Of Disconnect, New Friends and Fun

In the world of technology, green is definitely the new black. We're green on IM clients, social networks, work place, heck we even joke around saying the green dot on a toothpaste shows it's online. With this level of connectivity, time is definitely becoming a luxury, it’s quintessential that we ensure where to spend it, on whom to spend and what to do once you’re out of it. Time spent with one’s own self and with those around is hard to come by, especially when we’re so curious to know what’s happening to our good ol’ college mates who are now in a different continent, making a life for themselves. In such cases, it’s imperative that someone takes control of our lives, help us disconnect from the virtual world, show how important it is to get along with those around us. A place where there is little to no connectivity definitely is instrumental in this. No cell phones, no laptops, no dongles; we’re all invisible to the outside world by force. Disconnect has been achieved.

The best part comes next. Once you’re out of your comfort zone, you start adapting to the present and try to associate with those around you. This is the part of making new friends. You didn’t know the person a couple of hours ago, but now you don’t know why you missed them all along. New perspectives, ideas, practices, languages, one should be blessed to come across people with so much diversity in this country.

It all started with a training program, a mandatory one at that, which teaches our company’s values and ethics in a more practical and fun filled environment (yes I’m reading from the manual here!). While I’d refrain from mentioning the details, let me give you an overview of the learning, after all that’s what matters at the end of the day. Maybe classroom sessions with slick presenters would’ve bored us to death, but this was different. This demanded physical stress, intelligence and patience. It taught us how to plan, what not to do, live on essentials, be courteous, brave and so on. When I think about it, I wonder how we departed such good friends while we had not even met once before. We learnt more about those whom we already know, met some awesome folks from the army, had a laugh with the staff and cherished every cup of tea served to us. Most of this was possible because we were living in the present, not thinking what would happen when, not knowing what everyone else was upto. It all boiled down to the people there and the moment, moments that define our lives and make it worth living.

The highlight for me was to achieve balance in life. There’s definitely a thin line between using past learning and having an open mind. It’s important to be considerate, at the same time assume leadership and take things under your control. It’s good to be a nice guy but become ruthless in a competitive space. Whatever the derived learning, it’s pretty sure we all emerged different people getting to know a whole lot about ourselves. The best part was that everything was fun even before you realized it.

Please don’t get me the wrong way, but I feel some amount of disconnect is good to open up new horizons in life. The next time someone told you that you didn’t reply while your status was green, don’t apologize, tell them you were busy with the most important person in your life; yourself.