Once Upon a… Now-a-Days!!!

Ting Tong!! Annie rushed to the door to welcome her friend. She was very excited to meet her as she was patiently waiting for her for an hour. Both of them had a full day plan of shopping, movies, spa day, dinner date etc. etc. etc.

They were very thrilled and what fascinated them was Annie’s new mobile. It was amazing. It tracked her friend’s journey in the last one hour, it booked tickets for them with just voice instructions, and it showed them all the shopping options with just a click. It also reminded them about all the activities they planned for today. Both the girls gave an enthusiastic smile and took a selfie. And guess what? It got instantly uploaded on FB, Insta and Snapchat.

 

After an eventful and tiresome day, Annie was back to her pavilion and felt contended. She fell to her sofa, plugged in her earphone and closed her eyes to enjoy the music. After 2 songs, she felt someone’s hand on her cheek. She opened her eyes instantly and squealed with joy. She was missing her old man and there he was… giving her a SURPRISE!! She tightly hugged her Grandpa and they exchanged compliments. Annie was very happy with her day. She and Grandpa shared their life’s events up-to-date. After making plans to go for a morning walk, Annie called it a day.

Next Morning, the sun rose with all smiles and Grandpa was opening the window’s shutter to wake his girl up for the morning activity. Whilst enjoying the garden, grandpa saw some kind of watch Annie was wearing and she was constantly playing with it. Grandpa called her to ask what it was but there was no response from his grand kid. He slightly patted her shoulders; Annie tapped her watch, removed something from her ears and then responded.

Grandpa: Annie what is all this? (Pointing towards watch and a device in her hand)

Annie: Oh god Grandpa! U scared me! I thought something happened (Eyes rolling). It is called smart watch. It calculates your heart rate, number of calories burnt, how many Kilometers did we cover, direction of the garden, when to take a water break and so many more features. I find this to be really amazing. And this device is called Bluetooth headset which is connected to my phone. So I can listen to all my favorite songs without interruption.

Grandpa: Oh! That sounds exciting. But then, don’t you think you are missing the whole purpose of enjoying the nature and experiencing its peace early in the morning?

Annie: Grandpa… that’s so old school. We come for morning walks to stay fit and healthy. Who has time for observing nature and all? I will get you the smart watch as your birthday present. You will love it! Grandpa just nodded his head and both of them continued their walk in their own way.

After 2-3 days, Annie saw grandpa sitting on the balcony chair all alone and he seemed to be lost. Annie went to the balcony and hugged him. She sat beside him.

Annie: Grandpa! What happened? Why you feeling lost?

Grandpa: I miss your uncle and his family a lot. It has been almost one and half years and they have not come to visit me.

Annie: Oh god Grandpa! With high tech world, who still thinks of meeting someone? Wait! Let me Skype Uncle and you can talk to him as much as you want.

They had a Skype call with the entire family and Annie’s cousins showered their love to grandpa and told him how much they miss him. Annie’s uncle got a call from his office and he disconnected the call.

Annie: Grandpa! Are you happy now? Look how excited Mary and John were to see you!!!

Grandpa: But still Annie… feeling someone’s touch, hugging them, enjoying their smell, being there when they are hurt… you don’t get all these in your digital world rite….

Grandpa then cheered himself up and asked Annie if she wants some Coffee. Annie nodded and was completely lost in what Grandpa said. She understood what he meant and felt bad for him.

Next morning, the sun rose with all power and brightness. Grandpa was surprised to see Annie is his room opening the window Shutters. Grandpa wished her “Good morning” and looked at her in astonishment. Annie giggled and shouted “SURPRISE! Get ready soon! “. Grandpa couldn’t control his curiosity and got ready swiftly. When they entered the garden, Grandpa was shocked to see Annie without any of those weird devices. She was looking around the garden and smiling at people on their way. Grandpa wasn’t able to understand what was happening. He asked Annie about the surprise.

Annie: Grandpa! This is the surprise! After our little chat yesterday, I thought to myself: “why not give my 1 hour of morning walk and enjoy it like how you do?” So, today I did not carry any of my “devices” and thought of enjoying the beauty of the garden.

Grandpa: OMG! This is indeed the best Surprise for me (his eyes were moist).

They chatted for 1 hour about different birds, plants and their medicinal value, played with the kids, observed different people and their lifestyle. When they came back, Annie definitely felt so light and good. She thanked Grandpa for making her experience this. And she was off to work. Little did she know a small surprise awaited her when she returned?

