Today I am India, typing in from a Internet Cafe in Thiruvanmiyur Chennai. Its long since I have had to do so much to get on the Internet: I walked about 1 km, had to show my id, have a photograph taken to get on the PC. By the way I had to hop two PC's to get one with a working Internet connection. Used to non stop wireless internet of US, this is quite a change. But this is where I started and coming back has this strange sense of nostalgia. To say the truth, I enjoyed walking so much to check mail.
It may sound odd, but sometimes it helps for life to be slow and unconnected. Many people were far more connected in the era of post and telegraph than in this ultra modern world of perpetual connectivity. There are fewer phones call and far fewer mails since you can call or mail at anytime. I remember the time when I used to walk to the nearby PCO to call my friends. No I have a wireless companion that roams around with me but I do not have same level of contact with those same friends. Sometimes, I like to leave my cell phone behind just so that no can interrupt what I am doing and I can fully concentrate on the present.
Also, this gives a strange happiness, too strange to explain
Let's see how far this goes and when I get tangled back into the web of connectedness that has so engulfed the world.
They say when you have a thing in abundance, you won't remember even having it. As an Orkut user Orkuting hours and hours from home, I sometimes forget even the closest of my friends, coz I have so many of them, and I talk to them very frequently, as opposed to the days I had started Orkuting in Aug 2006, when I used to remember each scrap of conversation my friends sent me. The novelty was simply exciting. I have the same nostalgia and I very much want to go back to those days.
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