When Common Sense Flies Out The Window
It was a time when we had cell phones, but not WhatsApp.
You know how, when you send a message on WhatsApp, more often than not, the sent tick turns blue and you feel relieved that the person has seen the message? I'm talking about a time when WhatsApp may have existed in the world, but not where I lived. Where I lived, it was only SMS and email.
I hope at least some of you reading this post remember what an SMS is. (Yes, it still exists.) After all, it wasn't that long ago - only 2014. Eleven years ago.
Where I lived, at the time, the internet was limited and so was cell phone space. Extremely limited - so, we only downloaded apps/games if absolutely necessary - if it even could be downloaded. And always ensured that the internet was turned off when not in use.
It was a time when school was the only worry and headache in my life. When passing Class XII looked like a mountain I could never cross. When peer pressure ran high and superiority complex ran low. Believe me, when I say it was like this for me. You thought I was going to say "to every average student like me", weren't you? Don't count on it, because I don't know. I honestly don't know how an average Class XII kid - or a 17-year-old kid - functioned in those days. I could ask around and give you an answer, but that's not what this story is about. No.
And besides, I'm too lazy to do that research. I'd much rather spend the time updating my history and political knowledge.
It was a time when I was starting the peak of my life - just exiting teenage school years and about to enter college. I had been lacking inspiration to study for my Class XII exams - mostly because I didn't understand most of the subjects: Maths and Science are not me. What? Did you just ask me, if I had a great interest in history and politics, why did I choose Maths and Science? Are you asking me if it's a typo? Hells no, it's not a typo. And hells yes, my interest does lie in the humanities subjects.
But you know how they say "Known devil is better than an unknown angel"? That coupled with the fact that I had a great interest in the three most hated-slash-boring subjects: Maths, Biology, and History. Now, a westerner or at least, someone who studied international curriculum may find it ridiculous, but I only had the choice to either take Maths and Biology, or History. Not all three at once - not according to central government or any state government syllabi.
The stream with the majority of my favourite subjects was the Maths-Science one. Hence, I took Maths, Physics, Biology, and Chemistry. History was not an option anywhere - I suppose if I had really dug up, I would have found a CBSE school with it, but like I said, known devil (aka the school), so I didn't.
My poor parents tried to help me until Class XI. They were vehementally against tuitions because they knew how much rote-learning and pressure they put on the students. My brother went through it - albiet willingly, because he wanted to crack the "oh so awesome and brilliant IIT-JEE". (He didn't.) I saw him and I was stubbornly against taking either engineering or medicine after school. Some of you may be wondering why I took Science in that case. The answer is simple: My goal was always a BSc degree. At the time, I did not even know that History could be taken as a separate subject, because of the environment I grew up in. Heck, I was born into that environment, filthy that it is.
So, my parents tried to coach me by themselves at home, as did my brother. But soon, my brother's career took off and my parents couldn't help the intense stuff I had to understand anymore, because it was all alien to them. Hence, from Class XII onwards, they decided to send me to tuition classes. And not just any tuition classes. They only agreed because of how unique they were at the time. These classes were one-on-one classes with videos you can watch - part-by-part concepts rather than an entire lesson at once - until you understand, and there were also teachers who will be right there to help you out whenever you have a problem or a doubt. They had different branches across Bangalore, the city where I used to live at the time.
This particlaur day, after my class in the main branch, I was to meet the Chemistry teacher at another branch at a stipulated time. My father was to pick me up and drop me there. We both had cell phones - rudimentary though they were, they were good enough for communication.
After my time at the first branch was done, I wound up and sat waiting for my father. I sent him a message and sat waiting. Five minutes passed into ten, passed into fifteen... no sign of him for at least twenty minutes! I kept checking my phone to see if he even saw the message - or, if he did, if he said he arrived. Remembr how I said that this was the year 2014 there were no blue "Read" ticks to find out with SMS? Finally, I decided to go out and wait - and imagine my surprise when I saw the family car waiting outside with my father sitting in the driver's seat!
I instantly went up to him and blasted him about the lack of communication from his side. After all, I was running out of time and he had made me late with his lack of thinking to inform me that he had arrived! And there I was waiting like a silly girl that he would message me when he arrived!
When common sense flies out the window, what can anybody do?
My father apologised humbly and agreed to do better next time.
Come 2016 and we got phones with WhatsApp - and we could see if people actually saw our messages or not.
But guess what? To-day, because of this concept called "privacy", even that small delight has been taken away from us. You know what I mean, right?--where a person can remove the blue ticks? Yes, that's very frustrating to me indeed. Don't get me wrong - I understand why people do that, but still.
Also, a lot of us have the habit of getting irritated when we see those green numbers on our chatboxes and would love to remove them by systematically opening each chat, thinking we'll see the messages later. And more often than not, we will forget that one promise we made to ourselves. So, what would be the use of the blue ticks in such a case?
When common sense flies out the window, there is nothing anybody can do.
