I learnt something very interesting today. There’s this aunt of mine whom we had recently gifted a what I thought was a pretty basic cam phone (a SE t610). Nothing too great about the phone. Just the regular stuff, polyphonic, an ugly cam and the basics. Now, she so happens to be a teacher in one of the municipality schools in absolute hinterland of AP. A pretty small village where the entire school of a few dozen students is usually taught together. Where the two teachers need to dole out incentives for the kids to attend school, and the likes. She told me something that struck me real hard today. She now uses the phone’s cam as a motivator for ‘em kids and that really seems to work. The kids are now in a race to finish off their work at the earliest, so they can have their two moments of cheer captured, albeit for a short period of time. They now have that much more enthu to come down to school and be shot. Yes, agreed, this is not gonna be a long-term or even short-term measure..But it sure speaks volumes on how what can be a small step for us urban-city dwellers can effect someone somewhere in ways unthought of. Beats me why none of India’s famed highIQ folks have never been able to come up with technology that can have a real effect on the rural kids.