!
Chinese language is a difficult language. But all of you seems doing better than me(Dave). Hehehe.... What a wonderful world!

Ramesh said...

Oh Dave - I know you'll be fluent in Chinese; after all its your mothers' language. Yes its really tough, but great fun to learn it. I have been trying for a year now and still am very bad at it, but I have a superb teacher and I really enjoy learning it. Jia you !!

Anonymous said...

A test comment...to check if my problem with the browser is resolved.

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