Thanks Cloud

When asked to write a discussion on 'Digital Devices - advantages outweigh disadvantages' in IELTS test several years back, I blithely put my unbridled thoughts to tilt the scale towards advantages. But as my son stepped up to climb the higher rungs of his school-years ladder, his increasing reliability on devices was constantly defying my own beliefs on that outweighing part. My concern was not just around health impact, but also about how he would cope without leaning on that digital stick. Well, I tried to keep my worries at bay as I had no control over this inexorable digital progression. 

But then some extraordinary situations do present opportunities to appreciate this ubiquitous network of web and devices. Of course such scenarios have to do with my uber-forgetful son! I can count the number of days when he hasn't misplaced or forgotten something or the other. Like Luna Lovegood, most of the stuff magically comes back to him, with an exception of few like NESA approved calculator, Logitech MX Master mouse, pencil case full of necessary stationery. While this hurts, nothing has been close to the shocking one we have gone through this week. 

A day before his Year 11 annual Biology exam, he returned from school quite tuckered out and hit the sack soon after devouring a glass of freshly made banana shake. Sated with his power nap, he woke up and groped his bag to pull out his laptop, eyes still groggy from the satisfying kip. 'Wait, what!' He was suddenly wide awake, 'Ma, did I take my laptop to school today?'

I stood in stupor and managed to utter with unprecedented hopelessness, 'You lost your laptop? How can you live with so little awareness?' and added with rapier-sharp ruthlessness, 'you deserve to suffer. Tomorrow's your exam and you have nothing to prepare from. Don't be comforted with a cushy thought that I'm going to buy you a new one - you do your HSC year without a laptop.' I'm sure my facial muscles shifted contours swiftly to display a gamut of emotions that no words can do justice to describe; I lovingly call it countenance-quake.

'Ma, you're not helping. Could you just stop and let me try to remember where I could've possibly left it,' his voice was replete with disgust that further incensed me. I didn't stop but he explained, 'Look, you don't understand; if I misplaced it at school I have a better chance of getting it back. But if I lost it at sports centre, it's as good as gone.'

I kept muttering undesirable string of adjectives while he started pulling his strings on Discord and soon found out that his friend, who was reviewing his English essay from his laptop in the library, left it in there thinking my son would return before packing up for sports. But he didn’t; without an iota of am-I-forgetting-something uneasiness, he had headed for his grade-sports squash competition in a sports centre about 1.5 Km away.

'Phew! I'm sure I'll find it, Ma, don't worry,' all the anxiety surprisingly drained from his face as suddenly as it had surged.

'I can't understand what's helping you relax. You have this test tomorrow and no means to revisit the contents,' I reprimanded in a falsetto.

'About that, right! Don't worry, will figure something out.' 

Tears of fury blurred my vision for a while - not because of the lost laptop, but for the chilled attitude following this most unacceptable occurrence of forgetfulness. 

Moments later his dad rang the bell, he was back from office. I took no time to chronicle the events in a querulous manner, knowing fully well how upset he'd become. But to my astonishment he didn't quite jump to any opinion or action. His first suggestion was to write to school and bingo, the mailbox already had an unread email sitting there from the librarian stating the laptop was with her for my son to collect from. He thanked her on email while we thanked our stars quite vocally. Yet, there was this question, hugely unanswered - where to get the resources for revision. And the answer was way more simpler than I could've ever thought - cloud! Being a devout follower of unassailable and infallible mainframes, my faith on cloud was quite flimsy. But that night, when my son logged into Teams with his school credentials through our personal laptop to revise what he needed, I finally owned up and accepted how versatile and convenient this technology is. If I had fully appreciated this before, my IELTS writing score would've certainly been a notch higher. 

Interested in happened next? Read on!

All said and done, my son sat the test missing nothing from preparation point of view. In a daze of post-exam introspection with his friends he returned home. This time dad opened the door as our office days are staggered, 'Did you collect your laptop from Ms Cheung (name changed)?'

'Oh sh**! He dropped the bag at doorstep and ran for the next bus back to school.' Some habits are simply incorrigible.  

Dona, Sydney, 8th Sep 2022