Internet is our lifeline, and there’s no doubt about that. Everyday after getting up in the morning, we check our mails, our orkut scraps and then wash our face. Everything else takes a backseat, when it comes to sitting on the desk and browsing. It doesn’t matter what we are looking for in the prodigious pool of information, and sometimes we don’t even know what we want. But the eternal satisfaction of auto login, restore session and the vastness of information keeps us glued to our PC’s. And obviously there are days, when netscan shows ZERO results, ping refuses to reply and our desperate eyes wait for the soothing words, ‘Reply from a.b.c.d: Bytes 32 time<1ms TTL=62. Oh this beautiful message, whose absence brings us to a standstill. You might be wondering why I am writing all this. Anyhow, we all know what happens when net doesn’t work, so what’s the fun in reading this long post.
If you are planning to leave, wait. This is not about us, but only a few of us, a few of us who are fortunate enough to find themselves in cupid’s cage, those who are stung by its sweet arrow, those who thank kamdev for his long lasting blessing , and those who adore the God of love Eros. Its about our sweet little love birds. Am I going to talk about all of them? Obviously not. This is about a sweet friend of mine, who just toppled over a conspicuous glance to find himself in the lap of Goddess Aphrodite. After an enchanting experience of falling over his enchantress, he joined the league of those who bask in the glory of internet, those who breathe IM-gtalk and those who find F11 as the most comely key on their keyboard. And as he started floating in the fragrant air, IM messaging became his lifeline.
One morning, on a bright sunny day he woke up, smiling, ignorant about the malfunctioning router. Some people say that ignorance is bliss. He must have realized it that day. The day started. Switch on the computer, gtalk icon still gray, double click net-scan tool, ping 172.31.X.Y, reply from 172.31.X.1 ‘ no route to host’, ping 172.31.X.Z, again no route to host, scan all proxies, no reply. “This damn net stops working when we need it the most, kya sada hua college hai yar, chalo naha ke aate hain. Tab tak net chal jaayega”. A quick trip to bathroom, he kissed the water and returned with towel on his waist. gtalk icon still gray, double click-net scan, ping 172.31.X.Y, reply from 172.31.X.1, ‘ no route to host’, ping 172.31.X.Z, same result. “Bhak”. A quick tour to the adjacent room, where the guy hadn’t switched on his comp. “Is the net working”; “The comp is switched off”; “comp band kar ke kya karte ho room par, CS main kyon ho?”. Towel still hanging on his waist, he started realizing the grim reality and frustration started crippling his mind. A quick trip to next room, “Is the net working”, and a quick reply “No yar, it may start in a few minutes”. Left click, status connected, packets send 125, received 2 !!. Left click, Disable. Left click, open network connections, left click Enable. status connected, packets send 10, received 0. This beautiful zero seemed like an ostrich’s egg, frying on his head. Suddenly he realized the truth of bright morning turning into a Stygian gloom. But there was still some hope. He dressed up quickly, (couldn’t find his underwear, so managed without it!) and decided to go to SAC to restart the router. 1p.m. in the day, scorching sun, Love is blind, but we can obviously feel the sun through other senses. Probably these senses also stopped responding for him. In the router room, everything seemed to work fine, green lights flickering candidly. He pressed the UPS button, and it refused to respond, but the router had to be restarted, a violent pull of the power cord, replugging and he was done. Finally the router started restarting itself, and he returned with desperate hope, happily sipping his Appy Fizz.
A double click, net scan, this time form 0 to 255, may be the servers have changed. Zero replies. gtalk still grey, ping ping ping ping ping…., till the processor started complaining, “Temperature above threshold”, the processor shouting “aaaaaooooooooooooooo”, perchance not realizing that the one operating him is competing with him. In the meanwhile, a little mosquito smelled the hot blood. Rising from the ashes, he took off for a midday’s feast. Pricking into his skin, he felt the twinge, scratched on the remotest corner of his leg, and he scratched too hard, blood drop started trickling form the point, and the mosquito took a return flight. A final try, left click, right click, enable, disable, pinggggg, the forlorn hope seemed to die, the tranquility seemed to say good bye and he was facing the austere reality, the net won’t work today; uncomfortably numb, the blood clotted, and in desperation he scratched again, and this time the blood refused to come out.
“What to do now?” He didn’t have a huge log of past chats. But still it was good enough to pass some time. Double click, tools, folder options, view, show hidden files and folders, my computer, G:\, files, …… a series of dozen double clicks to locate the personal memories hidden in the remotest corner of the hard disk, lips that were set in a pout of annoyance, suddenly showed a grin smile. A sense of Deja-vu gripped his senses, an ephemeral smile and chats are over. Double click, tools, folder options, view, do not show hidden files and folders. Tired after tonnes of clicks and all those dreary memories he decided to sleep. But the anger refused to sleep with him, as he started the slandering the college again. ” kya college hai yar, addha time batti nahi rehti, kabhi bhi net chala jaata hai, sada hua campus, itni garmi, *********** bhak“. I am happy for not being in his room, at that instant of time. A poor little house fly had to incur the wrath of his temperament, who decided to sit on his thighs and he squashed it hard between his hands, finally got some solace. Someone has said it right, actions speak louder than words!! 
In his dreams, he found himself caught in the web of computer folders, like a fly in the cobweb, flapping hard to come out of the trap, and he woke up, his pillow wet with the sweat, desert cooler in the dearth of water, turned his room into a hot desert. “Its already 6:00 in the evening. The net might have started working now”. But the gtalk is still gray. He bunked the ping procedure this time. The UPS started shouting “Tiiiiiiiiiiiiii”, and a power cut, the last thing that he aspired for knocked on his door. This time he was too tired to abuse anyone. A routine visit to SAC to fill the stomach killed some of his time, but the uneasiness was visible on his face, like a newly wed couple in the dearth of nuptial bliss. Neither the relationship was public to spend time in nesci, nor did he have any tariff packages to initiate a long phone call. The only support of net, which nourishes the budding relationships had betrayed him that day.
Back in the room, netscan all, zero replies, ping 172.31.X.Y “no route to host”, let’s watch a movie, double click dc++,search, avi, sort by size, “koi achi movie batao be“, close, search, romantic, serendipity. “Lets watch Serendipity. Eyes glued on to screen, mind wondering elsewhere, suddenly a voice shouts from outside ” Oye khana khane chal raha hai kya?”, “nahi yar, bhook si nahi hai, hagga type khana banta hai”, he decided to spend his time in solitude. There came a bunch of other guys in an hour, “Chal yar hot seat karni hai” ,”aaj man nahi, kal karenge”. Without food, and water (both in cooler and bottle), he sat in his room for the rest of the night, as I heard some songs leaking through the walls.
The absence of the coveted bliss turned his life upside down for a moment. A virulent poison of net addiction, aggravated by the budding liaison, killed him for a day. Before I slept I heard the following words of the song ‘Be with you’ “I can’t sleep I am up all night, Through these tears I try to smile, I know the touch of your hand can save my life…… just wanna be with you”.Next morning the net was normal and so was he. He came to my room and asked me for some cotton and Dettol, and I heard him saying ” kal saala paaon main koi keeda kaat liya, khoon nikal raha hai“. The mosquito? and I couldn’t stop smiling. 
