Sunday, 7 October 2012

Killing the surprises !

Press green,connect anytime with anyone across the seven seas.
Take the remote in your hand,order your movie or simply flip over the 200+ channels.
Beep beep your car and zoom off to any destination anytime...
Going far off,apply for visa online,book tickets and hotel online and board the airbus.
Need knowledge,dont have to wait - log on,google it up and its over.

As a kid ,when i was growing up in the decade of 80's we had national TV ( DD 1 ) and that was it.We'd wait anxiously for the sunday movie ,chitrahaar before that.It seemed like a long wait but but the movie'd be worth the wait.Of course we didnt have a car/2 wheeler  and bicycle was a dream machine.Apart from that we'd wait patiently for public transport like buses/cabs/autos.
We got a telephone installed after long time ( the black box with manual moving dialler ) and its no. was 365.
I'd receive beautifully written letters by my grandpa and 'd treasure them after reading them over and over again.After few years of course there was DD2 and other cable channels and plus there was a special tariff on STD after 9 pm - so we'd wait for relatives to call us / we'd want to call them.

I'd wait,rather we'd all wait.
We'd look forward to a point of time when that particular thing had to happen.
We'd be excited and open for a surprise coming up and'd value it so much.

Now come to the world of today !
You want to call me ,pick up your mobile or if you just want a formality to be done - BBM me / text me / inbox me.
If you really love me little more book tickets online and take a flight tomorrow morning,theres no need to go out actually to the railway station and fill forms to book train tickets and keep checking the status thereafter.
Of course you'd have a full HD LED tv at your home with a digital set top box connection with over 200 channels and that too 24 hr,but yet nothing substantial to watch when you sit in front of it.
Your big expensive spanking new sedan would be waiting in your covered parking to take you to your friends and relatives but you'd be tired or would have skyped them just last week.
You need an info ? theres no wait to go to any library or ask a wise elder person,just google it up man,where do you think you are ??

I just wonder sometimes if we have killed the small surprises of our life on the name of modernity.
Theres more health clubs now but lesser healthy people,theres no wait for any special rates to get activated on the phone so that you can talk to far off relatives,yet do we connect so often ? Do we ever look forward to the latest flick coming up on the TV because it 'd be anyway already available on various other tv channels ,plus available on the nearest 5 multiplexes and lastly available for free download on the net.Theres no wait for anyone's personally written handwritten letters anymore because they can obviously call  you from their latest  i phone,skype you or drop in a 2 liner e mail.
The surplus availability of things and resources,and the zero wait time has of course made our lives more convenient,faster,better and all of that,but my question is - Is there anything now we look forward to and are excited to have in our lives ?