Friends, are we?

(Before you could read this blog, I have to say that I’m not a firm believer in online relationships and I won’t believe that any relationship could start over with internet.)

           

               Few years back, while I was busy updating my status in Facebook, a new notification popped up, I clicked and it was a friend request from an unknown person ‘Deepika Natraj’, the profile name said. I looked into her profile picture just to make sure whether I had seen her before but I didn't. She was a complete stranger to me. There were 8 mutual friends between us in which, I didn't know 6 of them; I had just accepted their friend request since they had sent me one. In the remaining two mutual friends, one was my school friend and the other was my college mate; there was no possible way that they both knew each other and had any common friends. So I told myself that this person must have sent me a random friend request when Facebook might have suggested few friends to her.

I looked into her profile and she was of my age and lived near to where I live. There were few other pictures which she had kept in public and I glanced through each and every photo just to make sure that it was not one of those fake accounts which my friends use to create just  mock everyone. I accepted the friend request and continued to look into my new-feed.

          

            Few months passed by and now, ‘Deepika Natraj’ was my best friend. From the day I accepted her friend request, we both used to chat for hours. I got to know lot of things about her and even I used to share everything that had happened in my life. Day or night; it didn't matter to us. Our common admiration for Chetan Bhagat made us get even closer. We used to chat about novels, music, her dreams, my dreams, her favorites, my favorites, her dislikes, my dislikes and many more stuff.

         

            She used to tell me every little thing she did like cutting her nail, trimming her hair, new pimple that had made her face look different, her college gossips, misunderstandings with her friends and I used to listen to everything what she says with much interest as it always gave me lot of happiness. Everyone likes when a particular person gives special importance to you and spent so much time telling everything about her to you alone. She even used to tell me how happy she felt when she used to chat with me.

      

              Days passed by and our friendship grew much stronger. She used to send me her pictures whenever she goes to some new places. She used to take pictures with every possible dress she had and I used to tell how she looked with every dress. Sometimes I used to pick dresses for her to wear to her college when she says that she was confused on what to wear. I used to like all her pictures and comment on everything which she posts and she used to do the same. I still remember how I was blushing when she said that I looked like a film star in one of my picture.

        

             Our late night chats used to extend upto 2a.m sometimes even till 3 and we both used to love each and every second of our chat. Every day she used to say me that we both were the best friends in the world and I used to feel happy. One day she told me that she was going to her native so I decided to meet her for the first time. Till then we never thought of meeting each other but I decided to give her a surprise. I bought a dairy milk silk chocolate (she had told me once that she loved that chocolate so much) and went to railway station. Earlier she had said the departure time and also the train number so I was waiting for her.

         

             My best friend, Deepika came, she came towards me, I saw her, she saw me, I kept my foot forward and was about to extend my hand out while she crossed me and went rushing towards her coach. I thought that she did not notice me so again, I ran towards her and stood beside her, she looked at me, though I was breathless, I was smiling.

        

            I took few deep breaths before I could speak, while Deepika said, “excuse me, do you know me?”

I took a step back, I was shocked, and she did not recognize me. The girl whom I thought was my best friend was now asking me did I know her. I wanted to scream out that I was her best friend who used to chat with her leaving his sleep, lunch, work and almost everything but I didn't.

        

             “Fri...Fri...End...” I stammered while she said, “Friends are we?” and raised her eyebrow.

The girl who said that we were best friends in the world is now asking ‘are we friends?’ maybe she was right, we were never friends in reality, we were best friends only in the place called ‘Online World’ and in reality we both we just like any other strangers.

           

            I said “Sorry, I was mistaken” and left that place. I was totally broken; I sat on one of the bench in the station and was thinking on how we both used to chat. I was totally frustrated and angry while my mobile flashed, it was from Deepika.

“I’m going to my native and I would not be able to come online for about a week, don’t you feel sad, Can’t you even text me ‘safe journey’ eh?”

I saw her through the window, she was looking into her mobile anxiously, and maybe she was waiting for my text. I scroll down in her profile and clicked the ‘unfriend’ option. I went into my friend-list and did the same for everyone whom I didn't know. It took me about 30 minutes to do it while the train had left and Deepika looked sad when I hadn't replied her text. Now I had only 109 friends, maybe those were only deserved to be called as friends.

I went back home happily and I looked into my mobile, there were two friend request, I just ignored and took a quick nap before I could go for a cricket match.

                                                         ............

Sometimes we feel all alone though there are 1000 friends in our friend-list. Whenever we turn online, there would be many ‘unknown’ friends who would ping us and we would start a conversation. This is the new generation, we make friends online, we share everything with them but in the end when you need a shoulder to lie on you won’t find any. We make our life much complicated with the words such as, ‘Online friendship’ and ‘Online relationships’. I strongly feel that Internet can only be a medium to enhance a relationship but not for starting a new relationship. Some things just can’t be done by computers and smart phones.

Hope that in the years to come, people change for good and won’t live a fake life.