With Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype dominating the modern routine, some curious grandparents are joining the tech fest that is our lives. What are tech-savvy grandparents up to?
Subhendu Dasgupta was 86-years-old when he roped in his granddaughters to learn texting. SMS-ing, as he'd insist on calling it. Starting with misfired blank texts, this man, my grandfather, progressed to short greetings, fully punctuated sentences (carrying sagely advice), even teaching himself to tame that unwieldy space button before passing away at the age of 90. For such gung-ho grandparents, age is just a number, and technology, a welcome challenge.
Philip and Lynette Mascarenhas, 74, remember a time, before land phones showed up in middle-class households, when they would walk up to the public phone at the local station, arguing about which way to rotate its chunky dial. From there, the Santacruz pair went to using cell phones, computers, laptops and even Skype, a video and audio-calling software, to connect with their children and grandchildren living across Germany, USA and Abu Dhabi. "The first cell phone was a Nokia from our daughter Anna in 2003, but now I use an Android!" laughs Lynette, expressing her curiosity about touch phones. Philip likes to use gmail, circulating forwarded mails of his choice, mostly wildlife images or historical anecdotes, to friends and family. "Skyping is nicer when the small ones come online, chattering and waving," says Lynette, referring to her Sunday tech-time with the grandchildren.
Grandchildren seem to be the common interface between seniortech-enthusiasts and their maiden foray into the world of inboxes. 26-year-old Nishtha Kanal was once jealous when her maternal grandmother Shanta Gandhi got a cell phone while she had to wait to come of age. But as a grown up, that didn't stop her from helping her 87-year-old nani navigate a basic Nokia, and eventually, a Smart Phone. The "slow learning curve", perfected over hand-me-down laptops, and later, personal tablets and Kindles, gathered speed when this gizmo-happy granny discovered her passion for online Solitaire and DIY crotchet lessons on YouTube. When not using Google Translate to recreate the original Farsi font of the names of her family members, Shanta brushes up her tech skills by phone-photographing the flowers in her garden. Does she know about selfies? "Oh, she definitely does," assures Nishtha, currently excited to wean grandma off email by introducing her to WhatsApp.
WhatsApp's easy appeal explains a large portion of Delhi-based Suvra Sensarma's interest in gadgets. At 72, the self-confessed "high energy learner" is anxious to pick up skills beyond the operation of touch phones, laptops, iPads and an active Facebook account. "There's so much I still have to learn—how to upload writings on Facebook, how to pay bills online, how to use Skype without getting logged out!" Suvra rattles off, not complacent about her impressive skill set of liking, sharing, posting on Facebook, emailing, WhatsApping and YouTubing. "Sometimes I upload photographs of my embroidery work, sometimes I look for new recipes, and sometimes I just use the Internet to stay connect with my friends in the US," she explains.
"But would you say you are hooked to technology?" I ask Suvra, not discounting the possibility of a grandmotherly sermon on enjoying technology in moderation. "I can't sleep at night without scrolling down the Facebook news feed," she sighs, winning my heart faster than you can make a heart emoji. That one with the ribbon.
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 "WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, tech-savvy grandparents, Subhendu Dasgupta, Computers, Google, YouTube,")
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