ALEX has been stuck at home for two weeks. Did it
really hurt his schedule? Probably not.
Being a member of the rising connected society --- who can choose to
work from home or pay office visits occasionally, the day he chose to shave off
his beard and hop on roads in a sports coupe - the one with hailstorm damage, he
has not cared to get it fixed. Though he claimed the insurance money for the
hail damage, but later changed his mind to use that money for something else
i.e., to “save for the rainy day “.
Talking of rain, the town he lives in has been hit by
rain and consequently flood -- quite unusual for this to happen in the month of
May. Last time it happened something of
this intensity was back in 1993.
Yes, he has this curious nature to look at each and every
thing he comes across from an outsider perspective, unlike anyone who grew up and
has seen the transition of knowledge stream shifting to Google – information on
your fingertips.
To someone looking from a distant he may have accomplished
material goals of American dreams in less than four years, while 82% of the
population struggles for the same. To
earn a living, he belongs to the composite class of society which spends 80 out
of 40 hours a week in front of screens, PDAs and laptops. Such an immersed virtual exposure does come at
a cost of sharing bizarre zone outs similar to Walter Mitty.
Young men living in America are not exactly famous for
being in touch with their emotions. To rationalize life, he ends up joining a
bunch of online match making and dating sites. When asked by friends or
colleagues , he tries to explain them logically ( not in defensive way) , how
old online dating is ( since 1970s) and
even before that match making used to be a profession for gregarious elderly
figures in different societies; now it’s
being done by computer algorithms. This explanation usually ends up confusing people,
so he has learned, unless someone specifically asks rational fact which is
highly unlikely, it’s always better to respond in simple terms rather than
narrating high dose rational information.
Rain and lots of thunderstorm, has caused him to stay
inside today. He does not know, how this rain is going to be a blessing in
disguise for him. On the prowl to browse online profiles of prospective matches,
he lands up on a profile, one night that he could not ignore even tried among
the ocean of these high profiles pictures and self-descriptions. Reading this out of the ordinary profile
caused him to grin; smoothly he kept on reading savoring each and every word
written on it. To justify his very unusual
computer interaction behavior. He
decides why not to pour his heart out in an unusually long message, which is something unexpected for his norm.
After clicking the send button, he thinks to himself,
“I am thankful for two things today”. First
for the awesome weather enjoying the cool breeze all day long, secondly for the
match algorithm, for bringing a breath of fresh air ‘profile’ in front of
him.
Studies have shown that the average response rate for
an online message is 30%, so he has to perform the same task another 9 days
before he hear backs something?? Thinking about all this, he goes to bed at
11:30 pm.
On waking up the next morning, against all odds, he
does receive a response back which is something
unexpected according to average estimates. Happily, he responded back. It was amusing for him to discover, there is someone,
on the other side who like work of words. If alone Mohsin Hamid and Jhumpa
Lahiri admirers are kept aside. Out of
this virtual reverence and breaking the formality, he added the suffix ‘gee’ while
addressing their mutual communication.
For all who likes ‘work of words’, music is a food for
their soul and art as an air to breath.
He proposed we should talk more in person at a place,
where art is around us and music is in the air. How about meeting at 7:30 pm for a Jazz
concert in downtown. His invitation was acknowledged with much fervor to speak
literature through that deep philosophy and contemplation on life, with jazz
music in the background----it all sounded intriguing.
Jazz concert started at 6:00 pm but since we are
talking about something unexpected. He
requested personal trainer to shorten the session today only plus even after
mad dash on the road, he could not make at 7:30 pm sharp instead 5 minutes
late.
Entering the
concert hall, it was easy for him to recognize the special person in a
heartbeat. They smiled broadly as they approached. He liked what he saw. He
enjoyed the smile that spread across Irica’s face, and unconsciously noted that
the end of her eyebrows dipped down. The orbicularis-oculi muscle, which
controls this part of the eyebrow, cannot be consciously controlled, so, when
the tip of the eyebrow dips, that means the smile is genuine, not fake. In the
moment of awe and excitement, he stepped over her shoe, while giving a gentle
hug.
