Day 13 : Chat Room Fiction

Internet is an extraordinary thing. I can't even imagine a world without it. We are surrounded with tech and internet wherever we go. Almost every waking moment of our lives is chained to the web.

They are actually researching some sort of psychological condition where people actually dream about posting on Facebook and browsing the news-feed.

That is just like this article I read the other day - List of diseases blamed on the Internet.

I frankly think the internet gets a bad rap. It is really not that bad guys. Imagine a time when you had to actually stop your car and ask someone for directions to that hip Thai restaurant. 

God forbid, us asking our colleagues directly if they have been to that place and what they thought of the food there? What if they invite themselves over into your dinner plans? 

WTF guys, you are talking about me aren't ya?

Ignore. The internet has saved us a lot of such confrontation and emotional confusion. 

Yeah, dude. We could all very well do without actually sitting and thinking about how we feel about our own lives. Or others.

Time that could be easily better spent watching the latest season of the House of Cards.

Go Team Claire! 

Claire is a wuss.

Your a wuss.

It is spelled you're. Diphit. 

I just read the link you sent, maan. That's some cray s*it right there. And them seniors say THEY had it bad. The atom bomb, the Kargil war, WTC.

Heck, they were even scared shitless of the number 2000 during the Y2K panic. Bunch of pussies. 

Exactly. We have far more serious thing to worry about. 

Like. Darn it, ya'll see my birthday party photo I posted up last week. How the heck did I get only eighty goddamn likes! And how the hell did only thirty damn people commented on it!!!

I liked I commented, dude. For real!!1 

None from my Pune team mates did. Bunch of pricks I tell you. Always hated them, yes TJ, I am talking about you. 

Yo, not cool man. I wasn't online all week. 

Ya, nobody believes you Teej. 

Seriously dude, I tell you. People get no love these days. What does a guy have to do get a few likes? Damn. 

And yo. Heard of that new Apple commotion about doing away with the encryption in their smartphones?

WTF. OMG. Do you think they'd get into those pictures, boo?

Dude! IM me pvtly. 

Seriously, guys?

Damn man. Just when I am about to switch from android to iOS. If they do it in their markets, they'd do the same everywhere else 2. 

Thanks, Feds. Thanks, real kind of you. 

Last one hour in a fic group chat. Pretty awesome way to spend time, right. Whining about the internet. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

Oh wait, a new like on my GOT tweet. Yay!

Day 75 : The Chennai Floods Befuddlement

Those of us who tend to open up the News pages to at least catch up on most of the headlines of things that happen around the globe, often find ourselves asking this question, "Why do I have to put myself through this each day?"

There is apparently nothing good happening to anyone anywhere. Why do I have to keep coming back to these sites and read about yet another bomb blasts, shootouts, murders, rapes and yet another politician being a prick to yet another group minorities. I am pretty sure I have even written this same thing in here not that long ago. The world has now become a very crazy dangerous place to live in. At least that is what I get from all the news articles that's getting bombarded on my twitter and facebook faces.

Let's face it. These days, majority of the news that we get is from the social media. And I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with it. In retrospect I actually think that news consumption from the social media platform seems more personal and to-my-taste. As most of the articles that get shared into my feed are from people I follow or my friends. And there is more of a chance that those people and I share the same interests and care of about the same things, hence would be interested in the same things. More often so than when compared to the big news outlets that by reputation or confession tend to be biased to any one political ideology or the other. For example, how in heavens was I to know that Pluto isn't technically qualified to be called a planet if I wasn't following Neil deGrasse Tyson? Which popular media in their current hunger for clickbait titles would actually choose a topic like that over, say. Kim Kardashian's new son having more clothes than her?

To add to all of that, I still have a bone to pick with the journalists of today. I mean seriously come on. Are we still going to talk about the Sheena Bora murders when there is an actual disaster occurring right now in our country. I understand the temptation. This case provides all of the masala ingredients to fill atleast three years of prime time soap opera. But guys, I am sure there is more to the distinguished profession of journalism that dig through ages of murky family history and spray it all over your front pages and headlines. Sure.. this family has had a twisted history and family tree. Some level of possible incest thing going on. But hell. The death toll here is one. ONE. Actual death toll of the Chennai Floods? Nearly 300. How much airtime did you spend on each of them? About three weeks for the floods. And almost an eternity for the Bora case.

In the wake of such a tragedy in Chennai, there is so many stories of wonderful people doing wonderful things for fellow human beings coming out of the disaster ridden city. Stories of people of all ages, creed, religion and class coming together to help each other in times of need and bringing back a sense of normal to the city streets when logic would just ask them close their doors and stay inside their house where its safe. People are going out of their way to help people in need, by welcoming them into their own homes, sharing what little means they have to provide food and shelter to those who have lost everything during this tragic times. And you know what. That is so freaking awesome. I love these sort of news. I love reading articles and incidents that restore my 'faith in humanity'. In the midst of all this horror and terror in the dailies day in and day out. Stories like these.

There are so many more news of worth and warmth in Chennai happening right now. My wish is that they all come out safe and healthy when all this does pass. And that word of these amazing people and their humanity reach to everyone out there, who like me are in dire of something good to hold on to. Something to say that we as a specie still deserve to be around. We are still deserving to be called human.