According to this article, a group of enterprising Indians have hatched a scheme to load up pedicabs, wheel barrows, carts, and other two-wheeled, chump-powered vehicles with computers. They'll then push, drag, or peddle these compu-scoots o'er hill and dale to remote villages throughout their clay-ovened nation in an effort to teach sub-educated sub-continentals about the glories Microsoft Word, Minesweeper, and www.preggos.com.

Sure, it's crazy. Crazy enough to work!

Take it from 12-year-old Anju Sharma:

"By using computers, I can improve my knowledge," Sharma, whose parents plan to pull her out of school at 15, said in Hindi, before joining a class on web cameras. "And that will help me get a job when I grow up."

Presumably, Sharma plans to use her webcam expertise by launching www.seesharmastarve.com, where she'll trade glimpses of her barely legal (in India) Darjeelings for a few rupees and a hollow, soulless feeling that no amount of curry will chase away.

Exporting America, indeed!

The program's final hurdle is where among the villages' sewage-lined streets and mud-walled hovels to plug the damn things in.


"Statues of Hindi gods like Kali and Shiva were brought from village to village on carts like these once," said young Anju Sharma. "Now I worship the unblinking eye of the webcam, and will unfurl my sari for you for only 99 rupees per minute. I accept PayPal."

Analogcabin @ 12:52 PM
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