WHAT A RELIEF
LT COL NOEL ELLIS
27/II/2023
It was such a difficult day
yesterday and the day before. It wasn’t work tension. Bijli-Paani was there.
Sabji-Bhaji came to the door step. Guppies and mollies were fine. Many hibiscuses
bloomed. Road was swept. Bai came too. Then what could be the reason for the strain.
Till the afternoon everything was
fine. We watched a serial on Netflix. As usual we went out for a walk, leaving
behind our cell phones at home. One checked for missed calls and messages on
return. There were none. Surprising!
As the night started to descend,
there were still no messages on social media, which is quite usual. People those
who wish you good morning at 8 pm also were silent. Evening turned to night, no
messages still. Tension started to build up.
First question which comes to
mind, Kya internet hai? My Vodafone number was showing all bars and 4G, while the
Jio number was displaying the same with 5G. People must have got busy, was the
second thought. All of them! Not possible. Something is wrong.
Net to hai par chal nahi raha hai.
By dinner time people were on the streets. No one wished good evening but were
asking…. Net Hai? Hamara to kal se band hai. BSNL broadband to mahine main bees
din band rahta hai. Jio bhi nahi chal raha. Are bhai good evening to bol do. So,
what net nahi hai, ki sirf whats app par hi wish karna hota hai, I said to
myself.
Now the question arose, kab tak net
band hai? No one had any clue. ‘Riot’ to nahi ho gaya Shahar main. That was one
time when the net was switched off for two weeks here. Some wise man said, net
must be under maintenance. That sounded
probable. How can internet be under maintenance for all the service providers
together? Good question, said some one.
What must be my friends thinking?
Kahin mar to nahi gaya sala? Koi message hi nahi bhej raha hai. There was no
way to tell them hamara net band hai unless someone called, which is rare.
Now the people started asking, net
kyon band hai? That sounded a logical question. On the second day we get a message
from a service provider that from 6am to 6pm the net would not be available.
Why? Kyon? Kis Liye? Aisa kaise kar sakte hai? Jab marji ho tab net band? Koi
mazak hai kya? Main BSNL katwa dunga, main airtel ko port kara lungi and so on
were the murmurs in the colony.
It was a ‘no cheating day’ actually.
Some people cannot help but cheat. The baniya weighed less, so did the meat wala.
The medicine man charged extra. Municipal officers are famous for it. Police I
won’t utter a word. Who doesn’t cheat. We, the cheated know it but live with
it.
Yesterday, it was exam time in
Rajasthan. Many had been preparing for competitive exams like REET, which is an
eligibility test for Sarkari Naukri pakki in the state government. Our city had
a price to pay by being deprived of the umbilical cord to nirvana called the
internet. Desh ki janta was feeling cheated.
Surprisingly, this exam had to be
cancelled or postponed so many times because of mass scale cheating. The examination
papers would leak and the solutions would be available on the net on a premium.
For one exam, the whole city was in a tizzy. The government decided, na rahega
baans na bajegi bansuri.
Electronic transactions were
unavailable. Net banking didn’t work. These days one is not used to carrying a
wallet due to so many payment portals. Even the thele wala accepts e payments.
The carpenter next door asked me,
aap ro paas internet ro dabbo koni. I said no. Bindani ko message karno tho. I
smiled. He was asking if I had a wifi router, to video chat with his wife in
the village. Internet ka kamaal.
In the evening when it came, the
whole city jumped up in the air shouting AA GAYAAAA, like we used to shout when
electric current used to be restored after a power cut.
Suddenly everyone went indoors.
We were lucky to meet people whom we had never seen in the colony. The only
welcome sound was the ting-ting of the mobile phones.
Can our country live without the
exam papers leaking and there after mass cheating and without internet? I
wonder!!!!!!!!
JAI HIND & JAI INTERNET BABA RI
©® NOEL ELLIS
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