Jobs which are not likely to be replaced by Robots

Recently I saw a video on Facebook where a robot is being used to lift and place loads which it does very effectively even when there are obstacles in its way. The future is not far away when all repetitive, mundane and even dangerous tasks will be taken over by robots and automation. This is not exactly good news for a country like India with a large unskilled manpower and need to create jobs in unskilled and semi skilled workforce. In another ten years or so jobs like tele calling (call centre jobs), cashiers, tellers, drivers may be replaced by robots. The jobs which will then survive are those which are a mixture of the creative arts and science which robots have still to become creative.The job with the lowest shot at being overtaken by technology in the future? Mental health and substance abuse social workers. They have a 0.3% chance, according to the data. Occupational therapists also rank at 0.3%, while dentists, surgeons and nutritionists appear pretty safe at just 0.4%.

Our Digital World

Nobody will deny that the world we live in today is the digital world. What is it that I truly mean when I say that it is a ‘Digital World’.  As everything has a pros and cons, let me ponder on the pros first

1. We have easy and convenient communication with mobile phones , Skype
2. We can store our memories and capture time with digital cameras
3. A plethora of TV channels are available for entertainment and news over Dish TV and Cable.
4. We can build contacts and keep in touch with a range of friends from chaddi buddies to stranger met on a bus journey over social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
5. We can do our shopping, work , get jobs, hire workmen, date, get married , etravel, perform pujas all on the internet, without moving from the cosy comfort of our homes.
6. We can learn new skills like cooking, musical instruments, languages, from numerous sites available on the internet

Indeed the advantages of a digital world are too numerous to enumerate. But since every silver lining has a cloud, there are some disadvantages too

1. The human touch has been removed from our online transactions, leaving our world a little bleaker as we miss the smile, touch and warmth of another human being. Of course it removes the irritation and rudeness too.
2. Since we are bombarded by news, stories and information since a very young age, nothing has the capacity to shock us anymore. It is almost a case of ‘been there’, ‘done that’ replaced with ‘seen all’, ‘heard all’. This makes everything we experience slightly diminished in the light of the amazing experiences of which we have heard or read about. 
3. Porn which is everpresent on the internet is corrupting young and impressionable young minds. This is an evil which cannot seem to be eliminated.
4. Stories are not the same anymore. We have simply heard everything there is to be heard be it crime, romance, mystery, magic, science fiction, supernatural , horror. To a certain extent our appetite has been jaded with a superfluity of tales since time immemorial. 
5. Since the stories about human greatness are everywhere- the greatness of Einstein, the prodigy of Mozart, the excellence of Newton, the goodness of Gandhi, these heroes are so exalted and glorified as to be almost supernatural in their greatness, new heroes find it harder and harder to measure up in the digital age when even tiny misdemeanors are magnified and tarnish their images.

The image below echoes my feelings

Pishi and Pishemoshai

Yesterday was 1st Jan 2016. The beginning of the new year. I had chalked out all the various tasks I had to do, as it was an important day-the beginning of the new year, carefully in my mind. Visit to the temple, making payesh, morning prayers, phonecalls to all my near ones. The last one troubled me slightly as I had a call to make to my pishemoshai to wish him new year greetings. This was a task which I faced with a tiny trepidation in my mind, which was always the case whenever I had to talk to the venerated elder of our family. Pishemoshai had always been one of the most important members of my father’s side of the family. His successful career as an inspector, SP and then DG of police was one which was always talked about and discussed in our family circles. He had always been helpful to everyone of his wife’s family and had helped out my father, my uncle, cousins and brother at various times when it was necessary to get a recommendation letter or pull some strings to get something done. He was always looked up to in the family and the arrival of pishi, pishemoshai or their children to our house was always an important occasion. The best dishes were brought out and sweets, nankeens and various delicacies were prepared by my mother and grandmother to greet them on their visit. Pishi too shone in the reflected glory of Pishemoshai and did not fail to regale us with stories of the important personages she met or the important events she attended as the wife of an important person. As she was an adept storyteller we would all listen to her with rapt attention and interest. Pishi and pishemoshai were highly interesting and reverential figures in my mind that of a eight or ten year old little girl.  Once they had left my mother , father, grandmother would discuss at length about their wealth, their contacts and their influence. Pishemoshai was tall and athletic with a face like that of ACP Pradyuman in CID which inspired fear. Pishi was small, petite and pretty. She would make it quite clear that at home she was the boss and not pishemoshai. In spite of numerous quarrels they would have with each other they were a close couple. I was specially scared of pishemoshai’’s beetling eyebrows and fierce expression when displeased and tried to stay out of his way as much as possible. He treated me always with kindness and sometimes observed that I was a ‘bhalo meye’. 

