Our turn to hold their hand !

Success even with repeated chewing remain sweet!

Memories of 2022 sessions is tempting for more.

(Details at : https://kapalicanvas.blogspot.com/2022/02/back-to-school-with-grand-parents.html )

As if to put the icing on the cake, requests were pouring for an encore of online sessions. 

Coupled with that, the increasing cyber crimes, exploiting the ignorance of people is becoming a matter of concern.

Acceding to the request when the call was given, for some hand holding sessions on 'Basic computer operations", the response was swift and fast from around 50 seniors, with some octogenarians leading from the front. 

How can one remain silent to the needs of an 86 year old young man and others from 13 locations across the globe and thus the sessions swung into action, brushing aside the time difference as the lectures started flowing from around 15000 KM away from India.

On the 3rd and 4th of June, 2023, two sessions were done virtually hand holding the seniors right from booting the system to reacting to unexpected hang ups, storing data safely, underlining the need to remain vigilant on downloads and few tips on staying safe over the net.

There were college professors, retired senior executives from banks and  Insurance sectors and it was gratifying to have some from the medicine too, a profession I rate high. Though for these seniors the computers were late to enter behind them, they were in no mood to let it go and their spirits were held aloft by the lone young man in his twenties joining the gang, wanting to know more of computers as he gears up to hold fort of corporate accounts by aspiring to be a chartered accountant.

Matters discussed were very basic and primitive as the participants themselves expressed at the beginning itself that they may be doyens in their respective field of occupations, but were kids with computers and so were treated at the kindergarten level, at an age when they could have decided to stroll peacefully in their own backyard garden.

The feedback was heart warming and there were many suggestions to handle some more topics, as they are considered too basic to be taught, by their current gen kids !

A small video on the sessions can be viewed at: Training on Basic Computer skills - a review

Whether it is primitive or fundamental, their enthusiasm to learn even at this stage cannot be ignored and by discussing few hours some basic Dos and Don'ts, if the numbers on cyber crime and victims come down, my aim of 'Share to Care' will be well served !

Empowering Elders

Months of Feb and March this year,  seem to me to be the ones of receiving blessings from elders !

Deeply moved by the sad faces of many seniors projecting their helpless travails of losing valuables over cyber space, I set out in Feb this year, to address the basic issue of operating computers and held five long sessions discussing and hand holding them with some basics. I was moved by the feedback from over 50 senior citizen participants in those sessions,  about how none cared to teach them these basics even though the ones whom they taught right from cursive writing to JEE coaching were well equipped to do this but were too busy with their own family, preparing the next generation to disappoint them in this area !! (For more details on this, read at the post: https://kapalicanvas.blogspot.com/2022/02/back-to-school-with-grand-parents.html  ) 

When they prodded me to continue with the sessions, I was only too willing to organize few classes on 'Handling email' teaching them right from creating an email account to locate the downloaded attachments, alerting about some pitfalls that they could encounter in the form of phishing and other methods used with email.

Almost the same set of elders were too happy to join and enjoyed the sessions as was evident from the fact that a majority of the 40 elders attended eagerly both the sessions and that included super seniors above the age of 75 years. I felt honoured that a friend who helped me in stepping into the computer arena, when I struggled to make the high fee back in 1982, too participated. The attendees included very senior , but now retired, professionals and the most rewarding moments were realized on getting their feedback, some of which are given below:

As was evident from the feedback, elders not only suffer from lack of updated knowledge but also has to fight other challenges like memory loss, retention etc., It's time the younger ones spend atleast some time, if not more time, with their elders and avoid their feeling lonely and being left alone in the cyber space. I wish I could contribute more to this cause.