ONE DAY WITHOUT THE INTERNET

 

It was a regular Thursday morning. The morning rush of packing two kids off to school leaves me exhausted. However, today, there was no time to rest. The assignment I had been working on for two weeks was due that day. I had to upload the files onto the client’s server by 4 p.m. sharp.

Finishing breakfast quickly and cooking lunch, I hurriedly sat down to work. To give you a brief I work as a freelance fashion illustrator. I work from Home. All my projects are received and delivered over the internet.

A few last-minute picture references needed to be downloaded to corroborate my designs... An hour’s work on the internet, a thorough look over the entire pdf, and finally, upload. Yes! My day was planned to the tee.

As I logged onto Google, up came a blank page. “Your internet connection is deactivated.”

I closed the browser window, checked my Wi-Fi settings, and tried again. Unsuccessful!

I tried connecting to the internet on my smartphone. No luck. On checking my text messages I found the answer to my misery. A message from the internet service provider. It said that due to maintenance work outside our apartment the internet connection would be disabled for the entire day!

Panic-stricken I called my neighbor who was kind enough to say that the connection might be restored by 7 p.m. otherwise the next morning. All hell broke loose... How will I be able to meet the deadline today? Cyber cafes existed a decade ago... do we have them now? Being so used to 24*7 WIFI CONNECTIVITY I felt lost. It was a strange feeling like I was marooned on an island. Completely isolated and cut off from the world.

It’s tough to imagine that the Internet is an invention as recent as the 1990s. Before that, the public did not have access to the World Wide Web. An invention so recent is now an integral part of our lives. All of us are connected at some point in the day to the internet. Most people start their day by checking their emails or WhatsApp notifications. Social media, OTT Entertainment, YouTube, and Online Shopping keep the public glued to the Web. For me and lots of professionals, the internet is a means of income. You can access stock markets and commodity exchanges worldwide over the Internet. The World Economy, Healthcare, and, Education survived the Covid 19 crisis thanks to the INTERNET.

No internet access can be crippling.

 

A kind friend agreed to let me use a workstation at her office with a Wi-Fi connection. Packing my laptop I rushed there and was able to upload my assignment successfully. Once back home I realized that the kids were late! They should have been home by now! I dialed the number of the school van driver. It was unavailable. As the home internet connection was still deactivated I could not access the GPRS locator of the school Van. WhatsApp messages on the school Mom’s Group would buzz with information. I was not receiving any. Panic attack no.2! Frantically trying to call the parents of kids who shared the same van. One parent reassured me that the bus had had a flat tyre a few kilometers from school. The van had stopped en route and the driver had managed to fix it. The kids would be home in less than 10 minutes. Phew! I breathed a sigh of relief!

 

It was 5 p.m. by the time the children reached home. Hungry, exhausted, and cranky. My little one ate her snack and wanted to curl up on the bed with her iPad to watch videos on YouTube kids.

It’s her way of relaxing. As there was no internet she could only watch videos that had been downloaded before on the device. She soon got bored and threw a fit! Oh my! As if my day couldn’t get worse! It took a lot of my energy and patience to calm her down. She blackmailed me into calling a friend home for a play date. I thought she was too tired to play!!

It was the elder one’s turn now. His science Homework due the next day needed him to do research on the internet. Oh no! Again we tumbled into the car- 3 kids, a laptop, and I. We headed to a café nearby that offered free Wi-Fi. Sipping on some much-needed strong coffee I thought about how my kids’ lives were also so Internet dependent. Young and Old find it difficult to manage even a day without internet connectivity.

The light of the Wi-Fi signal turned green only at 7.45 that night. I remember the time so clearly because of the loud shrieks that the kids let out! Just minutes before their bedtime and they were able to get some online gaming and Youtubing. Finally, both slept peacefully. Exhausted, I too decided to call it a day. Hey, Wait! I had a full day’s mail and messages to catch up on! Sleep could wait! The Internet was on. Welcome back, dear friend!