The Little Green Dot

The first few weeks at work were unnerving for me. I can handle work I have never done before. I can handle making friends in a place where I know no one. I can handle being stared at as a specimen in the zoo because of being "Sastry Sir's Daughter". But what I cannot handle is being left out in the wilderness without any contact with friends. Messengers were out. Meebo was out. Blogger was out. What was I to do?

For a while, I felt isolated from the world. As though all my friends were out there getting on with their lives and I had no clue what was happening. But strangely, when I do have the chance to ping people, I find that I don't really want to. What is it about that little smiley or green dot next to a persons name on a display that makes the whole thing so oddly comforting or reassuring?

I think that as people, we crave company whether we actually admit it or not. We could have no trouble making friends, but at the end of it all, we really want to sit with out little group of special people and know that we can share a moment of lightness and a few brief words of conversation. There used to be hangouts when we were in school and college. The corner table at the canteen, the dosa wala under the big unidentifiable tree, the bus stop, the playground, or wherever else... Things move a lot faster now. In two years, most of the people I know have moved on into new jobs, different cities and in some cases different countries too (me included).  But as time moves on and we get ever so caught up in our lives, the one thing that brings the same reassurance is the little green dot next to a persons name.

I sign into gtalk on my phone now. And it's literally a pain to chat so I rarely do. But I still can't bring myself to sign out. Because to see those people where I can reach them is a wonderful feeling... :-)