What is Computer’s gender?

What is Computer’s gender?

A Hindi teacher was explaining to her class that in Hindi, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. ”Wall clock” for instance, is feminine – ”Ghadee”. “Pencil,” however, is masculine.

A student asked, “What gender is computer?” Instead of giving answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether “computer” should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
The men’s group decided that “computer” should definitely be of the Feminine gender because:

  • No one but their creator understands their internal logic.
  • The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
  • Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval.
  • As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your pay check on accessories for it.

The women’s group concluded that computers should be Masculine because:

  • In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on.
  • They have lot of data but still can’t think for themselves.
  • They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem.
  • As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
  • If you try to make them do too many things at the same time they crash.
  • Repairing them is usually more difficult than getting a new one.

Needless to say, the women won!!!


About the Author

Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.

What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.

Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com

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