Grandpa greeted her with a big smile and exclaimed: “I have a surprise for you…” Annie instantly got excited and searched the house for her present. Grandpa made her sit on the couch and switched on the TV. He had connected the TV with his mobile. With a click, he group called his family members. When everyone was online, he played a video on the TV which narrated a story of Annie from her childhood to their recent morning walks.

Annie was in all tears and his entire family applauded him. He proudly told them he made all this by using different apps and took Google’s help. Annie hugged him tightly and a tear of joy was floating from her eyes. She thanked her Grandpa from the bottom of her heart and claimed her grandpa to be the “Best Grandfather of this ERA”.

Grandpa was in town for the next two days and their morning walks continued along with their digital world exploration.

Finally the day came when it was time for Grandpa to bid adieu. Both of them had an emotional moment and remembered all their memories. Annie took a quick selfie and uploaded on both their accounts. As the day went by, Annie was engulfed with her digital world.  She lost the sight of garden as her smart watch and Bluetooth headset gave her company. She found time to talk to her old guy once in a week and spoke to him on Video Calls. Even though grandpa liked the new world, he somehow was not comfortable and wanted to go back to his old self. He sat on his old chair and missed his kids miserably:  imagining all of them to visit him frequently and spend some quality family time. But all he got was some glimpses of family time on Video calls.

After some years, Annie thought to herself: no matter how advanced we get, generations keep changing and we keep getting stuck into this world of adaptability or austerity. Life must go on… so instead of complaining or trying too hard to adapt, just enjoy life as and when it comes. When you are with your generation, behave your age; when you are with your kids generations, behave like them; when you are with your grandpa’s generation behave like them. That’s the beauty of life…

ESSENCE OF BEAUTY

Globalization, Diversification, Survival for the fittest, digitization... all these heavy words entangled Meera, a 25-year-old self-sufficient lady working for an MNC. Her day would start with stressing out how to finish her deadlines, her lunch  break would be filled with thoughts of how to deal with her boss, her snack time which of course was a short one made her think about all those bills and finally, her dinner was more about arguing with her parents about her marriage.

She just had a mental to-do list which never ended. Forget about relaxing, just thinking about it was more luxury for her. But she dint mind. Her mind was completely focused and filled with ambitions. She wanted to be the queen of the corporate world, marry a handsome young man with a strong financial background, fulfill all the dreams of her parents and just be the best. Little did she know that thinking about her, was also allowed in the digitized world.

It was March 15 2019, a normal routine filled the day for Meera. She woke up, did her daily chores and reached office just in time to attend her meeting with her boss. Her day was completely packed up. By 5.00 pm she winded up and returned home planning to work from home. While coming back to her home, she started worrying about her to-do checklist. When she glanced through it, she was horrified seeing that big list. She reached home with a terrible headache. She couldn’t rest; she still had a lot to complete by tonight. She dint want the day to end so soon, she just kept praying god to make a day have 48 hours. She felt that would ease most of her problems. She thought of having a cup of garam chai and continuing her checklist work. After she prepared chai, the smell enticed her. She felt good instantly.

Out of nowhere, she suddenly saw the balcony door open. She had completely forgotten that a balcony did exist in her house. She took the cup of tea, went to the balcony and just stared. She never realized the beauty of dusk until then. She never knew what her balcony offered, the scenic beauty of nature, an experience for which others would travel to places and spend their money. Looking at the magnificent sun, she was lost into it; her ‘to-do list’ just faded. She pulled out an old chair lying over there, sat on it peacefully holding the hot cup of chai still enticed with its aroma.

Her eyes were locked with the sun. She was just absorbed into the beauty of how sun rays played with the sky; it felt like the sky was dancing and making patterns and the sun was just a choirmaster. Meera was mesmerized by nature’s beauty. She completely lost track of time. She wanted this choir to go one forever. She wanted to capture this as a timeless moment.

Suddenly, she saw that the bright light of the rays started diminishing; sun started crawling down towards the horizon; the sky started adjusting back to its blue color. She wanted to stop all these, she wanted this to continue for some time but she couldn’t do anything. She felt so helpless. She could feel her heart sink a little more every time the sunset a little further. Seeing the sunset comprehended the ending of the day. As sunset further, a little bit of darkness started spreading. Meera slowly started coming back to her senses and all her “to-do list” started flowing back to her mind. When the night captured the sky and the cup was empty, reality embraced Meera. All her stress and anxiety came back and she was lost in her routine tasks. Balcony again became a shaded part of her house. Sun came back again the next morning and went away in the evening but Meera was so engrossed in her chores to remember any of those mesmerizing time.

