One big happy social family!!

"Wow babe! I got a Facebook request from your MOM!!!" I heard someone screech....and just like
that twenty or so pairs of eyes around us went in search of the 'babe' in question whose mother had hopped on the bandwagon of the newest breed of parents and grandparents joining the social networking community. It is pretty cool to be a member of the same social networking site where your children, grandchildren and most of your relations are members too! Or is it?

Most of the traffic on social networking sites is young. Everybody is entitled to an opinion and today, unlike until some years before, everybody wants to express it. Youngsters join because it is 'the in thing' today. Many hop on just because their friends are on this social site, or that. There are even some children who give wrong ages just to be on the sites. Some parents allow this, some parents are not even aware! But there also is a newest entrant in this social networking scenario....parents...or for that matter, grand parents. (Of course, if Amitabh Bachchan is still young, well, so are we! Right?) We are, after all, a young country of mature people. Our population is largely educated and opinionated. It is admittedly an old cliché that in India everybody has an opinion on everything, especially when it comes to cricket and Bollywood. But it is true, isn't it? Today, almost everyone we know and some even we don't know are our 'friends' on these social networking sites. All the friends who are separated by distance and their individual busy lives can virtually get together at the end of a tiring day and check what their friends have been up to. Many long lost friends get a second chance because of these sites. Many join out of necessity, to be in touch with children who are abroad or otherwise far away......as for some parents and grandparents, social networking sites and the internet generally, is the only way of keeping track of their loved ones.

It is definitely great to see that retired parents and grandparents are trying to get back in touch with their old friends and colleagues and keep themselves in the know. After all, what does anybody want more than happy and satisfied elders? Internet is the easiest, cheapest and the most convenient mode of communication today. So, on the one hand youngsters may feel that its too much censorship that parents are a part of their social circle, but on the other hand, it is good that the idea of socializing, no matter what age, is taking strong hold in our country. Agreed, there are a few hesitant participants, but it is still good to see the idea catching up.

In a country like ours, joint families have been always the norm. It is only in the past decades that the idea of nuclear families has evolved. (and how!) These social networking sites, have once again brought the big happy joint family together, I must say. You don’t really have to visit people now regularly or write to them (not even email) to stay connected. Anytime one feels like seeing a favourite nephew or a sister…all you have to do is log on to Facebook! Simple….but then, where is the joy of hanging out together? You will get to see your favourite little cousin’s photo, but is it the same as sharing that private joke with her in person? Facebook gives us updates on everybody, to an extent where its beginning to feel like we almost live in the same house…but will that stop us from visiting? Well, I for one sure hope not!

A Break In The Pattern

The train stops. She looks around. It is a big station, large and open, nothing like the big city railway stations that she has seen. This station is surrounded by lush greenery as far as the eye can see. There is a chill in the air. And a sense of belonging. She breathes it in, deeply. She walks towards the end of the platform to the foot-overbridge that will take her out of the station. A few taxis and auto rickshaws are lined up near the exit, and she hires one at random. The driver helps her stow her one bag near her feet, while she sits to one side of the wide seat, as if she is sharing space with someone. Because she is used to taking up only so much space – always in a corner, trying not to make her presence felt. Now as she thinks this, she moves a little towards the centre of the seat, as if to affirm to herself that she is now travelling all by herself, for the first time in her life. You wouldn’t really know it now, to look at her, but she is scared out of h...

The Dream

“Hello,” said the voice on the phone. “My name is Roald Dahl. I know you never expected a call from me, as famous as I am, but I’ve been given your name as someone who can help me with my next book…” That was how it all started. With that one dream. Of course, I knew it even before I had opened my eyes, that it was a dream. I mean, who in their right mind would say I know you never expected a call from me, as famous as I am… ?! Not to mention the fact that Dahl has been dead for the past twenty-eight years. But that didn’t matter. Not at that time. Because that dream gave me clarity. That dream propelled me into action after ages of inactivity. Well, I say ages, but it was merely months, really. Months spent going in and out of courtrooms. Months spent climbing up and down that horrid staircase of the family court building. Horrible, awful months. Excruciating months, when I preferred oblivion, and possibly even contemplated death. Months when I didn’t want to exis...

The Past That Binds...

The sound of the raindrops hitting the window panes in a quiet residential part of a small town is so different from that in a big city. That is the thought in her mind now, as she looks out of her kitchen window. The trees around her property are thick and dark as they stand drenched in the heavy downpour. It is the second day in a row that heavy rains continue to lash their area. She has heard in the morning on the radio that the rain will continue for a couple more days. It is good, she thinks, that she has just picked up her groceries, having moved in only a few days ago. From the small gap in the trees, she can see across to the blue-walled house, just as she could see as a child. It is drenched too. The creepers outside its kitchen wall making a brave attempt at holding on through the heavy downpour. She can see its kitchen window clearly from here. How amazing, she thinks, how few things change over a period of time, although everything is chan...

Kavita R21 November 2011 at 20:43
Agreed Rashmi...ntg can beat the personal relation with the person..but virtual things are as u say "in" things..people luv virtuality more than personal meetings...that is wat the world has cum to now..:)
Rashmi's Space22 November 2011 at 20:56
in a way, it is required also in today's day and age where we are all almost always far away from our families....internet, as I said is the easiest and the cheapest mode of communication for many today

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