Have Tech Will Talk
It is strange to be at Stanford University: the crucible of all things tech; and to be writing admiringly about how advanced India is in this field — but that’s exactly what I am doing and it brings me great joy. If the purpose of technology is to make life easier, then Indians have been unique in the way they have adopted technology, embraced it, given it Punjabi jhappi-pappis and let it out in the world with the unforgettable Bollywood blessing: ‘Jaa apni zindagi jee le.’
Indeed technology is never quite the same once it is released in India. It is swamped by Indians hearts and minds that stamp it all over with their particular desires. Take Facebook for instance. It started as a shy American college goer’s dream to be able to socialize with girls. But the Indian Meta of today would be unrecognisable to Mark. Indian extended families, including grandmothers, are all over it. A family that ‘facebooks together stays together’ seems to be the rallying cry. So, Rakesh chacha, Madhu chachi, Bombaywali Bhabhi and even Rakesh’s nosy sister whom nobody really wants to meet in real life, are all bonded together on Facebook. They comment on each other’s holiday photos, ooh and aah over new babies and wedding photos are ‘ hearted’ with great enthusiasm. It is society ratifying its own continuation with rituals and how! It used to be a tribal dance around the fire, now it is the virtual ritual on Facebook. No twigs, no flintstones, no dancing around — in fact just one simple click and you have established your social credentials. There are rules to be observed of course, every birthday greeting has to be ‘liked’ by the recipient otherwise it reflects badly on your upbringing and your mother (also on Facebook), will be badly thought of by the tribe. Even worse, she may be on Facebook but not quite Facebook literate and may post her disapproval on your wall — beta, please thank Asha mami for her wishes, it is really rude not to do so, even if you are busy — visible to all 1258 of your Facebook friends of course, including Asha mami!
I am still struggling to teach my mother to post birthday greetings on the wall of the person whose birthday it is. But as soon as a grandchild’s birthday comes round, it happens again: a loving message full of blessings for the grandchild appears on her own wall. As the sandwich generation, I am alert to my mother’s foibles, so I alert the grandchildren, the grandchildren go to their nani’s wall, thank her lovingly and another cycle begins. She does not think she did anything wrong and who is to say she did? Facebook etiquette may demand one thing but Indian social etiquette has younger people visiting their older relatives and seeking blessings, so it is fine for the grandchildren to come to their grandmother’s Facebook page to receive their birthday wish. Meta should look at modifying Indian grandparent accounts — grandchildren should be allowed access without any passwords in the way and emojis with blessings should be available, not just hearts and champagne. Indian grandparents have to use the available emojis but they do so grudgingly. Too much love spoils children and champagne is not good is the unsaid message.
In fact, all these social media platforms born under the blue skies of California, assume a sameness in the world which leads to some hilarious situations. I remember a sister in law who was asked whether she was interested in ‘men’ or ‘women’ when she registered on Facebook some 15 years ago. She struggled with the answer since the truth was neither: she was getting onto Facebook to spy on her children’s social life. So, she consulted her daughter. ‘ I am a bit confused,’ she admitted, ‘ since I am neither interested in men nor women, and Facebook does not give the option of children. Do you think I can write interested in children?’ Her horrified daughter had to patiently explain what paedophilia was!
The security questions on Western platforms also make little allowance for other cultures. The name of your first girlfriend or first pet makes little sense to someone who was born in an Uttar Pradesh village with strict social norms and no money for luxuries like pets; and yet these were the answers someone with that profile had to fill up while setting up an account on Facebook a few years ago. Surely the fact that India has about 350 million users ( almost double of the estimated 180 million in the US), needs to allow for other ways of life to percolate Menlo Park thinking does it not? Yes, the multiple language interface means he can navigate Facebook or Meta in Hindi but he cannot give his girlfriend’s name in any language! ( Our Uttar Pradesh Facebook user resolved the issue by giving his wife’s name, for those following the story.)
If Silicon Valley needs data to drive their thinking about cultural nuances — the numbers are clear. According to Statista research, the smart phone penetration rate in India is 66% in 2022 and is expected to reach 96% by 2040. The growth has been exponential — in 2016 it only 23%! Coupled with one of the cheapest data charges in the world ( average of just $0.68 per GB compared to $3.33 per GB in the US), the Indian market has to be taken very seriously indeed.
As someone who sees India from the outside I am acutely aware of these rapid changes. In fact, one of the best things about being an NRI and coming back to India is that you come back to a different India and a different Indian! On my last visit to India I discovered there is now a whole new version of Indian English, with its own grammar, syntax, abbreviations and spelling. All spawned by the ubiquitous smartphone. Gone are the days when elite Indians tried to perfect the Queen’s English and Indian Babus spoke in a peculiar version of present continuous tense. Comedy sterotypes like Peter Sellers and Billy Bunter’s friend Hurree Jamset Ram Singh are out! Indians with phone technology are in! We are no longer having a complex about not knowing English and speaking in our native tongue. No Siree, we are having phones and we are communicating very very well indeed!
What language modern Indians are communicating in remains a moot point. Quite often it is no language at all, or the language of technology. So, when we arrive at our destination , we do not send a message saying ‘we have arrived.’ This would necessitate knowing how to spell three whole words in a foreign language aka English. We just pin our location and send it to the person whose home we have arrived at!
Or we send a recorded voice message on whatsapp. The voice message can be in any Indian language we are comfortable speaking. Neither tech tool requires literacy in the conventional sense, just phone or tech literacy which millions of Indians have mastered successfully. I have classmates at Stanford who have never used Whatsapp and worry about data mining; it is hard to find an Indian who hasn’t! For an academically illiterate but digitally informed population, whatsapp is the primary means of communication. And to top it all, it is free! The fact that their data may be mined is very far from Indian minds; more important is the fact that they are able to use technology to overcome their literacy handicap and communicate with people they care about or do business with. So you have accountants in India who are numerate but not literate in English and they send voice messages, there are home helpers who use the voice recognition feature on smart TVs to find films on Netflix. They do not know how to spell Hum Hindustani in English but they can watch the film by saying out the name aloud. They are Hindustanis who live in a new India, a confident India, a technically advanced India and they are making their voice heard.
The author is currently a 2022 DCI Fellow at Stanford University USA. She lives in London and is the author of East or West: An NRI mum’s manual on bringing up desi children overseas. vinati@stanford.edu
