The more we are connected, the lesser we are actually connected.

I miss the days when postcards and hand written letters were the most cherished possessions one could have. When birthdays meant having a small homely party with your best friends and their families, when the birthday party would start at 6:30pm and wrap up by 8:30pm. The dinner would include ghar k rajma chawal, Dhokla from Bikaner, Potato chips, cold drink, toffees and the usual Monginis Cake.

With all the family members seated together and me snuggling in my father’s lap, each gift would be opened with great care (and wrapping paper be folded neatly and kept under the mattress for re-use).

Unlike these days, where birthdays and anniversaries mean still going to work the entire day, replying with a one liner Thank you to at least a 100 birthday wishes on Facebook and copy- pasting the same to another 1000 messages on Whatsapp, where birthday evenings are no more evenings, but nights that we spend having dinner with family or boozing with friends (because that’s the only time left to spend), only to wake up having realized that you missed your alarms and are now running late for work. It is as if time is itself running late…

Back then, “Life” meant going to the park, enjoying the swing, playing catch- catch with friends, taking a walk with mom and dad, reading books, listening to bed time stories, being rocked to sleep, unlike now, where “Life” starts after work hours progressing through the levels of Candy Crush, Farmville, Instagram hashtags, Facebook pokes and Tweets. As we pester friends for “Lives’, we don’t realize we are wasting our “actual” lives, getting entangled in the web of digital life!

For people who are special to me, I make it a point to gift them only hand-made cards/ gifts on their special days. A handmade something feels like a little escape, an oasis on a stranded island where everyone is running their own race. It reminds you that there is someone who truly wishes you all the love and luck and is crazy enough to reach home from work and stay up the entire night only to gift you one of their creations… Isn’t it beautiful?

I probably don’t remember what I wore or what I ate or who all were invited on my birthday all these years, but what I do carry as a memory is that we all were together, having a great time, that none of us were in a hurry to start the next day, that time would slow down a bit, that I had my parent’s and friends’ attention to the fullest and there was nothing going around in anyone’s head in the backdrop, that grandparents would send us their love and blessings in the form of special letters and postcards, and sometimes even surprise visits!  

It hate to say this, but surprisingly the number of calls that I used to get back in 2008 and 2009 on any special occasion, has reduced drastically! I now get three times more text messages, Facebook wall posts and wishes through other forms of social media (which I totally appreciate and am thankful for), but I now miss that “special feeling” you get when someone calls you and gives you all their attention.

I personally feel, that the more we are connected, the lesser we are “actually” connected. High Tech can never replace the need for High touch, be it personal or professional front.

If any part of this blog has stirred something in you, you have that hidden desire to go back to that connected world, so unearth that hidden desire, give it wings and start connecting :)