The best thing about being an early 90s kid is that you got to see a world without mobile phones, a world with mobile phones the size of a 700ml water bottle and call costs or Rs. 8 a minute, and a world with snazzy smartphones and data costs that amount to almost nothing.
There are a lot of people who turn their noses up at the intensity or quality of emotions people of my generation feel, just because a large chunk of the communication has become dependent on the technology of our age. My argument would be that the previous generations would have been saying the same to them, because they had been wholly dependent on pigeons for communication instead of postmen! The bottom-line is that humans have always loved, laughed, cried, emoted. It is just the ‘how’ that changes.
I was gifted my first phone when I finished school, which was something out of the ordinary, because most of my friends had been using personal cellphones for the last 3 or 4 years. My parents used to be extremely strict (in hindsight, thank God they were!). Even though I was in a co-ed school, they had forbidden me from making female friends! And like an obedient child, I used to follow their instructions to the T!
Okay, scratch that, I was lying. I had a lot of female friends (well, duh!), and ...I was deeply in love with one special friend.
And, as you would expect, a few stolen glances and a couple of exchanges in school were not enough to satiate my lovelorn heart.
Enter Idea Cellular. My parents had both recently switched to Idea from a different brand because of some connectivity issues they had been facing. And it was the first time they had switched to a prepaid connection, which was perfect for me as there were no worries about my parents finding anything out in the postpaid bills! And thus began the midnight calls and texts once my parents went to sleep, which started with extreme trepidation, and gradually grew warmer as the two young hearts poured themselves out.
Fast forward two years, and I had been gifted my first phone in 2012. The shopkeeper asked my father and I: “Airtel? Idea? Reliance?”
“Idea”, I replied, without even thinking about it.
You may well guess the first person I called when the phone number got activated! At that point of time, my boards examinations had gotten over, and I had not met her for almost a month. My heart was in turmoil, and I had been trying to summon all my courage to ask her out! After hours of pacing, I did pick up my phone with sweaty palms and called her.
It has been seven years, and we are still together, and as much in love as we were that day. I guess, what I am saying is that Idea has been more important to my life than I could ever thank it for!
The scene shifts to 2014. I was in college, about to write a term paper, when I got a call from my mother. I ignored it. I got two more calls, and called her back. What I heard changed my life forever. My father had been hospitalised with a full-body-paralysis that had shown no warning signs earlier. My mother was inconsolable. I stayed back and took the test. (I failed in that paper, because for the first half an hour, I was completely dazed.) I rushed to the hospital. There he was, all of six feet, well-built, the rock of my life, the most dependable person I had known-and he could not move a single limb, and could barely speak. I will not dwell on the details a lot. He had a very risky surgery on his spine, and spent over a month in the hospital. My mother used to stay with him all the time, and my elder brother and I used to rush back from our college examinations to the hospital, and used to stay there the entire night, because it was difficult even for the nursing staff to tackle him.
He was finally brought back home, and a month later, my brother left for the United States (he had been taking his graduation examinations) for his PhD since it was a lifelong dream for him and my father insisted that he should not let go of this opportunity, as the perceived threat to his life had passed.
I took the GRE test as well at that time, and despite the difficult situation I was going through, did fairly well. I remember sleepless night after night, because he could not sleep for more than half an hour at a stretch due to various discomfitures. I remember doing things that I probably would not have been able to do in normal circumstances. When he started getting better and regained mobility to a 50% extent, the doctors told us to go for a vacation. I went with my family because my father would need me, but I did not tell them that the supplementary test for the paper I had failed was due two days after we would return! I just did not want them to be burdened further.
My father had a small business, but he had to wind that up because his health would not allow him to continue. My parents wanted me to go abroad for my higher studies, but I chose to stay back and join Tata Metaliks because I would be posted in a location two hours from my city.
After winding his business up, he had put in a lot of his savings in the stock market, and that money got locked up. In September of last year, I was not sure of taking CAT because of the financial situation at home (on top of which my mother had gone into clinical depression).
The situation had cleared up a bit by October, and I eventually did take the test(with zero preparation), and by the grace of God and my loved ones’ wishes, one day got an email from IIM Ranchi, and a phone call. My father is better now, and about to start a new business. My mother has recovered, and is teaching in a preparatory school for kids. And I am here, writing this article.
Ideas can change the world. Love makes the world. That is all I have learnt through my journey.