      Impressions of our childhood are hard to get rid of. The slight fear and trepidation which my pishemoshai induced in me remained in me even when I am 40+ making me slightly reluctant to talk to him, in case I should say something which should cause him not to think of me as a ‘bhalo meye’ any more. Today he was 85+, we had lost pishi a couple of years back, he was staying with his son and his family in his house at Kolkata. When I called him, he received my call eagerly and asked about my family. I replied that everything was as well as could be wished for and asked after his health. 

“ Boyosh to hochhe ma”, he replied and I agreed with him. After racking my brains for a topic on which I could talk I asked him about my cousin’s family and the name of his granddaughhter. which I could not recollect. He could not recollect this and after a couple of awkward pauses I tried to change the topic. “ Yes Mali is her name”, he burst out after a while, he seemed to be pleased to have remembered her name. I poured out various platitudes and sundry observations to which he listened with attention. I was trying to hastily finish off the call which was more of a duty whereas he seemed to want to stretch the conversation. After chatting desultorily for a few more minutes, thankfully it was time to say goodbye. I realized that the shift of time had changed my once mighty pishemoshai into a feeble old man. 

1st Jan 2016

The beginning of another new year. Today was bright and sunny, moderately chilly. Got up by 7.00am in the morning, after morning prayers etc, decided to make payesh. There were two prank calls on my phone at night 1.45pm so I was quite groggy in the morning. Baba gave the good news that Shiltu had said yes for domicile certificate again, so Sum got all papers ready for courier to Kolkata. Shruti then came to ask about her resume to Sweden from Sum. I gave her some payesh. Afternoon cooked an elaborate meal of sag, shukto, payesh, raita, manchurian. Evening we will all go to Kali temple for blessings. Hope this year goes off well, as it will be an important year for us all.

