Sunday, January 3, 2010

Happy New Year !!!


Yet another New year!! There was hardly anything exciting about this New Year, at least to me... I guess that's how it is when you have a silent New Year - a stark difference from others, who go into the New Year with a huge hue and cry, with New year eve bashes and parties.....But no complains.... the little that I get, I tend to find some kinda happiness in it......
A few Voip calls, some smses, loads of facebook & orkut greetings --- a typical Modern New Year.
Gone are those days of yesteryears wherein we used to invest on New Year & Xmas cards, shell away a budget to make those special calls , ensure that we celebrate a Family New Year or Xmas.
How I miss the actual greeting cards, rather than the link from e-card sites like
www.123greetings.com or now an even lazier concept is to post a Note on the social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut or Twitter…. Where is that personal touch anymore? Do we console ourselves by saying “We are moving ahead with time and technology and the way of the world. “ ? Or is it that no one has the time for that personal touch now; who has the time to actually go over to a cards shop, select a card for each person you care and then go home, address it separately ( how many postal addresses do we know by the way ;) (Would they accept email ids?)), get postage stamps and drop it at the nearest postbox? Quite a hectic task, ain’t it?
There was a point of time when Amma used to complain at the amount I used to spend on greeting cards alone…I used to have a card for every occasion J - Hallmarks & Archies definitely made a lot of money from me J And today my expenses for the same is absolutely null.

And talking about calls – especially in this part of the world where I stay, the Telecom giant mints money from the expats in the name of connecting people across nations ;) So the only choice is to depend on the 101 Voip softwares that are available, many a time giving a strain to your parents’ ears in order to save some money.

Parties, get-together, New Year bashes, Dance parties -yup its fun… to be out with friends till late night --- get sloshed and hit the sack by 3am on a New Year’s Day ! But then, there was definitely a different joy when we used to spend it with our own parents…..

Am I sounding very critical --- do I sound against modernization -? Am I turning back into a primitive? Nope, didn’t mean to do so b’coz the changing technology has its wonderful side of the coin as well. In addition to saving costs of communication (being too materialistic), it definitely has helped a lot in networking. Especially the social networking sites gives you access and helps you wish all your acquaintances, friends, relatives spread across miles and it keeps you in touch and updated about all their status. Webcam & chatting are not new anymore to parents who have the children working or settled abroad, who can pamper their grandchildren too through usi9ng this wonderful technological development.

But in between all this I do miss the personal touch – a greeting card, a New Year gift, a long distance call wishing you a wonderful year ahead and a family get together…… I guess Im just being nostalgic of my good old times.....