Thursday, August 21, 2014

Cut off!

Not like Surpanakha, Ravana’s sister, who had her nose cut off, but “literally” cut off / isolated from the rest of the world with no mobile, telephone or Internet! What was quite the way of life back in my childhood days (can’t imagine how we could have lived without these technology gadgets and gizmos, and that too happily!), now my whole life seems to depend on it. Cable’s been cut and will take a while to fix, I’m told. And my future already starts to look bleak!

I hit the panic mode ever since I lost connection, and I’ve been blabbering my head off trying to find some solace in the chaos and keep my sanity. I can’t reach office to tell them I’m cut off – no mail, sms, whatsapp, fb, twitter, skype, call...(not even blog!); virtually nothing to connect me, and the world already seems to have tripled in size looking just as alien to me!

My office, based in another city up north, won’t be able to reach me for those “urgent, want it yesterday jobs”, and I won’t be able to tell them “rukavat ke liye kaid hai” like those Doordarshan days. For the jobs I have in hand, I won’t be able to search online whether for information, facts or figures, nor will I be able to refer to images to visualise / give shape to the “big” idea.

And suddenly, I remembered those days when mobile phones were rare – when incoming calls were charged @ Rs.8/- per minute; double for outgoing. When we didn’t have the luxury of “Googling” for information, and when we did, it was at snail’s pace over a dial-up connection, and with hardly anything that was worth our while. But I used to work back then too. In fact, work much better. Where ideas were not limited to the images that were available on stock photo sites! Then why do I now have this desperate feeling like the world is coming to an end. Life must go on, even without mobile or internet, doesn’t it?!

Imagine if technology and all its conveniences were to crumble and crash like this one fine day, it sounds now to me more dreadful than being shipwrecked and marooned on a cavernous island, all alone without food and water! 

And while I dreadfully tread upon that thought, I leave you guys to imagine and share what you think of a day cut off from the rest of the world, when the rest of the world continues to stay connected...

7 comments:

Bikram said...

about two weeks back, I dropped my mobile and it went kaput , i had to send it for repair and beleive me I was lost . Chaos.. no reminders to tell me what i ma to do

i was lost ... we have got too much dependent on these devices ..

BUT I miss the good old days I still prefer them we had more love and care for each other then

Bikram's

RGB said...

Yeah I can imagine, been through that once before, myself! I know, this dependency is sort of frightening...

Insignia said...

Its scary when you realize how much we are dependent on the technology.

We dont remember phone numbers of our near and dear ones, important events, account numbers, credit/debit card details....

So much so that we dont learn spellings these days but rely on auto correct.

Rama Ananth said...

Same here, one day with no Internet, I feel so lost. That is the time I want to google for all my stupid doubts, that day only I want something very urgently done, and I become more miserable when this continues for days, because they have dug up some place to lay new cables etc.
Yes we used to have a life without all these gadgets that keep getting updated with every passing minute.
I can imagine your plight, if a dumb and unsavvy person, like me can miss these modern technologies, you must be a gone case .

RGB said...

@Bikram, OMG...I hope you were able to fix your mobile. And yeah, I can empathize with the 'feeling lost' feeling! Me too, nothing like our good old days!!

RGB said...

@Insignia,
Sure is scary! How these gadgets have spoilt us :(

RGB said...

@Rama Ananth,
Same here! And since most of my work is done online, I'm a goner if the connection is disrupted!!