This Man Speaking In Sign Language Over Video Chat Shows Just How Technology Is Changing India

Technology is cool and everything, after all it gives us neat gadgets to play with and more convenient ways to do things. But one aspect of technology that's unfortunately sidelined far too often is how it can enable people to do things they never could have before.

And right here is a perfect example of that side of technology. Indiatimes' own Abhishek Saksena caught this heartwarming exchange in a bus in the NCR region. This gentleman is communicating with his friend through sign language, over video chat.

Think about that for a second. Video calling to you is just like a bonus. You've been able to call people for decades, and you would have encountered mobile phones in India even 20 years ago. But for a deaf person, all of those varieties of phones have been useless.

Eventually, we got Skype in the early 2000s, which was a step up for someone hearing impaired but it still glued you to a desktop. It was only much later that our phones and VoIP technology became advanced enough to support efficient video calling. Then we had apps for it.

Yet, that would have been just for the upper and middle class. For everyone else in India, a smartphone would be far too expensive. But not anymore.

That's why, a man waving his fingers in patterns in front of his phone on the bus, a blind person making their way with better navigational skills than ever before, a person unable to stand now walking again, all of these are how you measure the progression of technology. Not in how easy life becomes for all of us, but how much it can reduce the difficulty for those that already have it rough.