Plug in to your ‘inner-net’

Though an unusual sight, it was a wonderful session when Gopi Kallayil, the Chief Evangelist, Brand Marketing at Google, addressed the crowd at the Sharjah International Book Fair.

Wonderful because of the message conveyed – to reconnect ourselves with our inner- selves. Unusual, because a man belonging to the world of technologies was cautioning us against his own source of living.

What an irony, you may say.

But what he said, could not be ignored. His suggestion to go back “from Internet to Inner-net” could not be disregarded.

It’s obvious that Internet has become the backbone of today’s society, but it has become the “Weapon of mass distraction” too. 

The best example is watching people walking on the streets with their heads bowed down, as if in some deep meditation.

Today, we give more importance to this 79th organ – as Gopi Kallayil calls it for it is inseparable from us – than we have ever given to our other sensory organs, who have served us loyally to date.

Your heart skips a beat as you notice the low battery sign flashing across the screen of your smartphone. You have a hide-and-seek game with your charger. And amidst the game, if the mobile is switched off, you would run at a lightning speed and plug it in to the switchboard, praying for it to survive the ensuing life-and-death battle.

As if it was your relative in the ICU and not a discharged mobile phone.

Our relationship with this 79th organ has increased so much, that it has become unhealthy for us. But what can we do? For it is impossible for us to plug out of this life in the modern world, where the world revolves around the technology, and plug in to your inner-net.

Well, we could probably hold weekly appointments with ourselves. Or spend only a few minutes daily on ourselves. These are but a few of the golden tips that the maestro of technology has laid out for us, so that it becomes easier for us.

What harm would connecting to your inner-net, without disconnecting from Internet, do to you? Better to follow such advice than to cry over spilt milk later.

(Published in The Gulf Today on November 12, 2016)