Last seen at.....WhatsApp!

I still remember my high school days when internet was a new phenomenon and internet cafes were popping up all across the town. Although, the superficial motive of the visits to these cafes was to keep a tab on several entrance exams application dates and their results, the real motive was to explore  the exciting world of chatting, surfing and testing the newer avenues of recently found  adulthood. As a matter of fact owning a mobile phone was considered to be a luxurious proposition, forget about making outgoing calls,  even the incoming calls were chargeable. STD/PCO booths were the only medium to unwind oneself and to keep ones teenage romance bloomingJ. 

Howsoever exciting, these were not so cheap options, more so being a student. An hourly slot at any internet café costed an upward of  Rs. 50/-, a black and white print out of the hall ticket amounted up to Rs. 15 per page and an incoming call on your rich friend’s mobile costed Rs. 4 per minute, local outgoing being over Rs. 8 per minute.  The world though was still very beautiful despite such high communication tariffs and life certainly was a tad less complicated. 

Those were the days when we used to wait in the internet cafes for our turns to log on to the yahoo messengers and start chatting with random girls with the customary Hi, asl (age,sex,location)please? messages. Any responses with ‘As’ under 25, ‘S’ being ‘F’ and ‘Ls’ being Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore were the most cherished and treasured ones. Romance, friendship and love were the most sought after chat rooms, obviously notwithstanding the more popular adult chat rooms. As the times passed, the internet became cheaper, newer medium of socialising came in and Orkut became one of the most talked about platforms of those times. People were valued by the no. of scraps in their accounts and ones with a handful of testimonials on their account were considered to be the god’s chosen souls. Queues for late night calling at STD/PCO booths also dried up with free incoming and cheaper outgoings on the mobile phones, as if the telecom ministry itself now wanted every youth of this country to have a flourishing and hassle free love lifeJ. 

And in the last decade or so things have changed drastically. Today, one can’t imagine a life without a smart phone and 24*7 internet access. Howsoever, nuclear our lives have become, mediums like Facebook enable us to know all the tits bits of every individual’s life. One might have not spoken to his graduation batch mate for over a decade but he is well aware of all his dates, vacations and promotions very precisely. Thanks to Facebook, thanks to the new age internet. And things are moving so fast, that what Facebook and Twitter did to Orkut might happen to them tomorrow. WhatsApp being the flavour of the last few seasons! Forwards jokes, personal messages, school groups, college groups, hostel groups, office groups, family group have made people so engrossed in this app that they hardly have any time for themselves. Thankfully, WhatsApp now provides the option of disabling ones activity tracking by opting out of ‘last seen at’ display, much as a relief from those annoying snoopers. 

Some may argue that these advances in technology and information industry has had a lot of detrimental effect in our lives, largely true as well unless we leverage them in the right proportion. But personally it gives me a lot of joy when my Dad & Mom, who were once sceptical about accessing internet or handling a smartphone over their hammer-esque mobile phones, can today confidently call me anytime for free using the Vibers, Skypes or other VOIP apps of the world. So much for the Rs. 4/- incoming and Rs. 140/- ISD calling of yesterday. 

And we just don’t know where we would stand, say 5 years from here. Probably we would be laughing over these WhatsApp days, as we do today for our not so old SMS daysJ.

--

kin…

London Diaries 3 | The Lords Extravaganza.

Right from the beginning, one of the high priority items in terms of To Dos in London was a trip to Lords. Not just for the sheer love of the game and the rich history associated with Lords but more so with the kind of perception we have had while growing up and watching the Lords matches on TV. For instance, we were quite sure that there is a clear mandate here of 4 claps for a boundary, 6 for a maximum, 10 for a wicket and may be 15 for a half century and so on. Similarly, one couldn’t enter the stadium in anything but formal clothes and naturally the idea of taking off ones shirt and twirling it in air by some Bengali (not so) gentleman has been documented as the darkest day in the history and sanctity of  Lords – The Home of Cricket! So with such a rich baggage of perceptions in mind, who would not want to visit the Lords sooner than later, with a lot more fervour though, if India is playing a test against the hosts here.

