A post about radio and a dictionary

 

I’ll cut to the chase. Two things happened in the last week that I find worth sharing in the category of ‘best use of technology’.

First, about my 12 year old daughter who is now beginning to develop a taste in music and a point of view about life. A few weeks ago, we got into the car, and she said she wanted to listen to a particular K-pop song. In a few seconds, I instinctively said ‘No, when we’re in the car, we only play the radio’. By the way, this comes out much more assertively in Hindi, however it doesn’t happen to be the language of the internet.

She asked me why. And I said that radio is a nice way to discover new songs that an algorithm will most likely not send your way. Add to that the news, banter and the cherry on top – the ads 😊

1000 kms later, the rule has stuck – even if the radio is talking about Gorillas having digital wallets and bank accounts. So now, sometimes when I try to sneak in a song through my mobile, I am reminded of the rule, and we switch back to the radio.

Second, is about my 7 year old son. At that age, my daughter was a voracious reader, so much so that she taught me the word voracious. My son isn’t in the same league. And by the time my son reads this, he would have had many other grudges against me so saying he’s not in the same league will be excused.

So, I read with him instead of reading to him. He reads a book that the school gives him, and I listen and ensure he’s reading it thoroughly. Through this process, there are words whose meaning I know but can’t explain and there are words whose meaning I don’t know.

We use the dictionary, not Google. He looks for the word himself, and needless to say I have to guide him to turn the page forward or backward with the logic. The first few times were very frustrating but now he enjoys the process of finding the word himself.

On an average, it is 4.5x more productive to use Google to look up the word quickly but I have no intention of doing so, despite the evidence! The process of looking up the word is doing two things – giving him a sense of achievement and making him look for hard words, both of which are unlikely to happen if we use Google (or for that matter any service on the internet).

I love my on-demand life – especially when it delivers ice-cream to my doorstep when I’m in no mood to step out or when I can call for a car when I’m in no mood to drive. Some other things, however, are best left to discover.

So, on your next train/cab ride or drive – try the radio and you won’t be disappointed. And if you do already, please pay attention to the ads!

I have been torn about posting this.

Torn because of the pressure to post something original (i.e. I thought of it but may not mean I thought of it first), something relevant, something sensational, something that gets the likes/comments/reposts chiming which are now the lullaby for sound sleep.

So if you got to this point, please take that line about Gorillas having digital wallets and bank accounts seriously. It’s true! More here - https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/04/gorillas-digital-wallets-financing-nature-conservation/