Even today, I can recall, with much excitement, chuckling under my breath as I do, the first time we started chatting on a chat platform from the new internet company's website, Sholay dot com. It was the start of the dot-com bubble that peaked in 2000 before it burst a year or two later.
Everyone took the brand-new trend seriously: striking up conversations with strangers we would typically never meet! In an era of real-time chatting and instant messaging within the newly evolving digital world, this mode of having small talks with someone without meeting face to face felt incredibly thrilling.
In today's world, social networking sites are so commonplace that the original concept, which once captivated us with its new-age tool for instant communication, is taken for granted because it is so abundant everywhere. And, in consequence, it has become rather dull but handy. That's how the world works: old giving way to new. That's nothing new to feel sentimental about it unnecessarily.
Those experiences were truly unforgettable. Shiv often used his first name to chat with strangers on the forenamed website. For example, ‘Shiv’ or simply as ‘Prasad’ or other variations to keep things regularly 'intriguing and mesmerizing' with his giggly gang of girlfriends, whom he courted each day in his increasingly busy life of dedicated 'bird watching' that had led our Enticer Shiv to get tagged with the nickname I (with proactive participation from Mandeep) came up with 'Joey.'
[To pull his leg with jest and banter, Mandeep and I once decided to play a prank on our associate Shiv, who came dangerously close to earning a reputation as a new-age, beyond-sexy, Casanova-like Emran Hashmi, a hands-on Lothario — a ladies' man, a modern-day Prince Charming, a veritable Don Juan. So we began sending emails filled with 'love and longing' to his personal email address from a newly created account: Joey at gmail.com. He responded enthusiastically to all the emails we sent him, mistakenly believing that someone named 'Joey' was sending him intense love letters. Some of the emails we sent were explicitly graphic in content, while others were straightforward, as in 'coming directly to the point,' appealing to his masculinity! Mandeep and I used to find ourselves hooting with laughter while we read his strong expressions of love something along these lines — 'Can't imagine my life without you, Joey,' 'Oh Joey! You're the one for me, let’s meet soon,' even this wild, untamed lust: 'I'm wild about you, let’s meet,' 'Don’t wish to live without you one moment,' and on another occasion this consuming desire: 'I'm so crazy about you.' All imprudent, lousy, yet seemingly passionate replies to the enticing email messages we sent him daily, and in one of his emails, he expressed his most secret desire: to meet up with 'Joey' at a public park of Joey's liking! Now take that! That, of course, never happened!
Before things got overboard and became overly serious for Shiv, who was mislaying himself in an emotional reverie, Mandeep and I ultimately intervened to rescue our colleague from an impending catastrophe escalating in ways we had not anticipated Shiv would get to this crossroads of his new love life. Soon after, Mandeep and I decided things with Shiv were getting serious, saying, "Aré Arindam, kuch karte hain yaar, yeh toh too much hogaya, warna yeh toh aape se bahar ho raha hai! Let's do something. Otherwise, it will slip out of our hands!" So we quickly settled to reveal the truth behind the fictitious 'Joey' we created to pull his leg or to hang noodles on his ears while praising him for the fun ride we have had at his expense by telling him conciliatorily, "Areh! Yeh sab mazak tha re, bas aur kuch nahi, ok! Take it easy! Look, it was all a joke, nothing else, okay!" Fortunately, Shiv was a good sport, bearing it all with a long-faced, tight-lipped, tacit grin that was only to be seen to be believed!!
Shiv knew no bounds in his experiences of love and longing, including his other potentially typical desires that he felt not a wee bit challenged to overcome every day. He was a beer-drinking teetotaller, unique of that ilk. Naturally, he courted a googly of gurls daily because he knew how to fall in love instantly with anyone who might show a reasonable interest in him. A selfless Love Yogi who welcomes female relationships with wide arms! In the style of Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge!]
Mandeep occasionally typed in a boy's or even a girl's name, such as Shiv's moniker ‘Joey,’ to playfully tease some overexcited dudes getting overly friendly in the chat. As for me, I chose names I thought were funny, just like my colleagues, like ‘Rimjhim,’ ‘Okavango,’ and ‘Soosooagaaya!’
The name ‘Rimjhim’ practically danced off my keyboard during our chat. I found it endearing to note that it piqued Mandeep's curiosity so much that he leaned in closer, eyes sparkling with curiosity and with a naughty twinkle in his eyes that only comedic humourists like him can only manage with their twitchy eyebrows raised at you in a mock, questioning, mischievous grin, "Oye! Where did you find that girly name? Areh! Ye naam kahaan se mila re? Kitna beautiful naam hai," he asked. "It's such a beautiful name!" (I could feel the enthusiasm in his voice as he savoured the sound of the girly name, which brought surprising delight to our conversation whenever I invented other funky chat names to use for chatting).
‘Soosooagaaya’ or ‘Susooagaaya’ was another hilarious name I came up with. It was my invention! Seeing that name in the chat, Shiv and Mandeep first chuckled before erupting into laughter, howling for several minutes until they caught their breath. At which point Shiv exclaimed, “Oh my god! What got into you? That sounds really quirky if you ask me!” and continued laughing, adding, “But it’s a good one! Quite funny,” to which I responded, “Thanks Shiv, I’m glad you found that funny. I knew I was funny!”
