Rohan is sitting near boarding gate 8B of Kempegowda
International Airport, Bengaluru waiting for his flight to Mumbai. He had
waited eagerly for this moment. After a long tenure of hostel ragging which
stretched till end of his second semester engineering degree course, this was a
much needed vacation.
It had been almost 45 minutes since he was last ‘Online’. But
it felt like eternity. So, after the usual nitty-gritties of boarding pass
collection and security check, he was more than happy to settle down and
connect to the free airport WiFi network. As his smartphone gathered its wits
to take on the numerous updates from the umpteen social networks that he was a
proud member, there was a certain noticeable restlessness on his face.
The whatsapp icon was the first one to be noticed, a number
of 87 (notifications) tagged with it. ‘Oh my God! What the hell has happened in
the last 45 minutes’, Rohan sighed. On checking the details, he realized that
85 messages were from his girlfriend Simran, and the rest 2 from his Dad. The
new found love in his life was his natural priority over Dad. Simran’s whatsapp
window exploded with ‘n’ number of pictures. Even the normally robust airport
WiFi was put to shame, as the images just did not stop to queue up for
download.
Typically, Simran managed to coax Rohan in accompanying her
for shopping. At this moment, when there were irresistible sales going all
around, Rohan was not around. She curse her luck, but shortly set her eyes on
the online shopping websites offering even higher discounts plus 30 day return
policy. She planned to try all the dresses and then seek Rohan’s whatsapp
approval so that she could return the rest. “Which of these two is looking
better?”. This followed with dozens of images, Simran posing happily in her
latest collection. “Which footwear out of these three suits me Jaanu?” “You
have been away for just a day, and I already feel so lonely” ..”Tell me, you
love me”. He knows that whatever may be the final choice she makes, one thing
is sure. It would definitely not be the one that he recommended. ‘Women, you
cant live with them, can’t live without them’, Rohan sighed.
Meanwhile, an old man happened to stop by and ask something
to Rohan. But, the pressure of replying to Simran seemed way too much, so the
old man feeling ignored, left. A few moments later, a middle aged woman sitting
a few seats adjacent to Rohan suddenly stood up and started to move towards boarding
gate 6.This was repeated by a group of students sitting near to him.
Considering something was amiss, Rohan had to finally take a break from his
‘virtual’ world and acknowledge the ‘real’ world where boarding gates can
change at the very last moment.
Now, standing in the queue in front of the new boarding gate,
he finally remembered that there was a message from his Dad as well. “Rohan,
where are you? Your phone is not reachable. You will be thrilled to know that
your grandfather…….”Rohan could not read further as his mind drifted back in
memories of the time spent with his grandfather. He was his favorite companion
as far as he could remember. Then, one unfortunate day, when Rohan was about 7 years
old, his grandfather left the house without informing anybody after a bitter
argument with his son.
When his mind returned to the present, he found himself
seated in the plane which was about to take off. He continued reading the
whatsapp message from his Dad. “You will be thrilled to know that your
grandfather has been found in Bengaluru by one of my close friends, who
recognized him near 100 feet road, Indiranagar. Check out his photo that my
friend managed to click. As the image was loading, Rohan was super excited to
finally know about the whereabouts of his grandfather. But when he closely
observed the image, he was in for a shock. The man in the picture was the same
old man who had asked for his help while he was busy in his virtual world with
Simran. Before his mind could act, the Boeing 707 had taken off.
Till date, he ponders in dismay why he did not read his Dad’s
message first instead of frantically helping his girlfriend choose the best
dresses and footwear? Why could not he just listen to the old man at the
airport?
