Towards a flatter world...the sequel

the first part of this two part write up is here

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An year later, I was sitting at a Cyber cafe (Internet parlor), having created my first email account with Yahoo. I had just one email id to whom I could send an email. He was my cousin who was working for Intel in Portland, and had given me his email address when on a vacation to India. For my first email, I had typed a long letter with more than five hundred words. After I pressed the 'Send' button, I felt elated. I had sent my first email.
But, would he receive it? Was the email address right?
These questions haunted me as the Indian Postal Service always made it a point to lose all my letters (the real world version of the email) to my cousins.
The next day, I went to the Cyber cafe again and logged into my email account. I was surprised to find a reply to the email from my cousin. Though, as an Engineering student, I knew all the technology behind the emails, and the Internet, it was a strange experience for me to actually see that the message had traveled all the way to the United States, and had come back (figuratively). All this had happened within a span of one day, and with a cost of not more than twenty rupees per hour.
I had thought, 'God! What is the world going to be?'
I did not even think in my wildest imaginations, about the number of emails that I sending and receiving today.

"The wild animals visit this place almost every night," the forest guard told the four of us, pointing to a small water hole, a hundred yards ahead. Three of my friends and myself had ventured into a trek in the protected forest of Parambikulam in the November of 2006, with a few forest guards. We were staying in an old bungalow in the middle of the forest, built by the British in the last century. This house did not have any facilities, but was just a structure with a few doors and a roof to serve the wildlife enthusiasts to stay for a night. The house had deep pits dug on all the sides, to prevent the denizens of the jungle from coming near. A small plank on the pit on the front side was the only entrance to the bungalow. A small lantern was the only source of light, helping the cook to prepare the dinner using firewood from the jungle, and water from the nearby stream that we had brought, earlier in the evening. The ambience was eerie, as one of the assistant forest guards started narrating jungle tales of a tiger that was tormenting the villages skirting the forest. There was a occasional bark of a deer, a quacking sound of a strange bird, and some other sounds that I could not distinguish. After the dinner, the forest guard suggested that we could go out for a night walk, as it was a good time to sight wild animals. Though I trusted the experience of the forest guard, I was skeptical about him. He had behaved weirdly in the jungle walk, earlier in the evening. He did not interact much with anyone, but just kept to himself, and was always marching ahead when we trekked. Sometimes, he did try to speak to us in a language which my Tamilian friend guessed to be Malayalam, and my Malayali friend thought to be Tamil.

As we started the night trek, I started following the forest guards, with a torch in my hand, followed by my other friends. The forest guard did not even carry a torch, but just a stick, which he was swinging wildly as he walked. Few minutes into the jungle, and it was getting scarier, surrounded by dark green trees, bushes, and grass, in the forest, dim lit due to the partial moon. It looked more of a dream sequence, than a real life experience, as most of the things that I could see or hear were not clear. Suddenly, I could hear human voice. Unsure, I became more attentive. There was definitely a voice. As I observed, it was coming from the forest guard, who was more than fifteen yards ahead of me. I froze. It looked like he was chanting something.
Could it be a ghost chant? Or was he just crazy?
Suddenly, I could see a sparkle at he right ear. He was holding something.
It appeared like a mobile phone.
It was indeed a mobile phone. Later I was told that it was a BSNL connection.
Few years back, we did not have proper phones in important towns in India. Today, there was a cell phone connectivity in the heart of the Parambikulam jungle. Is the day far when the tigers and leopards would have email accounts?

On a recent visit to my native place Kilar, a secluded village off the NH 206; on the way to Honnavar from Jog falls, I had taken my digital camera. There was a Upanayanam (threading) ceremony of one of my cousins, and there was a large gathering of all my relatives, whom I had not seen since childhood. I like such gatherings because they are a great way of meeting up with everyone, and saving time rather than visit each of the houses. I was clicking a lot of candid shots, as this was a unique occasion, where all my relatives had come together, after a long time. After a hearty lunch, it was the time of giving gifts to 'Vatu', the person who has been threaded. I was happy that I could cover pictures of everyone, as all the people would definitely come to give the gifts. I positioned myself beside my threaded cousin, and his parents, and shot pictures at will.
After the eventful day, I had to return back to Bangalore the same night. I had to leave on an onsite deputation to Minneapolis, US in the weekend.
After reaching Minneapolis, I uploaded all my pictures on an online album, and sent the links over to my cousins in Bangalore.
The next day, I got a call from the sister of my grandmother in New Jersey. She had got my phone number from my family in Bangalore.
She told me that my cousins in Bangalore had forwarded the link to my pictures, to my cousin who was threaded in the secluded village. He had been able to view all the pictures through a dial up connection, and had sent the link over to my grandmother's sister over the phone. My grandmother's sister had browsed through all the pictures, and had called up to tell me that the pictures were nice, but I had missed out her friend, who had supposedly come to the gathering.
All this in one day?!!!
I stood stunned.

On my recent vacation to Honnavar, a place I loathed as a kid because of Sundays without TV, I could see my grandmother sitting with her kitchen help watching the latest report by 'Aaj Tak' on Iraq War. "This Bush is crazy, why is he still fighting in Iraq? Saddam is already caught," she was telling her help. "Many people may not know that Saddam is caught. Looks like there are not many TVs in Iraq," said the kitchen help.

From the days of the snake charmers, Kings and their elephants, it is a wonder to the world as India moves towards auto drivers with mobile phones, and blue toothed connected super malls. Kitchen helps talking about global issues, mobile phone connectivity in the jungles, and village boys sending Orkut friend requests, all hint at the communication media flattening the world. In this world, where each country needs the others to develop, a flat world would prove a boon to the humanity. Together, we will win.