Back Then

On an otherwise boring weekend, setting up mail client for my gmail account on my Mac gave me something to think about. For some time I was irritated that the client is downloading mails from the time the account is born, which was in 2006. Those are the days when gmail was introduced and brought ‘.’ Into the legal mail id characters. I was too excited to see this and hence created an ID with as many of them as possible making m.s.a.sandeep my gmail account.

While the client is downloading the mails of its account’s sunup, I’ve been transported to the 2006 days, digesting with difficulty the fact that its been 3 years since my psenti sem (In BITS Pilani, we call the final semester as psenti sem). Those were days when a forward mail from friend with ‘Sardar Ji jokes’ makes me laugh full out. Not only would I forward that mail to all my wingees, but also go to each one of them to make sure that they get the joke. They surely used to laugh, if not at the joke, at my desperate attempt to make them laugh.

Those were days when the world (rather my world) was a lot younger. The gift that he would buy to his friend for their friendship anniversary was the top concern for one of my friends, not the financial concerns and the family responsibilities that he is now deep into. Meeting professor for project after an era of idle life used to be trouble of the time, not the present project deadlines and the job security, for the other. Those were also the days when a gate-call from or to girls’ hostel used to be an achievement, .01 raise is CGPA used to be a celebration. The biggest disappointment was when India looses the world cup (2003 world cup), not when share market collapses. In short, life was quite simple and lively (or livelier, if that word is not a myth).

And then there was this vast invisible world. When I repeated a course, or shed blood to see my friend as our assoc secretary, there was no reason. I used to like this picture a lot, for some reason that I am unaware of. For me this is the picture of a train that is traveling on high skies whose tracks are invisible. May be this is the picture that is close to my feelings when I was following my instincts, and not the morass. The ‘invisible rails’ in the picture is my invisible world, which I used to believe in.



Now I know too much to believe in all those. The invisible world is now a stroke of luck, or a coincidence. Now I know that I’ve to be concerned about my investment returns, but not calling home when promised. I know that forward mails are funny, not fun… and a lot more.

For sure, “Ignorance Is Bliss”