My Videoconferencing experience

I experienced videoconferencing today...

In this shrinking world,I know I sound archaic, when I express excitement about something like 'videoconferencing' . But the fact that people treat videoconferencing trite enough is in itself an achievement for the generation that we are born in & the age in which we are living.....

I still remember, 10 years ago when my sister had relocated to Banagalore for her education, my parents used to call her up from Delhi every third day, early in the morning at 5.30 am, so that the charges for an STD call would be half or one fourth or some fraction which I dont remember and dont even think is worth remembering, given the ease with which I can call anyone in Bangalore without hurting my pocket too much today. Its amazing that our society has undergone such an amzing technological metamorphisis. Things like video conferences are fixed at the blink of an eye!

We sometimes take things so much for granted, but when I delve more into my own lifestyle, I see my whole existence runs on the backbone of technology. Infact the industry in which I work relies so heavily on this, that if it crashes I can lose my job at the blink of an eye. Telephonic conversations with my boss who lives half way round the world & desktop sharing with my line of business partners are some common activities which if I miss, my existence in the organisation & the existence of my organisation in the first place become so unjustified.

Infact technology has transcended such leaps and bounds that till 5 years ago you were still hearing about scoop/gossipy news of the first internet marraige or internet dating that turned into marraiges. Such things have become such common phenomenon nowadays that they dont even form part of news. The autorickshaw driver who rode me down to office in the morning was merrily conversing on his mobile phone (I have to confess here that I was a little embaressed when he took out his phone because he had a better model phone than I have. And for those of you who think, this woman is not status conscious at all, let me tell that the organisation that I work for doesnt allow me to be status conscious - I mean camers phones are not allowed in my office...:(...all BACS employee will empathize with me on this...for the rest of you...u can laugh...i wont mind it!)

Coming back to technology, i must say that there still exists some bit of a mental blockade with its usage. I mean atleast with the usage of some advanced forms like VC which I did. When i came out of the videoconference, I wanted to do some sundry grocery shopping, but i refrained by telling myself "what if the guy whom I just met, saw me doing this, what would he think", and so I procastinated the plan...the moment that thought flickered across my mind, the next was a laugh on myself which said "arre stupid, he was sitting in bangalore, he cannot catch u doing sundry grocery shopping in Mumbai, lest the VC camera is still following u"...hahahaha...i thought!