Seven Shades of Grey Read Free

on..
    VikSin : will do
    AlfaRomeo66 : ok bye nice chatting with you.
    VikSin : yes ... same here. My email is [email protected] u can use that.
    AlfaRomeo66 : ha ha but I don’t email on my first date … lol
    VikSin : u are funny … lol
    AlfaRomeo66 : yeah but it’s true … lol catch u on Monday … tell me how the party went.
    VikSin : sure will ... bye
    AlfaRomeo66 : bye
    This brief interlude was not that different from the others I had had before. And yet the tiny differences were too stark to ignore. I was online with a woman, my male heart still fluttering; new and free software was brought to my attention - one that worked faster than email - one whose existence was hitherto unknown to me; no profanities, or abusive language, two individuals touching upon personal life - a rarity on the Net; not a hint of cybersex or impregnable beliefs on any specific issue - the core of a chat room’s existence.
    It was a first in many ways: one small step on the Internet, a larger one in understanding humans, a colossal one in diminishing anxiety and yet eventually whisking me away like an uncontrollable roller-coaster, headlong into confusion and insanity.
    *
    At the turn of the twentieth century, a computer was just a fantasy, one that some believed in and most others scoffed at. Humanity was like a mammoth beast hibernating for eons then gradually awakening, rapidly wanting to make up for lost time. Urgency was as thick as a London fog hanging in the air, yet moving at hurricane speed, science its spearhead. Steam had already revolutionized the previous century; this one had to do better. Scientists with fragile sanity and deep intellect wanted humanity to soar. Life was pregnant with hope.
    Fifty years into the century a computer was already a reality, the first spasms of new life in labor. It was this single invention that mankind had been waiting for, one that would affect every human on this planet whether he believed it or not, whether he desired it or not. And with this birth, it was only natural that a New World, a new planet, with new societies and new rules to govern it be born. And soon.
    And it did.
    Sixty years into the century and a few wise men, akin to the ones who visited Bethlehem almost 2000 years ago, were fast giving shape to this new planet. In the past they had succeeded in getting voice to travel over electric lines, pictures to travel in space and now they wanted computers to talk to each other, a fantasy for some turning into reality for all.
    Twenty years after this a computer was thrown out of its hallowed air-conditioned halls fast finding its way into homes and offices of all and sundry. Along with this came the birth of the Internet, and fantasy turned to reality.
    What started out as a network of computers engaged in the protection of the free world swiftly became a necessity of the business world. Ninety years into the century, it became the birthright of every personal computer owner. The birth of Cyberspace was complete: a New World, new genre of names, new identities and new rules. And yet humans changed little.
    They learnt to fly faster and faster and yet could only walk as fast as their ancestors did. A plethora of gadgets was supposed to make daily life easier but ended up consuming more time than before. A man still wore his trousers one leg at a time, his shirt one sleeve at a time, continued to eat through his mouth, and fart through his rear end.
    Women left home to conquer every domain that men claimed their own and yet some stayed back, snug in the comfort of their little castles they called home. Families moved from large ones to small nuclear ones. The faster humans progressed the faster they wanted to progress. The more they invented the more they wanted to invent. Someone coined the phrase that seemed to stick in my mind: global village. It had a nice ring to it, almost sounding comical; but it was fast becoming a reality that would affect everyone irrespective of the