Mandeep chuckled heartily. “How did you think of that name? Tereko susoo agaya? Did you feel like peeing?” he asked. I couldn’t say anything as I laughed with them, momentarily speechless, unable to react amidst the mirth while lost in the laughter.
Just then, someone pinged me on the chat: “Soosooagaaya? Who are you?” and someone said, “Hi, Soosooagaaya!” before realizing the meaning of the name, “Soosooagaaya!!!….. Hahaha... hahaha…!!! Nice name!!!” Mandeep, Shiv, and I all chatted on that chat platform as if there was no tomorrow.
[Our impromptu chatting sessions lasted for a month or so before we grew disinclined to continue in that manner. Work started dominating the professional landscape day after day and week after week, becoming increasingly timed for continuous delivery and meeting set targets within daily time frames. We moved on after losing interest in chatting with the outside world, as it were.]
Shiv, Mandeep, and I typed furiously, almost pounding our keyboards as we engaged in a lively conversation ranging from humorous, serious, and often even playfully hectoring chatters with lively rhetoric, making the conversation entertaining, exciting, or frequently quite silly. Internally, within the organization, we used the official chat system to intercommunicate with Devi and Suresh, whose cubicles were on the other side of the building in the West Wing. Mandeep and I frequently joined them in one chat session after another, filled with energy and enthusiasm that knew no bounds. Those days were so much fun: the era of fun, friendship, and food.
While Revathy, Rafi, Gnana, Renju, Elizabeth, and Marilyn moved on without a farewell, Mandeep and I furthered our chance to continue our friendship for a bit longer before turning incommunicado for over a decade and a half now. Unfortunately, we may never cross paths again. If they do, it will be better for it.
(To be continued…)
By Arindam Moulick
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Mandeep occasionally typed in a boy's or even a girl's name, such as Shiv's moniker ‘Joey,’ to playfully tease some overexcited dudes getting overly friendly in the chat. As for me, I chose names I thought were funny, just like my colleagues, like ‘Rimjhim,’ ‘Okavango,’ and ‘Soosooagaaya!’
The name ‘Rimjhim’ practically danced off my keyboard during our chat. I found it endearing to note that it piqued Mandeep's curiosity so much that he leaned in closer, eyes sparkling with curiosity and with a naughty twinkle in his eyes that only comedic humourists like him can only manage with their twitchy eyebrows raised at you in a mock, questioning, mischievous grin, "Oye! Where did you find that girly name? Areh! Ye naam kahaan se mila re? Kitna beautiful naam hai," he asked. "It's such a beautiful name!" (I could feel the enthusiasm in his voice as he savoured the sound of the girly name, which brought surprising delight to our conversation whenever I invented other funky chat names to use for chatting).
‘Soosooagaaya’ or ‘Susooagaaya’ was another hilarious name I came up with. It was my invention! Seeing that name in the chat, Shiv and Mandeep first chuckled before erupting into laughter, howling for several minutes until they caught their breath. At which point Shiv exclaimed, “Oh my god! What got into you? That sounds really quirky if you ask me!” and continued laughing, adding, “But it’s a good one! Quite funny,” to which I responded, “Thanks Shiv, I’m glad you found that funny. I knew I was funny!”
Mandeep chuckled heartily. “How did you think of that name? Tereko susoo agaya? Did you feel like peeing?” he asked. I couldn’t say anything as I laughed with them, momentarily speechless, unable to react amidst the mirth while lost in the laughter.
Just then, someone pinged me on the chat: “Soosooagaaya? Who are you?” and someone said, “Hi, Soosooagaaya!” before realizing the meaning of the name, “Soosooagaaya!!!….. Hahaha... hahaha…!!! Nice name!!!” Mandeep, Shiv, and I all chatted on that chat platform as if there was no tomorrow.
[Our impromptu chatting sessions lasted for a month or so before we grew disinclined to continue in that manner. Work started dominating the professional landscape day after day and week after week, becoming increasingly timed for continuous delivery and meeting set targets within daily time frames. We moved on after losing interest in chatting with the outside world, as it were.]
Shiv, Mandeep, and I typed furiously, almost pounding our keyboards as we engaged in a lively conversation ranging from humorous, serious, and often even playfully hectoring chatters with lively rhetoric, making the conversation entertaining, exciting, or frequently quite silly. Internally, within the organization, we used the official chat system to intercommunicate with Devi and Suresh, whose cubicles were on the other side of the building in the West Wing. Mandeep and I frequently joined them in one chat session after another, filled with energy and enthusiasm that knew no bounds. Those days were so much fun: the era of fun, friendship, and food.
While Revathy, Rafi, Gnana, Renju, Elizabeth, and Marilyn moved on without a farewell, Mandeep and I furthered our chance to continue our friendship for a bit longer before turning incommunicado for over a decade and a half now. Unfortunately, we may never cross paths again. If they do, it will be better for it.
(To be continued…)
By Arindam Moulick