Facebook, love it or loathe, you can’t miss it. I didn’t think, my blog would have a full post on facebook, but oh well, my student union magazine had an article on the Beckhams, so my deed is trivially out of place. This is a bit storyish, but is best enjoyed that way, and even as I write, I can’t help but smile at this amazing bit.
Rewind to 1999 – Pune, a small hill city in the state of Maharashtra, India. 150 miles south east of Mumbai. I was in a Christian school based in Military area, in my 6th standard, aged 12, bubbling with excitement to enter the teens. It was a very posh school and had the smartest kids around as well (ha! that’s how I was there). Only well to do families could send their kids to this school. We would also have an international student in our class once in a while, some stuck longer than others. One such person was this girl, I will call her, Karla. She was from South Korea and to be honest, I did not even know then, where South Korea was ! Anyways both of us became good friends and at the same time another girl, she was a local lass, umm…I will call her Tina became friends with us both as well. Us three got really close over the year, we had fantastic times, helping each other, sometimes being mean and the rest of the stuff any 6th grade student would do. A year into 6th grade, exams are done , results are out and we bid each other goodbye.
A year later, 2000 – Get in, I am now a teen, into my 7th grade and during winter months I would be wearing a navy blue blazer, to show how posh our school was as compared to others, this was our status show-off. Anyway first day back in school and I did not see Karla or Tina! I thought fair enough, girls, must be late, typical. A week went pass, then a month, then a term and slowly I realised both of them had left ….. gone….. I did not ever bother to take their numbers or address. The year came to an end and things moved on ….. but every once in a while I wondered what happened to them, I was curious, I was upset that two of my closest friends left without even bothering to say ‘goodbye’. I finished my school in 2004 and even on the last day I thought, might be, just might be one of them comes back knowing, our batch will pass out from school. But none came back, none turned around.
Social Networks 2004-2008 – After school, I moved to Mumbai, the city that never sleeps (I did, so did the the others, d’oh !) to do my diploma in one of the best colleges that offered the course. This polytechnic again had the same features, you had to be rich and smart (or have good grades!) to enter the college. This was also the time when social networking sites started picking up in Mumbai or for that sake in India. I signed up on Orkut (yes there is something like that and it’s global, allegedly facebook has now virtually killed it!) and spent a good part of the four years on it , ahem…. apart from studying !
UK ….Woohooo….2008 onwards – Once I finished my polytechnic, I decided to now move out of country and came to UK to do my degree in my chosen field, this is when I started using facebook and slowly most of my friends signed up as well. I have to admit facebook has some really powerful algorithms to know which and where are your friends, through which I met many of my friends some long forgotten really, but oh well it’s always nice to get back ! But two remained absent from my list, Karla and Tina.
Three years later to now 2011 – A friend request , I open it to see who it is, and guess what , Facebook notifies me “Karla has sent you a friend request”. More than 10 years later, here she was on facebook wanting to add me as a friend. Could there be a better moment to live I thought. It was just an amazing feeling, she was in Korea and me now in UK. Far away from the country, India, we met in. That is the power of facebook, that is when I thought, that’s it, only one remains now and the adventure would be complete and a few hours later she joins my friend list. And that’s it, the happiest day of my life till now. Karla and Tina, two of my childhood friends, one in South Korea, other in USA and me in UK, we have just crossed our paths on facebook. That is the adventure of facebook, a long story I know, but there is lots more to it, we are now sharing what we did, what happened, how everything suddenly changed and they had to leave to their respective countries and all. But where it all begins again is on facebook….. isn’t it amazing. Hope you have a good adventure on facebook.
Just Saying... 