Of
late, Google Doodles (the cartoon you see sometimes when you log into the
Google India home page) has been ‘honouring’ notable Indians, especially women,
on their birth anniversaries. I think it’s not a bad effort when I consider
that the average netizen in India (definitely ‘educated’ in today’s utterly
trivial sense, typically a B-grade engineer, journalist or sales manager) would
probably never have heard about most such people otherwise, but it makes my lips
curl with disdain when I reflect that Google does this cynically, with its eye
on nothing but the bottom line: this is their way of currying favour with that
(large-) section of the Indian populace whose custom they want to attract –
nothing more and nothing less. So today they have drawn attention to Mahasweta
Devi. Now she happens to be one of the few contemporary Indian women (well, all
right, not exactly contemporary: she’d
have been 92 today, and died in 2016) I happen to respect, and mine is not the
kind of respect that is here today and gone tomorrow. Ask around in Durgapur
about how many people besides me remember the once-legendary Father Gilson of
St. Xavier’s and still talk about him eulogistically whenever the opportunity
presents itself. But I wonder – will Google’s way of remembering make any real
difference to anybody, and to M. Devi’s ideals and aims in particular? The ET story says the Doodle has ‘immortalized’ her. Do people like her need Google to
be immortalized, or is it the Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump types who do? Yeah,
yeah, I know the latter are vastly more numerous, so that proves what exactly?
3 comments:
"Dark times are ahead"- Professor Dumbledore.
Dear Sir,
I knew you would write something on Mahashweta Devi. When I saw the doodle, I read your post on her demise and followed the link. Most people remember her for Singur and Nandigram, not for being the scholar she was. A scholar who did tiresome research for Jhansir Rani. She described India with the following words, “My country, Torn, Tattered, Proud, Beautiful, Hot, Humid, Cold, Sandy, Shining India. My country.” I respect her as well.
Yours faithfully,
Swarnava Mitra.
Sir,
This Google Doodle is just a marketing initiative, to have more 'customer orientation' and to develop a connection with the people of that country where they are showing the Doodle (they do not have Doodle in all countries). The objective is to draw people of that country towards the brand, and inspire them to have more transactions for Google products and services. And there is a very high probability that the ET article is a highly paid PR platform for Google. Therefore, I hardly take the Doodle seriously.
Yours Sincerely,
Subhanjan
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