Voting and Status Updates

I voted in the general elections last week! For the first time ever in my life, I saw an EVM and pressed a button to cast my vote for a candidate. For an existence as long as mine in the largest democracy in the world, that seems ironic but it’s true. It had become very important for me, nearly bordering on obsession, so much so that I had to defy my superiors wishes not to take a leave to travel 170 kms and vote. In a long time, I felt as if I had done something worthwhile. Don’t know if that’s the correct feeling but still. “Jaagore” had done its work on one person atleast 

In the past few months Twitter and facebook have really caught on. They have been in the virtual world for ages but its as if I am seeing its effects only now. People put up their statuses as to what they are upto at any given point of time. Celebs have twitter accounts and they supposedly use it to stay in touch with their fans. Ha … as if they would divulge any juicy facts online … nevertheless they are there … and by the looks of it, to stay.

I too have been doing this on facebook (haven’t come down to twittering yet though I have an account – who would take the trouble of building up a group on yet another networking site). And its fun. I can actually let people know when I am travelling, where I am or how the weather is in my suburb or what’s for lunch today or what I am working on and so on … and I also get to read about their stuff. Why take all this trouble and let people know … its not vital to ones existence and I have come across this question multiple times these past few weeks on some medium or another. Or for that matter, why blog? Who wants to know what is happening in Big B’s life or in the dressing rooms of KKR back in Zulu land – courtesy fakeiplplayer ;).

My take is people want to share, their happiness, their thoughts, their queries. You can always do that with your family or your close friends at work or outside. Why then take the help of these novel yet peculiar mediums? I personally feel like telling people. When I can tell a larger audience using these methods then why not make use of it. I can use my cell phone to get on the net and do this same stuff so I don’t have to be in front of a pc or open my laptop to do it. Everyone needs to share various things. Of course some personal things one would not put online but the general, seemingly mundane, everyday things can surely be shared. I was outside a hospital ICU recently, looking after a sick relative and I wanted to share it. I couldn’t call as it was a silence zone and I surely can't call 100 people so I used FB. And people were worried which is obvious and I got a few brickbats too for not being clearer as to why I was in a hospital but because of that status message my cousin got the news of her grandmother being in hospital, while backpacking in the Australian outback. And I talked to a friend of mine who is posted in Sikkim in the armed forces. He got worried and called me up and all in all I was happy talking to him. So it was all for the best.

It’s funny how these things work and they are popular cause of the features. We are moving towards a hi-tech world, much more hi-tech than it was a decade back. And I love it. If I can use technology to stay in touch with people I want to be in touch with, why not use it. You can't always talk to everyone – whatever the reason – but it feels nice to still be in touch.

So until there is no one to update about my status or no friends left to talk to or no family members in faraway lands, Facebook, orkut, blogs, twitter et all will be in business!!!

I missed blogging for past few weeks due to atrocious work pressures and other issues but I kept thinking everyday that I can blog about this and I can blog about that. Half of those topics have been washed away now (old age catching up) but new ones would surely come up here 
Guten Nacht
~KK