I have always hated alarms. Though I have gotten used to their silly raucous tantrum they play every morning in an effort to wake me up, I still hate them. But as the most ugly things and stupid jobs become a part of our lives, so has this. And monday mornings I am somewhat appreciative of the alarm to wake me up for the new week before me. As the clamor filled my ears and partly vivid dreams, my hands moved to the table to pick up the phone and turn off the alarm, with my eyes still closed. I felt a strong urge to turn face down on my pillow and add an extra minute to my disturbed sleep. But my daily life wouldn't allow me to.
I gathered my strength and climbed out of bed. The morning was bright but cloudy, and the weather seemed to go along with me in sharing the monday morning blues. I completed my early morning chores, did a few push ups and entered the shower. As the warm water poured over my head, I started imagining how it would be to stand in the rain. I hadn't done so since college, and was too conscious now, all the time worried about my health, clothes and time. I spared the thought aside and dried myself quick to get ready. I made myself toast and poached eggs and had them for breakfast along with a cup of coffee. While on the table, I scanned through my watsapp messages and calender for important events of the day. Checking mails required more time so I preferred checking them while seated comfortably in my office cabin.
It was 8:30 by the time I left my house. It was a 15 min drive to my office and during rush hours it sometimes took more than 30 minutes. When I first moved here after school, I was very thrilled about my new job. 5 years and a PhD was quite a journey and it was exciting to do something else, something more routine. After a year down the lane, this routine had made my life monotonous. There was nothing to be thrilled about, I had realized. My marriage had seen 6 months, but I was still leading a bachelor life, with my wife stuck in India due to visa issues. Up and down the same road, regular office hours and returning to an empty house was making me less of a human being and more of a mechanically operated bot. The thoughts about my insipid life got swayed into a thoughtless cloud which resounded with the voice on the radio reading and discussing the current events. Listening to the news gave me a strange feeling sometimes. I had no idea who the person of the topic of discussion is, and many a times I didn't even care whats going on out there, but still I kept on listening to it. This medium of anonymity lying between me and rest of the world who I know nothing about even though I live in it unsettled me all the time. I wondered how in the e-socialism era we have truly become highly unsocial. How our social obligations have become limited to wishing birthdays through messages and clicking on our friends' pictures just to show them we are there somewhere, without being a least interested in what is actually going on in their lives. These thoughts were incongruous to my current life. I was settled and peaceful, married and earning well. But there was nothing i could do about it, so I simply let the thoughts pass.
20 minutes of drive and 20 ages of thoughts finally got me to my office. Finding a parking was again a pain, and after a few rounds I finally got one at the end of the 6th row. By now it had turned a shade darker outside, with rain clouds drifting slowly over my head, like the dementors. I entered my building and feeling too tired already, took the lift to the fourth floor.
My cabin was situated at the end of the hall. Sometimes it was a good thing, that I could see everyone while I walked down the hall and say a quick hello, or stop for a short chat. I also crossed the kitchen which was mid way down the hall. That was a place I really liked. One could meet people for coffee or for lunch during the breaks, and those short conversations often took off the work stress. I liked these small social gatherings much more than the social hub on the internet. While walking down I found some of my colleagues already working, and some empty cabins, waiting for their hosts to arrive. I reached my cubicle, kept my bag on the side table and turned on my computer.
I logged in to the system, and then to my office mail. Finding no overwhelming tasks out there, I decided to take some casual time off before beginning my day. I logged into my Gmail. That was a part of my daily routine as well. As the gmail was loading I opened the news in a new tab. 10 unread messages popped up on my bookmarks bar. One chain mail going on with my friends in India, some ad mails, calender reminders, shipment order confirmation from amazon and one about Orkut? I curiously opened the mail from google that said that orkut will be shutting down in September. There was nothing fancy about the mail, nor it had anything to do with me, yet i blankly stared at it for a moment. Orkut. It was something i was hearing or reading about after a long time. The mail said about exporting profile data, but I was not sure if I had anything there that I wanted or needed to take out. But it wouldn't harm to visit once before it closes. Today there were no meetings and I could jump on to my project work. So keeping things aside, I opened my Orkut page. Wow, things had changed here. Except for my profile pic, things looked so different on the page now. Oh yes, and there was the horoscope. Its funny how i loved reading those. I looked at my friends list and most of them were in my friends list on Facebook or in circles on G+. Their profile pics looked old, compared to the recent ones on other social sites, and it was obvious they had not visited Orkut either, or had not bothered to change it since there were few visitors here. The left column looked new too, with vibes, conversations, reminders. It was incredible to find that so much time had passed. I browsed through my photos and videos and they were last updated a few years back. Looking at those old pictures made me smile. I then clicked on the testimonials. These were one unique thing about Orkut which I missed on other sites, and I realized why when I opened it. The page displayed all the testimonials my friends had written for me. The first one was from the girl, who in a few years' time became my wife. I read it, again and again, and seemed to fall back in time when we started dating. The remembrance made me actually stifle a laugh. Those moments became so livid, and I fell in love with her all over again. We had started chatting through Orkut and it was an important part of our lives then, since long distance calls were expensive. I had never realized how a social site was responsible for my love life. I started missing her and wanted to be with her at the moment. I wanted to see her. I opened up the chat window and dropped her a message to see if she was available for a hangout. Her status showed away so I decided to wait. I kept on reading further.I came across a testimonial from a friend whom I hadn't talked to in a while. He was my school friend and we were the best of buddies back then. Not a day went by when we did not talk, or play a prank, or share our food. And today was a day when I did not know which city he was in, or which company he was working for. I read and re read the testimonial. I could feel every word of his, how much it meant, and how important our friendship was to him. I suddenly realized how important I was to someone, and how loved and respected I was. I was abashed at the thought of not being in touch with this buddy of mine, who was once a part of my life. At the same time, I started feeling happy and a warm feeling of friendship filled my blood. My ho-hum life had started humming, and vibrant colors filled my surroundings. I picked up my phone and searched for his contact number. I still had his old number when he was in college. All these years, I had never bothered to update his number even. But there was no time to rue. I searched for him and found his contact. And then I dialled.
While the connection was being made, my heart started beating faster. How would it be to talk to him after such a long time? Would he remember me the same way as before? Would we be able to share things again? What if he is uncomfortable in starting a conversation? A thousand such questions kept bouncing off my head as the phone started ringing on the other end. With every ring the pulse grew faster, and at a point the heat reached my head. And then someone picked up the phone and answered "Hello?". The voice was as calm as ever. I said "Hi Anand, Ravi here. How are you dude?" . Not a moment had passed after that than Anand jumped on me with his frivolous banter and in no time we were laughing aloud like wild dogs. It never looked like we were talking after years. And at that instant, the years that went by did not matter; all that mattered was that moment. While on the phone I walked towards the window and looked outside. It had started raining. And after a long time, I felt I was out in the rain again. It felt like happiness.
Thank you to Orkut for the moments it gave me, for the love of my life and for reminding me how important I am to some in this world.
