Aab has lived through the centuries and seen how people communicate with each other. Man’s desire to reach out and interact made him use horses and pigeons, parchment and camel skin, smoke signals and cave paintings. And then came the era of the telegraph, the locomotive, the automobile and the phone. The efforts to reach farther and farther continued – there came the aeroplane, the satellites and the mobile phones.
All through the need of people was the same, Aab believes. The desire to be heard, to be acknowledged, to be cared for and to be loved. But as communication became easier and easier, the emotional connect seems to have been diluted. The pleasures of delayed gratification are gone, and instant connectivity increased expectations. Aab watches all around, on the streets, in offices, in homes, in parks, in public places – everyone is glued to their “smart” phone. Phones have certainly become very smart, Aab acknowledges – but are they replacing the basic smartness or common sense of the living being? Such questions very few people ask, and when a person like Aab does ask, no one wants to give anything but a cursory reply, and then get back to their mobiles.
Aab likes the sound of a human voice in the vicinity, the touch of a human hand, the feel of paper with personal notes written exclusively to someone who you like. He feels that one good person to interact with at a time, with undivided attention, matters much more than dozens of people on WhatsApp groups or hundreds of “likes” to your messages. But people have become so caught up in the world of technology that sometimes Aab finds it difficult to get even that one individual to spend quality time with him. So he moves on, making friends with the street dogs, the flowering plants, the lazy clouds in the sky, and the squirrels scampering around.
