The world indeed has become very small and easily accessible thanks to the state of the art travel options and telecommunication facilities, which keep us all well connected. These days , traveling between continents might not take more than a few hours. There are video conferencing facilities and internet phones that help you to remain in touch with your loved ones always! However once we step out of these colourful and exciting virtual world to the real world, things get murkier and dull. This phenomenon is not just rampant in ,metros like Mumbai and Delhi but in small States like Kerala as well!
This incident came as a rude shock and an eye opener of sorts to me. The venue was a chic coffee shop at the heart of the city of Cochin and I had been there to grab my customary steaming cuppa of coffee where I bumped into one of my old pals who at present is working in a high profile, multinational IT company in Infopark at Kakkanad in a senior position. After having a quick update about our friends and the latest happenings around, he decided to introduce his gang of colleagues who was with him. I moved a step closer and exchanged warm hand shakes. Then suddenly I saw my friend fumbling and trying hard to recollect the names of his colleagues who spend nearly 8-9 hours with him every day all round the year!
Though we all sit very close, at a nudging distance from our colleagues at our work desks, are we cocooned in a reclusive space, shut off from the outside world and its happenings? The work pressures and the mad pace of the modern life have made us all badly self centered and mechanical. Will there be a way out at all from this vicious circle?
Two great articles in a row! Why I love this? Well many foreigners still have a myth of India about spirituality and closeness of the people. I do believe people are still closer- and family ties are stronger in many ways in India than in America (its more group oriented than individual oriented) but this highlights how it’s not really what we think it is.
Thanks for sharing.