By Ameya Lonkar
Rohan stared at his screen; as usual his Facebook page was open. He kept refreshing the page every half minute expecting a miracle to happen. No luck yet. There was no activity; maybe all were busy in their exams. Rohan had exams too but he wasn’t in the mood to study. He knew he ought to study, but he had known that for three sems now. Having screwed all three previous ones, he thought he might as well screw this one too. There was always the hope of the next sem in which he would work miracles. The idea of performing better in next sem rid him of his guilt and he vowed, then and there, to study harder next semester and ….and spend less time on this stupid Facebook. But that was for next sem, so he got busy with Facebook while it was still this sem. He refreshed the page again.
There it was!!! He had received a friend request!!! He frantically moved the mouse over to the icon and checked whose request was it. It was a girl named Saloni. He closed his one eye and raised an eyebrow straining to recollect who she was. After a few seconds he concluded he did not know her. What should he do? Should he accept the request or just let it be. The girl surely looked cute. Suddenly the page Aap Tharki Hai which he had liked a few days back flew into his thoughts. He fought back the thoughts. He visited her profile (thank goodness FB doesn’t track user views on profiles). He was reassured he did not know the girl by the slightest of connections; no mutual friends, no common schools. She was a complete stranger and a beautiful one at that. In one impulsive moment he accepted the friend request. He did not know what he had done was just the beginning of an interesting night and many more to come.
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| Photo credit - Prashant Mohan |
Rohan was tired now. He thought he might as well study now; he had to get through the exam. He was about to log out when he saw the chat box pop-up. It was Saloni!! Rohan felt there ought to be something wrong. Few minutes ago he was bored to death and now here he is trying to respond to a girl who was a complete stranger. Unable to find any better words he just responded back with a “hi” (many sitcoms he watched suggested “hi” was the safest bet in starting a conversation with a girl). The two of them chatted deep into night. At 3 o’clock he finally signed off. But the test was long off his mind, and he crawled back into his bed where the warm blanket welcomed him.
Rohan and Saloni started chatting more frequently then numbers. Skype rounded off the things which Facebook had begun. Well whoever said that matches were made in heaven couldn’t have been more wrong; it is the bloody effin’ Internet now. Rohan and Saloni, well they are still going strong. As far as Rohan is concerned on this whole issue, Mark Zuckerberg may thy tribe increase.
P.S : Rohan is in an engineering college (some might think this would make him an engineer but then there are too many variables hence I cannot take the guarantee.) Hence the folks who are surprised by his excitement on seeing a beautiful girl and his loss of words in talking to her do not be surprised.
