Memories

We get attached to a lot of people in every phase of our life. It came as a great revelation to me when, a couple of weeks back, I realized I missed 2 things almost as much as I would have missed my closest pals or even relatives:my mobile number and my outlook inbox. While I was extremely excited on acquiring a new connection in Bangalore and was even more elated on the fact the last 4 digits were the same as my previous number, hardly did i realize that the first 6 digits would make its exit so obviously felt. I did have 2 mobile phones to keep the old number as much active as possible. It was like having a patient on ventilator support... and slowly see the breath fade away into nonexistence. My near and dear ones started reaching me on my new number and needless to say, all that remained was the aircel roaming alerts, "welcome to karnataka..", "TD - Ten Downing alerts - Rave night.. or ladies night", or some weird messages on ways to find the perfect soul mate. Nevertheless, I would switch on the dilapidated old mobile every morning to see if there was any new message for me on my chennai number. Alas!! none but the alerts would pop up. Finally when pragmatism won over sentiment, I chose to pull the plug, as I would otherwise have to keep paying the monthly rentals to have it active (something i hate about postpaid connections). Days after switching over to the new number, I still inadvertantly filled up the old number in all the bank opening forms etc and ended up signing everywhere i had to make the change. I think I will slowly try and erase it from my memory, but I must admit, its not going to be that easy.
9841549617.. you will fondly be remembered...all the random messages, conversations, contacts built, interview calls attended, bulk sms's sent, credit card calls, night long chats with friends, fights/making ups, lost and found, ... and so on and so forth. 2003 - 2010. Amen!!!
My office outlook express (referred to as OE hereafter) is nowhere close to my mobile number, in terms of the attachment quotient, but it definitely is the second best non-human aspect of my life to have affected me the most during its departure. The last 30 months were predominantly centered around this tool. My day would begin with the OE loading itself and showering surprises and exclamations and frustrations by filling my inbox with mails from friends, bosses, and clients (respectively :P). I press the send/receive button atleast a million times in a day and Deepti willl vouch for the same. It gives me undescribable pleasure in seeing the sending/receive bar inch towards 100% thereby filling my inbos with new mails or leaving me disappointed with no new updates. Either which ways, I religiously press the F9 button before, after and during a particular task , or once in every 2 mins, whichever is of lesser duration. As my association with Irevna grew thicker more than 50% of the time spent was on either checking or replying to mails. And for every new acquiantance made, the friends list would grow exponentially thereby resulting in innumerable chains of mails and forwards. Beginning from credit card payment alerts, to training reminders, to work reminders, to birthday reminders, my OE calendar played the role of a non-human secretary. It didnt wake me up in the morning because my company didnt have the policy of granting web access and I dont think I oculd wake up to mail reminders. I would laboriously archive each and every mail sent, thinking sometime in future, I could read them and smile in hindsight. When the time came for me to bid farewell, and as I deleted every folder in my inbox, I could feel my heart sink. The worst feeling was when I was allotted a new system in my new company with a blank OE, I could not bear to see an empty inbox, nor could I digest the fact that as I typed a few alphabets in the To tab, no addresses popped out.. For a moment, I felt as if I lost not only the OE, but all my friends in it, all the contacts in it.. and everything attached to all of it.It felt like starting a life all over again. I still mail the old gang from my new mail ID, but it is never the same and will never be the same again.
sowmyar@irevna.com April 2008 - September 2010: great memories to cherish, innumerable mails, letters, reminders, chats, party planners, attachments, F9's, recalls.. and so on and so forth..
A lot of these tools in our lives become so inseparable from our system, that only when they depart, do we actually realize that they were no less human than the ones around us.
Life is beautiful.