Annual Health Checkup

Today was the dreaded day of annual health checkup - an entire  day spent running from one department to another of the hospital till I began to feel really ill & consoled myself that it is the hospital which was a place one can safely fall ill in. But no, what I felt is one has to be 200% full of energy to undergo one of the health exams in a erect position.  
      When I had enquired the previous day, the lady at the reception had told me to come by 8.30am, so when I reached there after 9.00 am I thought that I must be late. But the reception was quite empty of people, with a sole receptionist. When I enquired about health checkup she firmly told me that there was no such package for my company. Around ten or fifteen years earlier I might have meekly accepted this, but age has given me a certain gumption so that I can argue back with people to a certain extent. I spoke to the receptionist the other day over phone, I told her, and she had assured me that the package was available. The other lady still refused to accept this. "But, I told her, " Madam M, spoke to me, and assured me", I argued plaintively. On hearing the person named, the lady recapitulated and directed me to go to the first floor and speak to the person concerned. Madam M was at her desk, and thankfully she remembered speaking to me over phone. Still it took her an hour to convince her other colleagues that I was eligible for the health package. It was almost 10.00am when, formalities completed, I trooped into the blood sample room to have my blood taken. My number was 22 and it came after half an hour's wait where I stared idly at numerous patients and their   relatives thronging there. The rather young lab assistant girl was smooth and deft, taking blood, labelling the various bottles and mixing the reagents all with swift practiced movements. She reminded me to come for giving a sample again after breakfast.After this I moved to the x-ray and sonography section  which was swarming with patients. Sonography is a procedure which has to be done on a full bladder. So the uniform instruction given is that drink water till one's bladder feels like bursting. I dutifully finished of the 1litre bottle of water which I had bought with me, hoping that I would get called in between, but to no avail. After almost an hour's wait and two reminders to the reception, I was at last called for the sonography test. Loosen your salwar drawstring and lift your bra up, I was instructed, and so I lay there bare and supine on the bed for almost 10mins before the doctor , a lady, came in. She applied the sticky ointment on my stomach and quickly moved the mouse on my stomach. "Your bladder is too full", she said," You need to urinate, and come again", "come fast", she uttered encouragingly. This was what came of following instructions too well. So I went and came back again, and the procedure was completed at last. Next I went to have breakfast at 12.00 noon after two hours of which my next blood sample was to be taken. Cheese Sandwiches with green chutney and a bowl of sewai, a cup of hot tea was the breakfast which I enjoyed as I was extremely hungry by this time. I was then directed by Madam M to go for my ECG, which was done by a rather strict looking lady technician. Next please go to gynae dept, dental and ENT,I was directed. At the dental dept I was advised by a pretty looking young dentist, that I needed to get my teeth cleaned of tartar. Promising to do it at a later date, I then moved to the gynae dept where there were around 3-4 young intern type doctors with an elderly head doctor. They desultorily took down my history and conducted a rather painful examination. After completing the ENT checkup, I went to the cardio section which again was full of patients. After waiting for almost half an hour I was called in for a stress test. This was the first time I was having a stress test, and I was rather curious. The technician asked me to remove all my upper garments, which I rather unwillingly did at last. then she applied 10 electrodes around my heart area, had me cover myself with a hospital gown, and plugged the electrodes into the GE make monitoring  machine. Then she directed me to walk on the treadmill, and my heartbeats, pulse and pressure was monitored as the treadmill started slowly and then gained in speed. After walking for around 10mins , the pulse was 150bpm, stage 3 exercise, I had achieved my target, the lady said. So I got off and put my clothes back on. The pressure of my feet was then taken by another nurse who said that she was a student of MSC nursing and wanted it for some study which she was doing. At nearly 1.30pm, I went down for the eye checkup. Here I was told that it would take at least half an hour as there were several patients before me. So  I gave my name for the queue, and moved to the cubicle of Madam M for consultation. What a talker the lady is! Every time I saw her she was always talking on her mobile with someone. I now asked her about the mammography and she got ready to accompany me downstairs, as another foreigner lady was there as well. So we went down to the test section. The doctor came after 10mins, during which I gave the blood and urine sample at the lab. Mammography was another painful process, where I again had to remove all my upper clothing and stand bare while  my breasts were pressed painfully by the machine during the test. 4 slides were taken. Don't move your head, look there, look here were the curt instructions given by the technician during the process. At last after completing it, the doctor asked me to wait for aquarter of an hour more, to check whether it was all ok. After her green signal, I then moved to the eye section where it took me almost two hours more. Initially a technician checked my eyes, in the second round I explained to the doctor about the floater in my eye. She wanted to check my retina, so I had some drops put in and rechecked my eyes after 45mins. After getting this all done, a mammoth task by any standards, I returned home at around 4.30pm, tired but triumphant.    

Games I Like to play

Some games which I love to play are Jewel quest, Cityville, Criminal Case . I was  such a fan of Cityville that I even kept some snapshots of the city I built. I really looked forward to the next day when I would resume the game after exhausting my energy. I had reached to level 70 in the game. Some pics of my  city are attached here.