The Build Up. I teamed up with one of friends for this match and booked the tickets a week in advance for the 3^rd day of the test. Assuming it to be the most riveting day of the test with a high probability of getting to watch both the teams batting that day. Although, the 90£/- billing of the ticket did cause a minor earthquake back home but for me it was all inconsequential keeping in mind the excitement attached to the overall experience. The build-up to the match in the media wasn’t in the favour of India, mainly due to our horrendous record here, having registered just a  single win here, that too around three decades back. That however didn’t had any bearing on our unbridled excitement, as the key focus was on experiencing the Lords magic.

The Apprehensions.  Once we got the tickets we countered a set of unique apprehensions. The instructions in the ticket spoke about not turning up for the match in fancy dresses, a subtle way of saying that be formal, its Lords. Not to carry any musical instruments like drums, trumpets or siren, a polite way of saying behave yourself, its Lords. The instructions also clearly stated about not moving from ones allotted seats between the overs, a mild way of saying we mean real business, its Lords. And many such uncharacteristic instructions like not to carry a camera, the hats should not be bigger than the prescribed limits, not to carry more than 2 pints of beer bottles and so on, again a very English way of saying, Gentlemen its Lords! We were confused on the fact that are we actually going for a Cricket match or for a Viva-Voce, nevertheless the excitement to experience the Lords magic was overpowering.

 
Day 3. Finally the much anticipated day arrived, arrived with a downcast morning and wet roads. I had a lump in my throat looking at the dark skies, fearing for the worst that it might actually be a rain curtailed day. Nonetheless, I got ready, put on a shirt to keep myself as close as possible to the Lords code of conduct and set out for THE destination. Thankfully, as the day progressed the skies cleared up and we had a perfect day in hand with full days of Cricket being played. We reached the stadia well before the schedule start of play, giving us ample time to have a look at the magnificent and historic stadium. When we reached our allocated stand, the first look of the lush green outfield, the famous Lords balcony and the grand media stand blew us away. It was all for real! The scene we have been watching for years on our television sets is all there to be seen with our naked eyes. It was certainly a great moment and with team India doing there warm up drills just in front of our stands, added to our excitement. We quickly lunged to the 1^st row, just yards away from the players, where MS was showcasing his great dribbling skills, Virat was as always in full style looking nothing less than a Bollywood star, muscular and tattooed Dhawan was twirling his moustaches with pride, lousy Ashwin was struggling to keep pace with the much fitter members of the team and the lanky Ishant Sharma was struggling to manage his locks in the brisk early morning wind. The fun, camaraderie and the friendly banter among our beloved stars was indeed a treat to watch and promised of a great day ahead.

The Cricket. In the morning session India did well to wrap up the England innings and much to our joy we got an opportunity to see our boys both bat and ball that day. So the ploy of coming on Day 3 worked for us. The post lunch session was a slow progress with Indian batters focussing on consolidating, leaving the spectators on the ground bored to death. However, the third session was a complete contrast with India losing a flurry of wickets and in turn giving away their position of strength and leaving the match in the perfect balance at the close of play. All in all it was a perfect day of Cricket, pretty much to the delight of connoisseurs of Test Cricket and nothing less than what a first timer at Lords would have asked for.

The Epic Moment. The match started with a backdrop of an ugly spat between James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja in the previous test and hence the focus was naturally on these two players. So when Jadeja turned up to bowl to James Anderson , the English fans booed him vehemently. But the epic moment arrived when Jadeja got his prized scalp on his very first delivery and went on his customary celebratory run after that. It was indeed THE cricketing moment of the day for us, much to the dismay of the English fans.

Fan Club Tussle. It was one of those rare occasions for any India match where the no. of non -  Indian fans outnumbered the Indian contingent, so much so that the ratio actually stood to be around 80:20. So to cheer team India amidst such a sea of English fans was an effort none less than battling Anderson and Broad on the green Day 1 pitch. The stern stares from the neighbouring English fans every time we cheered an England wicket or an Indian boundary  told the entire story. To be honest it wasn’t the most comfortable of experiences but definitely a memorable one.

The day eventually ended and we headed back home with loads of photographs, lovely memories and an experience to savour for life. It wasn’t one of the most electric atmospheres when I compare it my other live match experiences in India but it still stands out. It was indeed a Lords experience. An experience that one can acknowledge and savour only by experiencing it. And two days later this experience turned all the more memorable and historic when India went on to win the match and achieved this unique feat after a gap of 28 long years. Only if we knew that they so desperately  wanted our presence in the viewing arena to win a match here, we would have turned up many years earlierJ.

