November 01, 2011

Random Thoughts.. Commuincation.. then .. now..

That day, I was in my usual bus... seated next to a not so familiar looking face.... but an intersting one... my heart was saying talk to him... Like 'Baabu Moshay'.. in Anand.. but the mind warned me.. he has both his ears plugged (ear phones)... thru them he is listening to blaring music.. which was audible to me.... and he is busy with something on his IPhone... so.. do not disturb him..Mind won... I didn't start that conversation with him...

However, I continued the conversation with self... lots of what ifs started flowing in....
What if I had an app which would identify the facebook profiles around me... and I could add them and message them... hehe..
What if this person could sense that the person next to him (me) is wanting to start a conversation with him...

Then I started thinking what happend to the good old... pat on the back and 'Hello mate.. good morning... I am Pramod.. how are you doing today...?' thing...

We have been hearing a lot of these jokes or PJs these days... Son telling dad didn't you check my facebook update when asked 'How are you?'... are we getting away from the traditional ways of communication which we grew with? I still have atleast 300 letters that my friends wrote to me during my college days... I still go back to them once in a while to re-live those days... I do go back to my old emails the same way..... I guess I could do the same in my Facebook... to be honest, I have not explored that...

It is true that....without these technological advances, we would not have communiacted beyond our line of sight... With this BLOG I am opening up myself to whole world of internet at the click of a PUBLISH POST button.... with a facebook update or a tweet I am reaching a much smaller audience... with a phone call or a letter/post I would reach just one... so it is with a 'Hello, how are you?' to the guy next to me in the bus...

For me each of these are important.... however, if I try to put it in the order of my liking... the list would be reverse... :)

When I travel in a train/bus or any public transport in India, even if I am not interested to talk, I would end up in a conversation with atleast one person in my first five minutes.... (I have not done that for last two years, so not sure if it is true anymore)... Whereas here in Singapore, the only communication you have with your fellow passengers would be 'Sorry' 'Excuse Me' when you need some space.... and a rare smile to a familiar face... and that's it... However, almost 80% of the crowd in the MRT would be communicating using their gadgets and apps on their smart phones to the entire world...

The other day, when I emailed all my friends about my career move... One of my friend was saying 'Wow, you still email'.. 'Nice, let me also email a few of my friends'.... I never realised when did emailing become obsolete... hehe....

That reminds me I owe 10 pages of letter to my niece who wrote her first ever letter to me after I insisted... and what a pretty letter she wrote... :) I couldn't believe it was her first letter... at all..

Those were really random thoughts... Hope some of them made sense...

Ciao!

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