My father walks into our home after having completed 4 km on foot from his house. He looks a little beat but it is not because of the exercise.

He tells my son, “Raghupati, you have to help me. I have lost Google on my computer”. My son, by turns, looks incredulous and then amused before laughing irreverently. Firstly, he cannot understand how someone can inadvertently delete the browser on one’s computer, and secondly, he cannot wrap his head around my father’s misadventures with his phone and laptop.

My father is an extremely erudite person. His interests are varied and his command on numerous fields of knowledge, exceptional. He can debate expertly on everything from logarithms to politics to yoga poses and poetry. He can discuss the performance of teams on FIFA and even knows who Posh is! Yet, the engineer who installed computers in his office in 1971, is flummoxed by the odd behavior of phones and computers. One day, it is his phone that refuses to ring while the next, it is the printer that refuses to pay heed to his commands (the paper outlet is closed😊). Some days, the speech texter eats his notes, and often, his computer changes the display on its own.

For a man used to order and discipline thanks to a long career in the government, these devices with a mind of their own, are bothersome. They are meant to behave, and they don’t.

So he treats them like kids who can be unpredictable, with affection and patience, without losing his cool.

Image: ai.berkeley.edu