COVER STORY
But the idea seems scary to Indian language
journalists—since most of them have aban-
doned typing, Indian journalism now leans
heavily on Google. Its penetration in India is
so high that voice searches in Hindi grew 400
per cent in 2018, while the growth overall in
the world was just 270 per cent. “It was torture
to type Hindi,” says Arvind Singh, who works
with Hindi daily Hindustan. “The font system
was difficult to learn, and many symbols like
aadha la, aadha pa were not available.”
Naturally, he has migrated to voice-typing his
stories and doesn’t want to migrate back. It all
seems like some Ali Baba Chaalis Chor fantasy
to him right now, where no hands are required
to work. Life without Google? “A vacation toSwitzerland would be best,” he chuckles.
“As of now, work and Google are synonyms.”LCHIKI Gboard? Yes, unbe-
knownst to English users, Google’s
Indian-language space is exploding
like a supernova. Gboard, the
Google keyboard, can handle 50 Indian
languages and voice-input supports 10 of them.
Map voice navigation comes in seven: Hindi,
Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam
and Gujarati. That’s millions and millions of
people. And Google Assistant works in 10
languages. A majority of India’s 400 million
active internet users work in Indian languages,
not English. No wonder Caesar Sen Gupta, vice
president, Google’s Next Billion Users initiative,
says: “We have launched a number of India-first
products. By building for India first, we build for
the future—creating apps that work great for
everyone, everywhere. Maps Offline and Two-
Wheeler Mode are great examples—products
built for India, but now being used elsewhere in
the world.”
So no getting away from Google, it seems.
Except in your fiction...well, not even in fiction,What will a world without GPS look like?
“Sab thapp ho jayega (Everything will
stop),” replies Phool Singh Chauhan with a
hearty laugh. “Young people completely rely
on GPS locations and are clueless about
the streets.” Chauhan, 39, has been driving
taxis for the past 15 years, well before
the smartphone revolution. He bought a
car—Swift Dzire—a few months ago and
has just begun working with appbased taxi
services. Until May, he was employed with
a traditional taxifleet owner.He remembers the days when navigation
could be quite cumbersome. “When I was
new to the profession, I ferried an old
couple to Patna following a family death.
Mobiles were a luxury at that time. We
entered Patna at midnight and the couple
was clueless about the directions. STDs
and PCOs (phone booths) were closed. We
kept wandering on the streets for nearly
two hours as there was no one to guide us
to the destination.”
However, things have changed with thelogistics, taxi and home delivery services
that have sprung up on the back of Google
Maps. “Both Ola and Uber use the app
and if their network is down, we switch to
Maps to reach the destination. WhatsApp
location also uses the service,” he says. “I
wish these apps had come earlier. I missed
seeing my daughter grow up and the pranks
that my son played. I wasn’t with them
when they were sick and my wife alone
took care of them.” O
(As told to Jyotika Sood)Google voice
searches in
Hindi grew
400 per cent
in 2018,
while overall
growth
across the
world was
270 per cent.Phool Singh Chauhan
Cab driver36 OUTLOOK 22 July 2019