THE NEW WORLD.....PART 2

The guy who fixed up the internet connection at our place, told us initially some tit-bits on how to use the browser and a start-up list of websites and search engines and how we could use ‘e-mail’ and………….how to chat……..:). Yeah! MS Chat with the innocent icon of the cartoon guy with specs........was the not-so-innocent world where people interacted with each other. It exposed me to a whole world of networked people from all over the globe who were looking out to ‘chat’ with people, who were in turn looking out for people like them-inquisitive, thrilled, adventurous, experimentative…….
It opened that sea of endless possibilities……a very few of them being- age no bar, marital/’real’ life relationship status reduced to immateriality, no geographical demarcations, no disease tests, no scope for knowing the colour/creed/name/country/hobbies/characteristics……….nothing………..unless U asked for it. Yeah.

U needed to create your own id( and name yourself anything from sexxykitten to cooltexlad), choose a cartoon icon U’d like to be represented as( whenever U selected the option of illustrated chats instead of text chat), enter a chat room of your choice………and………..lo and behold! A number of PM chat windows would open up within seconds which say-‘Hi! Hw r u?’ or ‘hey! Asl?’ or simply- ‘Hi’. Well, such ‘netiquette’ was then. With passage of time, the number of PM chat windows propping up became directly proportional and a square function and an exponential function(with base>1 and maybe tending towards infinity) with respect to how sexy your id was. Oh ! Pardon my insensitivity! For those who don’t know( & I doubt if there is anybody like that!)…….PM means- private message and ASL means- Age, sex, location.

I knew none of this chat lingo when I was introduced to this new world. And remember, that was when I was in class 6….1996. Nowadays, 7 year olds know it! And 77 year olds too!!

Anyway, with passing time I learnt the lingo…….I learnt the short-forms………I learnt how to chat…….and I also learnt how not to chat. I still remember that the very first time I chatted, was with a US soldier! He was a fun person and when I disclosed my age, he said- ‘Hey! U r my daughter’s age!’ Those were good times……there were genuinely good people, out to explore the motley of people of various nationalities, religions, time zones, climates….From the latter two I remembered-“wat’s the time dere?” & “hws d weather der?” were common questions in any international chat I had!!

The international people I talked to were always doubly interested when I mentioned ‘India’. They were just so eager to learn about India’s customs, culture and religions. But not everybody. There was the prejudiced lot too who said-“hey…u 4m d land of snake charmers?” And believe me……..when anybody said that, they had it. I would first calmly explain to them. And if inspite of that they spoke any slang or rubbish, I would lash out at them with all my might and strong yet slangless language, which sure would have gotten their medieval and misplaced perspective towards the correct one. In case it continued, I learnt the use of ‘ignore’, but not until they had been spanked to my heart’s content!!

I had my share of scandalized moments when the perennial sex seekers came along too. Again, I had tremendous fun (& still do…….!) to shoo them away forever! I’d continuously type all the spanking I wanted to give them, quickly press enter, and then quickly press ‘ignore’ button!! WOW! That feeling of contentment is supreme! Seriously!

And the guy who fixed our internet connection, also told us about ICQ(It originated from these words- I-SEEK-U! Cool! Isn’t it?!) and installed it too, saying that he remained online on that, and we could ask any queries to him. ICQ was another chat software and it was innovative in the sense that, suppose somebody sent U a message, then U heard a ‘cuckoo’ sound!! It was funny. When 2 or 3 messages would come simultaneously, it’d be a ‘cuckoo’ blast! And if they came along with milliseconds delay, it was a different ‘cuckoo’ blast!! With this also, my sister and I could talk to a host of people. I specifically remember a Pakistani lady who talked to us. She was really discreet and frankly told us, how she struggled to make ends meet and how she logged in after putting her kids to sleep. She also said that India and Pakistan should become one, and we had never agreed more on anything else. We were really happy to be acting as ambassadors of peace for our country! And talking of Pakistan, I must not forget to mention over here, that I had some experiences with Pakistan’s India-bashers too, on MS Chat. But by now, U already know my policy, right?! I went all out to teach them a lesson of peace. Albeit- the hard way.
But there were also several good Pakistani people, who genuinely wanted peace and wanted soldiers from both sides to not die in useless wars. I had a gem of a time, agreeing with them and promising to spread peace in our respective countries….! And movies, stars and cricket were favourite common topics for discussion! It was a thrill typing Hindi using the English alphabet. It united us and our nations like nothing possibly could!

