Sidgangappa Golur, 59, a millet farmer lives on the fringes of Tumkur, a dusty, non-descript town that is an hour-and-a-half drive from India’s technology capital, Bangalore. Wracked by unpredictable rains and expensive farm labour, Sidgangappa can only make a modest living from his few acres.

Google may be the leading purveyor of the world’s information, but Sidgangappa had never heard of the ubiquitous Internet company.

But when an ‘Internet Bus’ sponsored by Google rolled into town last week, Sidgangappa’s curiosity got the better of him.  He clambered on to the high-tech white bus with multiple computers hooked to the internet via satellite.  He listened intently as a Kannada-speaking executive talked about the internet, web addresses, searches and maps.

Sidgangappa has never touched a computer in his life.  But his face lit up when a Google executive explained that he could surf the Internet — check train schedules, read the news, check out horoscopes — all though his cell phone.  When the time came to learn how to GPRS-enable his mobile phone, Sidgangappa was disappointed.  His model was simply too outdated to support Internet communication.

Google is taking its bus on a journey across India’s towns and cities, hoping to educate people about the Internet and how it could be useful in their lives. But if the Town Hall stop in Tumkur and the cross-section of people that came aboard were any indication, the digital divide between Bangalore and Tumkur is not merely a gap but a gaping gulf.

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