Memory vs Technology

The story very close to my heart and fresh to my mind, as the proverb goes a friend in need is a friend indeed, my brain rushes back to the year 1994.

I and brother were on our vacations to Alwar, the place we call half birthplace as most of the childhood we spent there. Vacation well spent, with our parents, meeting our buddies, fun time I should say. that year the lord Varun- god of rain, thought of spending all the water in his storage on a small city Alwar. It rained and rained and rained for almost a week or more, the entire city was drowned, not that we didn’t enjoy the rains we did !!! then comes the time to leave but looked like the lord Varuna was not happy to leave us, but against his wishes, we decided to leave Alwar, and our dear dad came with us. With a lot of difficulties one brave fellow decided to drive the bus from Alwar to Delhi. The bus was full, we reached the Yamuna bridge on time we still had 2 hours for the Karnataka express to depart. We were happy that we will be able to catch the train, but to our bad luck river the Yamuna was overflowing and roads were jam-packed finally somehow we reached the railway station just to see our train leaving the platform. Our dad suddenly decided to board both of us to Chennai Express – no no not shah rukh khan, and gave us 1000/- cash and said jaa Simran jee le apni zindagi – non that happen too.

Both the siblings on the train and trying to search for a seat to sit and safe travel for the next 48hrs, but we didn’t have a place nor a ticket. My brave brother decides to go on a hunt for the TT and talk to him and see what best can be done leaving me standing near the toilet, those days Train toilets were in a mess sticking all the time. Me little girl standing there and waiting for bhaiya mere. Suddenly I see one stranger continuously staring at me and asking me to come and sit, my movie buff was on high alert imagining him as a villain, why is he looking at me like that? Why is he calling me? What will he do with me? With all these doubts I still went ahead and sat. he was very polite and asked what happen beta and I like a good girl vented out everything, he immediately said he would help us, and again my movie buff wakes up, saying why does he want to help u? what does he want in return? … Finally, after an hour, I see my brother returns with a sad and confused face, the TT was against us traveling, he rejected our plea, he asked us to get down at the next station which was at 12 in the midnight. At a completely unknown place. I suddenly remembered Nirupa Roy and started to show crying emotions, suddenly remembered about this new “Uncle” “stranger” and told my brother, all this while the stranger was observing us and spoke to brother, my brother agreed and stranger spoke to TT, and everything is solved. We are back with smiling face, he the So-called stranger took care of our meals and ticket and gave us 2000/- before getting down at Vishakapatnam, and we finally reached south of India in Chennai.

Our next target to go to Bangalore, my brother the intelligent one said we can collect the claim on our Bangalore train from Delhi and now we can book the Bangalore train, but we were rejected and said we will get our claim nothing less than in a month. Now challenge gets bigger less money/ 2 tickets train/ or bus ticket? Our first shortlist was bus ticket, we checked if bus ticket is available but the last bus for the morning had left and next bus was in the night 7 pm, now the only option left with us is train, we went near the ticket counter, like an obedient sister I was standing near the entrance taking care of the luggage and brother went to the counter, my eyes checking out each and every person around and suddenly I see a guy who looked very familiar and my eyes are as bright as a sunshine it's my school buddy – Prashanth my dear Prashanth Singh, with whom I had lost touch after 10^th grade after shifting to Bangalore. Never felt happiness that much before , Bollywood alive and like 2 lost friends in Kumbh Mela we both ran and met each other. He was equally thrilled like I was. Now my brother came back from the ticket counter saying he couldn't book the tickets as there was a shortage of money, so who comes as a savior - Prashanth my buddy, he had come to the railway station to book his tickets to Alwar but he gave that money to us without even thinking once. He was studying in a hostel nearby. We booked the train and traveled and reached Bangalore early morning. Everyone was so relieved.

How technology has influenced us now, let's rewind the story and play once again in the technology era, we missed the train, we could have used our mobile and booked an alternate train, my dad with cash would have already given his credit card in case we needed. On the train using the train food App we could have ordered the food, and in Chennai station instead of train or bus could have also hired a cab. And above all could have updated parents and relatives who had no clue where we were about us every now and then.

Like in earlier days clicking a pic was a huge task, we had limited options and choice 36 or 34 only, and then we used to print them and keep it as album, and could just open the album and relive the entire memory, but now it’s the digital era, You click and forget and then delete the shots and just have the best one, this memory would not have been a memory if technology was there.