Coming back to the topic, soon my sister and I started realizing the redundancy of ICQ. Coz, we found there was no need to keep contact with the guy who fixed our net connection! Hey…we could find the solutions ourselves! In case we (by chance……..0.000001% probability)needed to, the ever beautiful e-mail was there!

So there we were…………empowered……..emboldened…….and……..ready to handle the vagaries and beauties of……..THE NEW WORLD………..:)

Deceit

I gave form to a part of my soul…….
I wrote my heart out…..
Content being my dormant goal……..

I wrote……I wrote…I wrote……
Which at the end became…..
My baby……
My signature prose……

I cared not for the pitch dark outside….
And cared not for the dogs that howled…..

I cared not for the spookiness of the night…..
I cared only to bare my soul…….

And when after giving the finishing touches,
I pressed the key to my salvation………

I lost my baby to the infinite space.
My heart cried out being desperate…

The net had snatched my baby away…….
In a most distressfully deceitful way…….

First it raped me till it had its fill…….
And then left hurriedly…….
With the consequence of its sin……………

THE NEW WORLD.....PART 1

This is a whole world by itself. It is called the ‘virtual’ world. But true inhabitants of this world do not think so. For them, it is real…….more real than life itself. The ability to be what they cannot ‘really’ be in the ‘real’ world and to do what they have never considered themselves capable of doing and to make the other inhabitants of this world believe what they want to make them believe, makes this world the vibrant reality for them. Often these beliefs spill over……….to the ‘real’ world. So, people who otherwise considered themselves as ‘mirror cracking material’ , look and feel more beautiful…….and people who otherwise never talk with females, become the most popular and networked people..!

To reach out to a world full of ‘real’ people like them, to extend packets of energy at the speed of light, to anticipate what kind of packet of energy will be sent from the other side during seconds of silence, to feel thrilled at the prospect of praise and feel cheated at the prospect of deceit and seethe with anger at the prospect of injustice, to explore the unexplored inside their own souls by the exchange of quanta of energy, to bash up the other side with thunderous words when ignominious turns take place……all this is the very beauty of this world.

My tryst with this world, started during class 6. For the first time in Bhubaneswar, a private cable tv network ushered in dial-up internet connections. It was slow like hell but since there was no standard for comparison at that time, me and my sister accepted it with open arms. It is only now, in the Broadband Era, that we realize how abominably slow and bad those times were………thank God times have progressed……..more importantly, thanks to the scientists and innovators, for making ‘real’ technological advances every nano-second as well as ensuring that Moore’s Law holds true……..:)

So there I was…….blinking with open eyes…….at the new world……which looked deceitfully small….entrapped inside that _by_ inches computer screen. My sister, like a virtuoso, immediately picked up the tricks of browsing and e-mailing….tricks to write mails offline and tricks to open 4 to 5 websites at a time and tricks to use search engines. So there she was….typing the names of 4 to 5 websites and waiting till what seemed an eternity for ‘logging in’ to take place…….and finally when the long beep of connection would take place sounding like the best and most soothing music to the ears……..we would heave a sigh of relief and happiness would splash across our faces. Had there been a hidden camera on the comp screen, it’d have caught our plethora of emotions and caught our eager, inquisitive faces virtually tearing into the screen and would have been an award-winning documentary!!!

Initially, it was sheer thrill to enter this world….but oh…….we would have scarcely entered……and the red cross would’ve appeared at the ‘connection’ icon at the bottom…………heck……..we’d be disconnected every 5 minutes. It tested our patience to the hilt, and in between, very rarely, that too in the wee hours of the night, we would be rewarded with an hour or so of ‘undisconnected’ connection! So what if the pages took long minutes to open…….?!

At least we were………...ahem……..connected……..!!