Tuesday 18 January, 2011

Appeared on 'MetroPlus', The Hindu, Bangalore edition on 18-jan-2011

The Tech Slave

Welcome to my world! It has My iPod playing My music. My laptop with My Wifi with My YouTube channel, My Blog, My yahoo, My Flickr, My Twitter and of course My Facebook with My friends (do i have to even mention that! Its such a given!). And not to forget My phone-oops did I say phone?I meant My SMART phone(lest it should get offended!). Oh! and it has me too. And My mom and My dad too once in a while.

I was living happily in My Awesome fairy-tech-tale World, when disaster struck that fateful day and My World shattered into bits and bytes (or was it 'bits and pieces'?). My shimmering LED-lit world crashed when the power suddenly went off! YouTube stopped buffering. Facebook stopped posting. I hurried to google and typed :”what to do in a power-cut” but my network itself shut down( of course it works on electricity!). Then I tried watching a movie on my laptop.10 minutes later it announced: “please plug the adapter!” I frantically tried resuscitating my baby but it finally slipped into a coma!

My next resort was my iPod but i was fed up of the songs and games it had (since i had heard/played them a million times already!). So it was My smart phone to the rescue! Oops it was in need of rescue! No balance for net surfing (totally forgot to top up). No charge for gaming-did'nt have a free socket (there's lots of competition for that). Thought I'd just call up a friend to pester. Surprise-my cordless also works on electricity!

Welcome to My world- dark, quiet and absolutely blank! I realized I was an addict-with withdrawal symptoms worse than an alcoholic! I was a slave of technology. I always thought I was much more evolved than the average old man on the streets-aloof of all the wonders squeezed into a little chip. But here I was, feeling more primitive than apes, sitting helplessly while he was roasting his corn on the fire listening to the radio, cracking jokes with his mates, having fun and feeling an ecstasy that my wired tech-savvy world can never decode.

That moment of self realization snapped me back into reality. But bang went the generator, back came the lights, and the fantasy world of technology sizzled to seduce me again. “Nah! I'd rather read a book!” I said indignantly. “But....only after I've tweeted this to everyone!”

By-

Neethi Narayanan

Tuesday 4 January, 2011

Get A Life !

Buried under a majestic blanket
clutching it tight to hide myself
crumpled, compact, embraced in my own arms
feeling like a tiny Lilliputian elf.
As my tears turn the sheets soggy-wet,
I'm drowning deeper into a sea of disappointments
vulnerable and hurting like a new born child
I lost track of reality, was dazed by my sentiments
But when the night phased out, and the linen was all soaked
I ran out of tears, and my heart lost the strife
against my head that said "get out of bed right now.
Cuz today is the day that we get a life!"
Off slipped the blanket , In shone the sunlight
Out blew the curtains revealing a brighter world
And I found some strength to stand up on my feet
and wipe off my tears as a new day unfurled.
I got rid of my attire of a mourning wife
and sorted out the best clothes I was saving for later
got all dressed up and decked up with a shot of bling
I killed the old Me, Cuz the new Me's bolder, stronger, better!
All dressed up and nowhere to go?
a tragic melodramatic climax, with violins and fife?
No thanks, now that won't be my story again anymore!
Cuz I'm all set, ready and unstoppable to get a life!