Crippled, now Back!

Google is God _/\_

Tell me what you cannot do with internet? It is the best example to show people who still believe that some things are impossible. With an entrepreneur at home, my dad, who deals with computer software, I’ve trained myself with the keyboard right from my 3^rd grade (That’s as late as I remember). It all started with Roadrash, Need for speed and all the other video games which existed back then with less visual graphics, something any higher end PlayStations will not even consider of. I had my first e-mail ID with a username of my favourite cartoon and a password I don’t even remember. It was created at the British Council. I remember vaguely how the homepage looked like and how slow internet was back then (My sister still has a @yahoo.com extension to her ID, cause yahoo offered only ‘.com’ back then). As years passed Orkut became a revolution, the induction being the teen-age where you constantly want to be noticed. ‘Leave me a scrap’ was a motto. Computers were god.

 

As a year or two passed and the interest or “passion” started to deter, Mark Zuckerberg knew what to do. Photoshop knew what to offer and computers were used more than just for playing games. It became an inevitable part of my life. 50% of my life transferred online. I would wait to run home and click on the power button to see the green light glitter. My training with the keyboard improved as online chat became a ritual. I can close my eyes and type passwords. Then it went to to creating websites and downloading movies. Now, Torrent was god. Speakers with woofers were plugged to my PC and Windows Media Player kept doing its routine job. 

I and my PC never parted for almost 8 years. But then I had to move elsewhere for college. I was allowed to take my phone along. It played songs for me, sent texts, helped me chat with friends and keep me in touch with mom. Cellphone was god. Well, due to certain reasons I did not have a internet connection and I felt crippled. I missed being in touch with the online world. But there is always a factor which brings me back to this ‘Computer friend’ I’ve had. Blogging. Eventually, writing became fun. Reading did too. The urge to get a hold onto a computer rushed through me but there were very less possibilities. Every two days in a month when I came home I felt my hands and legs regenerated. I would run my fingers along the keyboard and have a tight grip on the mouse. I kept posting and updating. Being home was heaven.

A year passed. Engineering taught me more about the use of computers. There is one disadvantage of a lecturer coming to class and not teaching you anything. You’ll have to learn it yourself. In engineering you don’t get all the information you need at a single glance, from a single book. The only solution being the World Wide Web. And so, I was very much in need of my friend. So I started the negotiation with ‘the person you can never convince’, my dad and the talks for owning a Laptop begun. 

One year later, now, I’m a proud owner of a lappy, a happy girl who has re-united with her friend, an online addict given another dose. Smiling away, I write yet another post from my laptop that is, thinking “How the hell was I surviving without a computer?” which has been an integrated part of me for the last decade.

P.S: Thank you DAD :)

Online,

Swetha Ananthan