My life after the advent of the internet(AmitL)

Quip for above pic: A shape of things to come?(Or, have they already reached this stage?)

Hi,all!It's been great,seeing some of the BUFers around,regularly,specially Keshi,Vishesh,Sam(who was going to post in 15 days:)),..... and, now Ishi's back,too- a big Welcome Back, Ishi.

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Life after the internet.To go into the depth of this topic,let's look at life before the internet. I think it began in around 1996. And, at that time, it was a total enigma. Before the net, the PC had just started making inroads, with 'mega memories like 256 MB RAM being looked at as 'high', while a hard disc of 500 MB was a luxury.

Those who had a net connection,were considered affluent. I remember looking at my cousin's PC, in Delhi, wistfully, when I would see him chatting on msn messenger,wondering whether I'd ever get net-savvy enough to chat.LOL.

Only after two-three years,did places like Baroda,really get onto the bandwagon,with ISPs like Satyamonline being on the forefront.I remember,that was the most popular one.So,anyway, I got my first net connection somewhere around y2k, I believe-with a year's subscription costing Rs. 3600/-, for a dialup, little knowing the princely phone bill it would jot up parallelly. But, as I saw later, it was all worth it.

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Yahoo and msn were probably the two most popular websites,and anybody who was anybody, had an email id there. So, naturally, I followed suit, and opened my first id on hotmail, which was ayeayeal(Any guesses,those who don't know, what the ayeayeal stands for?My cousins get confused and type in three-four ayes,sometimes and get 'id does not exist), and a slightly modified one on yahoo(alayeaye). I still have a soft corner for these two ids, just like we have a soft corner for the stuff we buy with our first salary.hehe!

A year or so later, there was no looking back. Even though the net was pretty slow in those days,compared to today's standards, it was a delight to log on, check emails,read Bollywood sites, look for encyclopaedic answers,enter competitions on contests2win and hungama, and so on. I think those were my four must-open sites,at that time,on a daily basis. (Won quite a few prizes as well, via c2w and hungama.I think both sites are still going strong. Will check them out tomorrow ).

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One very big advantage of the net, besides the messengers, was that we could keep in touch-with friends, relatives,make new friends...all at the touch of a button,via email/messengers. No more buying stationery(nice letter pads,pens,et al) , writing letters,going to post them, et al.

And, for someone who was/is a regular LTTE(Let me clarify,that's Letters To The Editor,people,before Keshi's eyes go wide!) guy, writing 30-40 letters a month, it was a boon, to have mags and papers giving their email ids. Till then, I used to have a Godrej typewriter, on which, it was a real task to adjust the postcard,and utilize it to the maximum. Today, I'm sure, if their email ids had not been there, I would not have been able to keep up with even the 30-40% of my writing hobby that I manage to do, since I came here).

Then, there's the wealth of info available on the net,on sites like wikipedia,or, English-based sites like fun-with-words , the newspaper websites of TOI, Hindustan Times, IE. And, then came the like youtube,which, today is fast becoming my favourite site, for locating my favourite songs/comedy serial extracts,etc. Unlimited possibilities, honestly.

And, of course,how can I not mention my main hobby these days,which is so 'alive' (and,in turn,keeps me alive and motivated)only due to the internet,namely,blogging. I'd been missing my writing hobby, back in 2004, when I chanced upon rediffblogs,and thought of giving it a try. And,the rest,as they say, is history- writing, uneditedly(If that's a word), moving over to blogspot in frustration when rediff began conking off, discovering BUF,discovering so many par excellence bloggers with a wealth of talent......all have been 'voyages of discovery', and, each day on blogs, remains such an exciting voyage into uncharted waters,even today. I never know when I'll log on to a blog and find the writer in a pensive/good/sad/happy mood, and what they'll write. And,that's what differentiates blogs from magazines,where you can still predict what you'll find in a particular magazine.:)

So , all said and done, life after the internet has been one memorable event, continues to remain so, and, I hope,will continue being so in the coming years.Things can only get better,as they say.