The only thing that I missed though was the presence of The Sachin Tendulkar on the ground.Looking ahead for my next trip to Lords!
--
kin…

 

 

London Diaries 2 | The notorious tendency to convert!

Prior to my UK travel I was getting plenty of very useful tips from my friends on what to take and what not to take while travelling and what to do and what not do while being in this new country. Some of these tips were quite obvious, some were quite new but all of them were surely handy. Some of the tips that are still fresh in my mind are -  to not take loads of warm clothes, as Indian woollen hardly works there, carry a pressure cooker as it is tough to find one there, carry handful of Maggie packets and more importantly a variety of pickles, as that will be ‘THE’ delicacy with the otherwise bland dal-rice. But the most emphatic and unanimous tips of all was to not convert or multiple anything and everything in rupees there.

 

Howsoever, innocuous and trivial this tip seemed at that point, it actually became a mind-boggler ever since I landed at Heathrow. And all this when I have a free hand while spending and almost extravagant ways while shopping, even despite that it’s too much of a task to ignore this conversion mania. And even if you succeed to ignore or by pass this through a strong resolve, your family and friends in India will ensure that you know how much you have spent in Indian rupees on such a trivial thingJ.

For instance, my relatives in India were shocked to know that I will have to pay over a lakh rupees (over £ 1000, considering 1£ = 100) just for my house rent, so much so that out of concern they even asked me to let them know in case I need any financial assistance to lead a good life out hereJ. Though, I finally managed to pacify there concerns but that probably made them believe that I am earning a bomb out here in LondonJ. Unfortunately, I didn’t had the logic and the patience to subside such grave misconceptions.

Similarly, when on one fine Sunday evening I couldn’t resist the temptation of feasting on my favourite samosas (4 for 3 £) and out of excitement I proudly called up my friend to tell him about this samosa binging in London. But rather than being happy about the fact that I have managed to locate a samosa shop  here, he was quick to mock me on the fact that I have spent around Rs 75 per samosa. I was a bit irritated and retorted saying that this is approximately what you pay for a samosa in a PVR or INOX, so why this fuss. Though it’s a different matter that neither at PVR’s and nor here at London, samosas are as sumptuous as they are in any of the local shops in India but then a samosa is a samosa, irrespective of the currency it is bought inJ.

My mom who was understandably worried about my eating arrangements here was delighted to know that I have managed to identify an Indian restaurant that serves home style ghee chapattis that I can eat with whatever curry I cook at home daily. But she was equally curious to know that how much it costs here, when I told her that its costs 1£ for 4 chapattis, she got furious swore and told ‘its costs just Rs 5/- here, I don’t know what is the point of leading such a painstaking life, so far off’. I couldn’t do much other than laughing out loud on this, however she was quick to call me back saying, ‘you don’t worry about money and the high cost chapattis, eat well, as health should be your top priority’J. So much for the London Chapattis!

The other day I casually told my wife that I am planning to go for the India England Lords test, scheduled to start later this month. She encouragingly told me to not miss this great opportunity at any cost but was also quick to ask me the cost of the ticket. I tried avoiding this question, but failed hopelessly as always. I smartly said ‘it’s just for hundred bucks’, to which she said ‘hundred rupees for a lords test match is a great deal’. I was happy that the storm has passed by and hence I tried hard to close this discussion then and there. But much to my misfortune the Sherlock in her woke up and she vehemently enquired again, is it 100 Rupees or 100 Pounds? And it’s a needless task to explain that what her reactions would have been on knowing that it’s for 100 PoundsL. After all, smartness in front of one’s wife is a thing of Chetan Bhagat’s overrated novels!

And the list of such experiences is a notoriously long one and this is something that you just can’t avoid in the first few weeks of your stay in any new country. You tend to compare, you tend to multiply and convert. In retrospect, it’s really funny at times but I have found out a rather interesting way to tackle this tendency – consider everything in £ as Rs. So 4 samosas for Rs 3, a lords test match ticket for Rs 100/-, 4 chapattis for Re 1 and a fully furnished flat for just over a 1000 Rs., makes it a beautiful world and a much easier lifeJ.

--

kin…