Padma awardee and Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra on Saturday offered a job to Nikita, a girl from Uttar Pradesh's Basti district who saved her younger sister and herself from monkeys using the Alexa device. The Mahindra Group chairman backed the young girl for her extraordinarily quick thinking. He said that this story proves that "technology will always be an enabler of human ingenuity."
"The dominant question of our era is whether we will become slaves or masters of technology. The story of this young girl provides comfort that technology will always be an ENABLER of human ingenuity. Her quick thinking was extraordinary," Anand Mahindra said in his post on X (formerly Twitter).
He added: "What she demonstrated was the potential for leadership in an entirely unpredictable world. After she finishes her education, if she ever decides to work in the corporate world, I hope we at Mahindra Rise will be able to convince her to join us!!"
The incident occurred on April 5 in Uttar Pradesh's Basti, where Nikita was visiting her sister. When a monkey entered the room, Nikita used Alexa to make dog noises, successfully scaring the monkey away.
"A few guests visited our home and they left the gate open. Monkeys entered the kitchen and started throwing things here and there. The kid was scared and so did I but then I saw Alexa and asked it to play the sound of a dog. Because of that barking sound, the monkeys were scared and ran away," Nikita said.
Nikita's mother, Shipra Ojha, acknowledged her daughter's resourcefulness in using the device to prevent a potential attack. "Both their lives were saved by such good use of the Alexa device, we were in another room but due to the wisdom of daughter Nikita, she asked the Alexa to make the sound of a dog and hearing the sound the monkey ran away," she told ANI