During my last 4 years in college, there have been many ‘Fridays’…
Even more no. of lectures in E-block… Many times my cell phone on silent mode has beeped with a new sms…

But 11 May, 2007 was different from all other ‘Fridays’, & when I checked that sms on 11:55 am from one of my friends, my heart skipped a beat, a rush of emotions went through my head, the msg read:

“Never again the campus shall v walk, Never again in break shall v talk.
Its all over, v r leaving everything here.
The end was so far, but now seems so near.” :-(

And it was at that very moment, when reality hit me hard.
During the next 5 min. the time had come to a standstill. All those moments of college: the good, the better & the best, the ups & downs, went through my mind like a flashback. During all these years, I have never ever yearned a lecture to go on indefinitely, but today I wished so. Never ever had I listened to my teacher’s words with so much attention. But it was hard to concentrate, I was on the verge of breaking down.

And then the clock ticked 12…

It was the beginning of the END. It was going to be my “last lecture” in college. My last hour in the lecture rooms of college. My last interaction with the teachers in a classroom. My last notes ( not that there were many of them already), in the notebook. The last of everything…

My eyes roamed through every part of the room. There it was written on the blackboard: “Last working day of 2k3 batch”. Half of the class was empty. But one sight at those who were present & you knew that were also going through a flood of emotions. Our ‘mehta sir’ sensing the significance of this moment & the look on the face of the students, halted the lecture & shared his thoughts & experiences with us. At the end of it, like what has become a ritual now, there was a ‘photo-session’ with respected sir & everyone of us thanked him for his advice.

On any given ordinary day, the class should have been empty by now. But today was not ‘any ordinary day’, no one wanted to leave the room. So around 10-11 of us friends stayed there, discussed about our experiences, the best & the worst moments, our first days in college & what not!

When we finally decided to leave the room for that one ‘last’ time, everyone had gone nostalgic & went out with a heavy heart. As I moved out of room no. E-106, my cell phone beeped again. There could not have been a more appropriate sms to sum up the occasion. It read:

“ I walk back towards d large gates, breeze rustling leaves across d road, fluttering in wind! Walk past d lifeless canteen wid no one to shout! Peep into empty classes, missing d screams of joy. Stand at d tree where a hundred love was declared n broken. A single tear escapes my eye n falls towards d emptiness of d sand, as my mind races in thought. Alone I stand, as I think its all over. And only memories remain.”

I exist in two worlds:

The “imperfect” (I) world-

I have been living here for the past 22 years or so. I have a permanent name here & some nicknames too. This is because I don’t have the liberty to decide about either of them. My parents decided the former one & my friends the later ones. Infact, this could be generalized to almost all my activities here, because I seldom have control over my life. I make plans about my near future & they are thwarted, not once, not twice, but again & again… till I almost give up & resign to the fate. Yes, destiny plays a very significant role here. But, the most soothing thing here is that I know for sure that whatever happens in this ‘I’ world is REAL. I can feel it, physical entities exist here & emotions have their say too. Moreover, it is more fascinating because you can never predict the future.

What is going to happen with you during the next day, next hour, next minute & even the next second!!! “Uncertainty” rules the roost. And that is why it is an “imperfect” world. And this is the reason why I LIKE it so much.

Till 2006, february was the month, I don’t remember exactly: this was the world in which I lived, I survived, I laughed, I cried, I made friends & then more friends. I went through almost every human emotion possible.

And then something happened……………………………..

“Virtual reality” (VR) world-

5 MAY, 2007: jitin.sharma@gmail.com

Welcome Jitin(~College~)
You are connected to 51,799,530 people through 271 friends.
Grow your network now!

You have 43 fans.
3,369 scraps.
Your profile views:Since Feb '06: 4,932, Last week: 39.

And so on & on it goes…

I can bet 99 percent of the people who are reading this article know what I am talking about. This the homepage of the most famous social networking website on internet: orkut. And I am also sure that not even half of you all ( including me) would have had any idea whatsoever about this, before feb 2006 or so ( one year back from now).

This is MY world. I control everything here. I can change my name here. I can write whatever I want in my profile. I can even explore other’s people world here without any restriction. In a nutshell, I can do whatever I like & whenever I like to do anything.

But still I don’t like it more than the ‘I’ world. And there are reasons to it.
This is an UNREAL world, almost a case of “virtual reality”. Where you cannot feel anything physical. You have friends, but you can’t touch them. You can write scraps, but you can’t talk. You may be connected to millions of people through one another, but you may not be knowing even 0.1% of them all. Here, you don’t know the TRUTH. Just like yourself, others possess the same powers too. They can penetrate your virtual world, whether you like it or not.

And this VR world is the one which is dominating our lives now. It is spinning its web on us, without our knowledge. We are being caught unawares. We are getting ADDICTED!!!

But the fact is that now, we have become slaves in this world. We can’t survive without it. The Yahoo messengers, google talks & other chat rooms are intruding in our daily life.

So what should we do?

“Everything in excess is a mess”. So the need of the hour is a perfect synchronization between the two worlds. A harmonious relationship between both of them.

Because its not a battle: REAL vs VIRTUAL world.

Infact its just the opposite: REAL & VIRTUAL world.

A mixture of both ingredients would make a delicious & nutritional dish. The excess of any one of them would spoil it.

What should be the percentage of both???

That everybody has to decide for himself.

After all, its always a matter of personal choice.

Hope all of us make the right decision!

PS: This is not meant to undermine the inherent benefits of social networking sites in any way. This only serves as a wake up call from the slumber we are in now. To get over this addiction.