Thursday, May 17, 2018

Toastmaster P6 Speech : Google Aunty

Opening : 1M  
    Most of us use google maps to help us to find directions to our destination.  
    [[Demo of google voice assistant : directions to home]]
    Google maps works. But have you ever been (assert) misrouted by google maps. Can you recall that experience ?

Body : 4M
    I have been misled few times. One incident, I remember vividly that reconfirmed one of the truths about travelling. We were three families going to landsdowne and we had hired a tempo traveller for the journey. My family, the family of a very polite sardarji and another family of a very close friend who is generally recognized by his frog eyes.

    The tempo traveller picked us up at around lunch time. I asked the driver "i hope you know the way". The driver gave me a blank look and said “No Sir”. We consult google aunty for the route. (robot voice) It will take 6 hours and 47 minutes to reach your destination.

    By sundown, the kids were out of patience. "Papa, uncle, when will we reach the mountains?". And sardarji was like "Beta, we are about to reach. Count to 100". And then we reached (assert) that fork in the road. This is a very important fork. The driver says "Sir, we should take the left road. It is the highway". But google aunty said "Use the right lane to slide right". And since we trusted google aunty, we took right. In some time, we were almost inside a village. My friend's eyes have become even more froggy. Google aunty says "In 100 meters take left". We took the left and in 1 kilometer, we are actually inside a village. It is very dark outside and the road kept getting narrower and narrower. Suddenly, we see a villager, and we stop near him. We ask him the way to landsdown and he looks at us with his sleepy eyes and says "Sir, i dont know". The driver wanted to take a u turn, but the road was so narrow that it was not possible.

    And then we were no more on proper road. There were potholes everywhere. And we were in a farm with tall grass on both sides. By this time our wives were giving us the "eye". All of us are peeking out of the windows, nervous and sweating. And suddenly there was a big bump and we are on the main highway. There was a police barricate with police men standing. They stop us. "Where are you going?" the inspector goes. We push forward our polite sardarji who says "Sir, we are going to landsdowns with family. And we got lost." The inspector gives us directions and we drive on.

Conclusion : 1M
    And then i realised that during the whole time, while we were lost, the kids were very quiet. No one was counting to 100. No one was nagging us. They were sitting relaxed. Staring outside. Enjoying the night, the stars, the farms, the village houses. They were the ones enjoying the drive. It made me realize that "It is the journey and not the destination that matters".