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It's Cold In Cyberia

The pen became an abstract blade. And as it slashed through the undergrowth, the vegetation kept changing.

Outlook Web Desk

Updated on:

Blogpost: October 2, 2006
WSHING YOU A VERRY HPPY DIWALI, HOPE YOU GT THE SARII AND THE CKES
Diary entry, January 1, 1996
Ring out the old, ring, ring, keep trying the ew.

Happy New Year, I don't think! Spent most of it at the std booth trying to call Shahana and the gang for auld lang syne. Everyone in Delhi had the same idea, would've ducked but the greeting cards we posted haven't reached yet. Got through at 1.15 am to find Shahana was asleep. Too many people in line to try the rest. Back at party, someone suggested using a 'cellular mobile' phone. Maybe I should get one. Or maybe they're just a passing fad.
Diary entry, May 16, 1997
The World Wide Wait

Sick of Netscape Navigator, but this Internet Explorer thing isn't much better. We spent hours trying to download a map today, listening to what some writer calls "the baby bleeps of the modem" as the connection refused to go through. Finally managed to log on—and the map we needed took only 20 minutes to download! You just have to be patient. The designers were trying to download a Sholay poster: one hour on a stable connection, and all you could see was the top of Viru's head. They'll be there all day.

Tried out this new Hotmail application everyone's raving about. It's fun, sending messages to friends that they can read instantly, but 'email' seems so informal. It won't do for serious business, we'll need proper letters
Hotmail archives: August 16, 1998
Guess where I'm sending this mail from! Knew you guys would be worried about the landslides in the hills, so fretted all through the drive on the Ladakh road and missed the most spectacular bits. We stopped at every std booth on the road up to Manali but something's wrong with the lines, I couldn't get through.

So we finally drive into Manali, and then I see it. Small, hole-in-the-wall that says 'Cyber-cafe'. One machine, privacy provided by a greasy plastic curtain, the owner's doing his puja when I walk in. The charges are lower than Delhi—only Rs 30 an hour! The connections looking dodgy, so I'm going to hit SEND And please tell Mesho to stop sending me mails that contain the Happy Birthday virus, can't have my home PC infected again.

The owner says he wants to open more cybercafes around the tourist spots. "Yeh cybercafe STD booth ko maar dalega," he says. That's a bit optimistic, I think.

Ciao, N
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Yahoo! mail archives: August 15, 2002
Why am I working on a holiday in the back of beyond, you ask? Because my boss knows Almora and Pauri—and Leh, where we're headed next—better than I do, and gave me a small map of all the cybercafes I can reach...and WORK from. Aargh.
Yahoo! mail archives: March 27, 2003
Here's the lowdown on momos on the road to Nepal, in one crisp line: Stop at the cybercafes. Seriously. The best chai, momos and thukpa we've had haven't been at the local stalls, where it all tastes of chilli and oil, but at the cybercafes—especially the one 2 km before the border on the Indian side. And, despite your barbaric tastebuds, try them steamed, not fried. There's one every few km at most of the small towns—very much like the roads down south, if you remember—so just ask if they provide food as well as net access.
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SMS to Nilanjana:
Email to Nilanjana:
Wassup? Got a telegram from you—lost mobile, been mugged, house robbed, what? Really worried, call immediately or email. The neighbours came out to see who'd died where, we haven't seen one of them telegram things for years.

Worried, seriously.

Moron
SMS to Nilanjana:
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