Today evening, as I was going through email archives, for lack of anything else to do, I came across interesting phases of my life. I was primarily looking at my gmail sent folder, and that dates back to June of 2004. Going through the sent mail from that year till now was an interesting ride. I am sure if I had something better to do than sifting through my archives, I would have ;). But since I didn’t have anything to do, this exercise drew upon me interesting titbits about myself through the years.
~ I was REALLY happy to have a gmail account. A good chunk of my first emails sent out were to simply brag about me having a gmail account. Nothing else.
~ My initial communication used to be some friends who did their masters with me and moved out to other cities, and who were as interested in reading as me. We would exchange emails on a daily, almost on a hourly basis; We would forward every interesting book review, or have political discussion on the state of the union, or joke about the low depths that Times of India had reached, or simply exchange jokes. It is indeed funny that over the first few months, I sent more mails to these friends than anybody else in my life. Literally pages and pages of my archives have a only those names as sent-to. As I look now five years later, its been months if not years I’ve exchange any email with these people. Have we gone that out of touch?
~ I used to be a part of a yahoo group that was vociferous in its opinion on all things in general. We used to fight, crib, throw tantrums and act like silly 15 year olds. We discussed strategies on who might be spying on the group and who not, and lots of bizzarre ideas were exchanged. Some were absolutely hilarious in their posts, some absolutely serious. I got to meet a couple of people from that yahoo group eventually with whom I shared a great rapport with. And then over the years, everybody has moved on. The yahoo group still exists; somebody mails in once a year to ask about others, a few reply and then thats the end of it. Nobody knows who’s doing what anymore; nobody even cares for that matter. Online relationships are so fragile in nature. People have simply disappeared….
~ What began as a small group in DC has eventually moved on to become a huge group today; back then we were all single, ready to mingle, and our emails were normally about well, you know what. Contrast to today when the same people talk about their kids happily, and we also are so excited about their kids, its such an interesting variance. I am glad for these friends, as these relationships which began slowly have surely become stronger and stronger.
~ A lot of our emails few years ago were dedicated only to discussing (a) weekend plans, which even after much planning and plotting, we would still end up at the same place, every weekend, religiously. (b) tennis plans, which for a few brief months was on everyone’s mind or (c) movies, especially desi movies, for which there were some who would crib and complain and then eventually join us; and eventually the movie would turn out to be a dud and we would get all the shoutings for the same!
~ A lot of people who were transient in our lives; scores of mails exchanged with people who were with us for a short period of time, but left the city. When they left, they left the communication too. There are some people whom we used hang out pretty much all weekends, and now I have no clue where they are.
~ Distances don’t mean much if you are keenly interested in being in touch; that much I can vouch for. Its been almost 18 months since we moved from DC, but I and my friends communicate as if we are still there (which we are, mentally). Yes, we miss them and they miss us, but we are not out of touch. My mails from last year are still mainly to those guys in DC. Yes, the ferocity of mail has diminished, but not the feel. We still visit DC religiously every couple of months to maintain our sanity and be with the ones we miss most; some may think of it an excess in spending money, and that too to go from coast to coast for just a weekend, but I dont find it either. I find it a way to spend time with people I love being with, and feeling happy about it. These times will not come again in my life, so might as well make the most of it when I can 😉
~ Strangely enough the only constant in my archives has been the mails I have exchanged with my family members, which compared to rest happen to be minimal!
~ Friends from my engineering days who used to keep me updated about their life almost every other month back then in 2004 have now moved on to keeping me updated once a year. Its the same with me too. Its sad 🙁
~ Over those sent emails over the past few years I’ve realized that as I grow older, the more I want to hang on to yesterday.