A Tribute To Google

I was in the middle of a fight. My mother and I couldn't agree on who was Shahrukh Khan's first co-star? Was it Kajol or Juhi Chawla? "Google it," my sister intervened. Google led to the answer that it was neither of them but the late. Divya Bharati.

Yesterday, I couldn't remember how singer Sadhana Sargam looked like. "Google her," my friend told me. Even when I'd lost the recipe for Anjum Anand's steamed spinach and rice dumplings, my cooking buddy's answer to my question was simple, "Google it".

Two words. It's become as simple as that to find an answer to most of life's questions. Hit Google and you'll know the answer to everything under the sun. You could find out, for example, whether there is life after death, or why the sky is blue. Or Asin's age or even why your boyfriend is mean to you.

Google has answers to 'everything'. You don't need to go to a shrink anymore; the search engine can provide you with the most insane as well as the best advice anyone's ever given. Some even went on to believe that Google is the closest thing to God. In fact, there's even a Church of Google that believes that Google is omnipresent and therefore can be scientifically verified. It's true, Google thrives on the absurd.

Don't get me wrong. I love Google. In fact, I don't think could survive without it. But it has taken the fun out of a fight and the anger out of an argument. There is no scope for speculation any more--Google has ruined all my chances of being right on a bluff. Which makes me wonder how we ever made it without search engines, or, for that matter, even the Internet.

While it's only been eleven years since we've had Google, it's the big 4-oh for the Internet this year. Four decades of virtual knowledge that have changed the way we remember, forever. While it has tamed my enthusiasm to memorise everything, it has given me the ability to know about all things I love. I don't think, at 17, my mother could rattle off answers to how to groom a horse, or which the best headphones are, or what hedge funds are--all in one breath.

I am fairly certain my grandmother never even imagined that I could bump into my third-grade English teacher or I could be taught to make payasam or adopt a black sheep in Farmville without human intervention. The truth is, I cannot live without the search engine. Google has helped me grow as a person. Plus, it's the only reason I don't mind sitting on the laptop the whole day without getting up.