Dengue Fever: Harrowing week 14th Sep - 20th Sep 2015

This was the most harrowing week of this year till date. On Sunday (14th Sep) I came to know that Ma's fever had once more relapsed (102-103 deg C). When I asked Baba he said doctor had not advised to do a blood test yet. Ist fever came from 5th Sep and had remission by 10th Sep. On Monday morning when I called Ma her voice sounded so strange and rambling that I decided to go to Kol immediately. So took CL for the week. S was on leave for the week so I had no major concern for Sona. Tuesday I boarded flt and reached Kol. Saw bad luck sparrow at the airport itself. When I reached home Ma , I saw was extremely weak & in pretty bad shape. Baba too was limping after all his running around & strain. There were one or two neighbours around but they left when they saw me. Ma had tested positive for typhoid , so was given antibiotic for typhoid. Dengue test was expected by evening. Meanwhile dada was calling up continuously & demanding to know details of treatment etc. Afternoon ma had some soup of vegetables and fruit juice, We came to know blood test was positive for dengue. Evening sharp at 5pm we went to Dr's chamber & dr came at 5.15pm. He advised admission in hospital and washed his hands off the matter. Ma refused to call an ambulance, so baba caught hold of taxi and all three of us boarded to go to nearby hospital. When we got there, they initially refused admission saying no beds were available, after coaxing and threatening with Kol Pranam membership, they admitted. After deposit of cash etc we got free by 8pm. Baba and I went home, had dinner & slept off. Meanwhile S called up earlier that day to inform that he too had high fever and that he planned to go to doctor the next day. I was taken aback, but hoped that it would be just a viral and subside on its own. Wednesday after breakfast, Baba and I got ready to go to the hospital. I had taken boiled vegetables , fruits etc. But when I went there, we found Ma extremely weak, fever had still not subsided (102-103). Drip was being administered. She said to take back the food as it was not allowed by the hospital. So we took it back. In the evening Sushama mami visited, Ma reported in the evening that the food was so bad that she had been unable to eat much, she was still feverish and weak. We were quite upset. I then called up her doctor couple of times on the phone to know about her, but was unable to get a very satisfactory response. We then kept calling the indoor to know what she had eaten for dinner and asked fluids like horlicks etc be given to her. Thursday I hear that she had been given horlincks for breakfast. Meanwhile I told dada to prepone his visit as ma was not improving at the rate I had expected. He was supposed to come by evening that day. Ma was quite better on thursady morning, no fever although platelet was falling. We spoke to dietician about food. Afternoon food was hot and ma was happy with it. In the evening when I called S to know about his blood test report, he said that he had tested positive for dengue and doctor had advised him to get admitted immediately. He asked me to prepone my travel plan and come on Friday. I was now at my wit's end how all this could be happening all at the same time. Luckily dada had already arrived at kol & before he came home, I had changed my ticket and preponed my flight. When dada came he was most surprised to hear that I had preponed my journey, hough he agreed that I should leave, as he would be there to take care of things. Thursday earlier that day I had gone with Baba to gariahat for insurance claim business and seen all the shops and markets filled with puja shopping items. I had hoped that once dada came on friday I would do some shopping. But alas that was not to be. When I went to visit ma on thursday, I didn't tell her that i would be going away the next day. Friday another incident happened. The airline had told me to come to the airport two hours prior to departure and get my ticket altered. But when I went to the bus depot, I came to know bus would take one and half hours, whereas I had to reach by one hour to meet the airline time. So I decided to go by taxi. No taxi was available when it was badly needed. I trudged pillar to post for 10-15 minutes. Finally I found an ac taxi and went by that. Thankfully he dropped me off well in time. I caught the flight and arrived in P. Barely I had time to discuss two things with Sona and S, it was time to go to hospital to get S's Blood report. When we went there, bplatelet had fallen below normal, and doctor advised him to get admitted. So he got admitted & I then came home thinking when this will all end. Today 20th Sep Ma is discharged , but still very weak. S I expect by tomorrow will be discharged.