Recently I have gone back to “school”. Sohini was not amused a bit when I told her I’m going to be a student again, but that’s true. I have enrolled myself in a master’s course and the studies have started. True, it’s late in the day to get an MA degree (most of my contemporaries have post-PhD qualifications, or at least three or four MA degrees), but I hope not too late: so what I have failed thrice already, I can sure try again!

In fact, I don’t have to go to the school (the University of Canberra, which is offering the course). It comes to me. That’s the beauty of the Internet: I can study from home, from anywhere, anytime I want, like never before. And, the subject? It’s about the Internet too! I’ve been working in Internet communication for six years now, and every so often I wonder at the power of this new communication medium that gives ordinary people the power to communicate and create their own media, create their own news and create their own world. Now it is up to us how we “misuse” that power. Part of my reasons to do this MA is to study how we can do that for people’s empowerment. And the other part is real basic: damn, get a degree! If I had heeded to my teachers’ and parents’ advice in time, it would have been a different story. I wouldn’t have got now to share the PC and the study table with my daughter to do my homework… And I have no time for her homework. How can she be amused?

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