Ce n’est pas un laptop

A little bit of background first. A few years back, some men had a vision “to break down world barriers of race, age, gender, language, class, economics and geography” by increasing access to information, especially in the digital form. The proposal was put forward at Davos in ’05 and those amazing people at the MIT Media Lab decided to help out. Just one year later, they came up with this:

A gem of a device, which had everything, built in Wi-Fi, built-in video cam,  speakers and microphones, 3 USB ports (take that, Macbook Air) , a hybrid stylus/touch pad. All this for just $100, they said. Sure, the cost later ran up to $140, but it’s still a great technical and economic milestone. Give those MIT engineers a couple of years and I’m sure they’ll breach the $100 barrier. This laptop-cum-gamepad-cum-eBook reader-cum <everything except the kitchen sink> is so brilliant that around 1 million laptops have already been purchased by individuals and governments around the world.

A few months back, our very own MHRD (Ministry of Human Resources Development) announced that it was going to unveil a $10 laptop. My first reaction was ‘Wha…??? MHRD? $10 ????No way’ It didn’t take me long to figure out that most of the online forums took the same view. But it was an official MHRD announcement anyway and that was it. A wait and watch game till the big unveiling. Of course, this is the period where the media cashes in. And boy! did they ever. The as-yet-unannounced laptop was called an OLPC killer and comics depicted Mr. Negroponte having nightmares about it. Nobody paused to wonder if it was all too good to be true. Sure, a lot of good press for the MHRD but where was the laptop?

The Big Unveiling

The device was called ‘Sakshat’, which meant ‘before your eyes’. Journos gathered at the function sure couldn’t believe what was before their eyes. It was a 10″x5″ white plastic brick with a couple of ports around the edges. That was it. Then the MHRD officials announced that it was a ‘wireless memory access system’. Well, that’s that folks. It’s a glorified 2GB pen drive (yes the ones you carry) with scratchy Wi-Fi access. Predictably, the press tore the unveiling fiasco into pieces. Scathing, cynical (and more damagingly, indifferent) posts appeared in news-sites and tech-blogs like Engadget. ‘Designed by students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras, UGC and MHRD‘, quoted the articles, almost wondering if it was the best the country could do. I wouldn’t have minded if India too produces a wannabe low cost laptop, but for Pete’s sake put up a decent presentation. And cut down on all the effing hype. I mean, look at it. Does that look like the kind of device that can revolutionize the Indian education system? Didn’t think so.

We (the readers and the press) should probably be a bit more discerning about implausible stories like these and not get carried away by rumours, but still , they promised us so much and we got so little. I’m not outraged, just incredibly annoyed.