And nature thought to itself “for men may come and men may go but I go on forever”.'

THAT TINGY FEELING….

Love at first sight… such an ambiguous feeling right! We may all have experienced but did not realize it or we may have felt this was it but realized only later that it is not!!

It was a normal Wednesday morning. Annie woke up with her morning blues. She did her daily chores meticulously thinking of all those meetings and client calls. She dragged herself out of her apartment and finally reached the office at the usual time. She kept muttering curses about her monotonous life and prayed for a miracle to happen. But to her disappointment, the day passed by without any excitement. She had the same old canteen food, gossiped with the same old friends and returned to her cabin by 2.00 pm.

She was just looking around her office daydreaming and suddenly she felt she saw someone. It took her breath away but he moved swiftly and was out of her sight. She just kept hoping to get a glance of him. She kept wondering why her stomach started twitching every time she wondered about him. He had a physique that was distinguishable. She just felt it was her mind playing games with her but she wasn’t able to forget that incident. She started hallucinating and replaying the same situation again and again. But when she came back to her senses, to her dismay, it was the same old computer in front of her and nothing else.

Suddenly, she saw a ping from her manager who called for an immediate meeting. She pulled herself up, cleared all her thoughts and rushed towards his cabin. And my god… what she saw next astonished her for a minute! She kept gazing at that sight. She couldn’t take her eyes off. Suddenly she heard someone call her name and she was back to reality. She was squealing with excitement inside her head. It was that same physique that she saw before. He was way more gorgeous than she imagined. She couldn’t stop blushing but she had to hide it before anyone saw her. She felt like a teenage girl. And then a total bouncer hit her day when her manager nominated her to assist the guest of the day. She was happily smiling and more than willing to take up the job.

It was the best week of her life. She spent most of her time with this distinguishable, handsome, exhilarating person and each word or action affected her a lot. She would not miss noticing even small actions of him. She tried knowing the likes and dislikes of her guests. The office did not seem this interesting in her entire career so far.

It was Friday morning. Annie woke up and felt a gush of zeal looking at her herself in the morning. She got up soon and got ready like a cheetah. She wore her best dress, highlighted the right areas of her face and pinched her face. Why wouldn’t she be excited? She finally decided to ask her “crush” on a date. She finally realized she was head over heels in love with her crush. She stalked her crush on all social media sites and found out the best date location. She was very anxious as it was her first time but she was enjoying it as well. 

She finally reached the office and all her teammates noticed the new Annie. They were all smiles seeing her and complimented her as well. The clock was ticking and she was patiently waiting for the dream to hit the real world. She made quick calls and made all the arrangements ready. She cleared both of their calendars as well. Anyone from a 250m radius could notice the spark in her face. Her cheekbones were highlighting themselves with pink. And yeah… finally, the time arrived. She saw her man coming towards her desk, all smiles, mesmerized eye contact and silent words being passed across. Annie rose from her desk and gave him this huge grin. She updated him about office works for an hour. And yeah she acquired all her confidence and finally she did it... It was the most romantic proposal ever and yeah she did it…. She felt on top of the world. She was waiting positively for his answer.

 He just stood there; he was taken aback and stared at her blankly. She was confused about his reaction. She tried calming him down but with vain. She thought she would give him space and just vanished from his sight. She was feeling so restless. She tried avoiding him the whole day. She was feeling desperate but she had to respect his space. After what went by as ages, her mobile vibrated. She was nervous for the first time in her life for a message. She opened it as slowly as possible and her worst nightmares triggered. He had typed a long message and each word hit her heart like an arrow. He told her that he was seeing someone else and unfortunately it was the last day at this office. He also mentioned that he enjoyed her company and was sorry to have misled her.  She felt her whole world break down into pieces. She did not know how to tape her broken heart. She cried her heart out for a couple of days. She felt incomplete. She could feel the emptiness.

But as days passed by, each memory started fading slightly. She concentrated on her office work. She at times did not even think about him for days. Her life seemed to have gone back to the golden olden days. And yeah time was the best healer and no matter what every heart-wrenching sunset promises earth a new beautiful sunrise.           

A few months down the lane while Annie was just glancing through her memories she was wondering what that feeling was? Just a crush or love at first sight or just infatuation. She was confused as everyone else… but she always believed in miracles and love finding its way… She was definitely waiting for hers….