To save face, on arriving late plus no place to sit on
account of making a wrong time arrangement of 7:30 pm instead of 6 pm. He
suggested Irica on getting something to drink and enjoy whatever part of the
concert is left. Ears tuned to listen what orchestra has to play, few words exchanged,
as to what they were supposed to discuss -- philosophy, life, and literature.
All faces aligned towards the stage. For ALEX it didn’t last another 10
minutes, until he realized, looking on to Irica’s beautiful face is far better
than jazz. No matter whatever tunes orchestra was playing, he tuned his focus
towards her.
70% of human communication is nonverbal, without much
back and forth questions they started walking around the atrium (kind of
unanimous decision). ALEX was feeling warmth by the presence of Irica
personality next to him. The aura was not something he has experienced
elsewhere.
Eventually they
stepped outside the concert hall, to get some fresh air expecting the weather
to be nice and breezy. Air flow was
stagnant.
Discussion started from why online dating and why not
something else? This was indeed a trigger for ALEX to start his never ending
Pandora box of whatever he has experienced, learned and read in years. His
point of view was, why not online dating— just merely adding the digital
platform it’s 20 times more likely to get the required results rather than
following old clichés advices of, “put yourself out there”. He backed up his logical explanation
introducing an analogy from auto insurance industry, which in his opinion may
have really resonated with her. He claimed the probability to find a match via
online dating is much higher than in person awkward efforts, keeping emotions,
irrationalities and mental barriers caused by invisible scripts aside.
They were already walking together. Following a random
walk across the park, passing the food trucks they eventually did sat down to
discuss philosophy, life and literature.
The conversation found no bounds as ALEX kept going
tangents on various topics from politics, upcoming elections, movies, cultures,
traditions, outsider views and past online dating experiences to name a
few. Though men normally spend twice as
much time talking about themselves as women do, in this conversation ALEX was
no exception. Being a good conversationalist calls for to be a great listener,
with this in mind he asked Irica to speak. She was already thirsty just by
listening the chatter box ALEX.
He kept on
talking nonstop (though his throat did get dry eventually) about experiences
from sports to politics to stereotypes and cultures and all. Unlikely always focusing on self-talk, he
talked about Irica’s problems, when she shared her past. He mentioned it is not
necessary a personal problem, but in greater scheme of things - a sociological
by-product of geography, policy and ways of working in this part of the world.
Soon, ALEX and Irica quickly discovered that they had
a lot in common. They both had a theory about life in terms of juggling three
balls. They both exaggerated their outlier personality –being a hybrid of East
and West. People generally overestimate how distinct their own lives are, so
the commonalities seemed to them a series of miracles.
Dinner time did
pass already, all the nearby shops to eat were closed and food trucks gone
home. After argument on their android
devices and Google maps, Irica proposed to announce landing at Café Brazil. The
server came to their table and took their orders. The cafe seemed to specialize
in mouthwatering brunch and breakfast varieties. Irica, anticipating this,
chose a Brazilian breakfast that could be an easy fix anytime of the day. But
ALEX went for ‘The Sandwich’ consisting of 2 eggs and sliced ham, served with
fried sweet red potatoes. None of the formalities
in deciding what to eat and what to avoid in front of each other mattered at
this point, because ALEX and Irica clicked….no I think they were so thirsty to
get this decision hurdle of the way.
Talking about past
life with hungry stomach, results in conversations to die down eventually –
prevailing silence eventually. Same thing happened on their dinner table for 20
minutes. ALEX learned ‘Chorizo’ is a great silence breaker. Eating the same
thing from Irica plate was even tastier than just breaking the silence; to his
imagination it was more delicious because she served it especially with genuineness.
Alex and Irica
left the restaurant and walked down the sidewalk past a night club few steps
away. Loud electronic music was filling
up the air nearby. The breeze was gentle with music in the air, unaware that they
were already doing the ____’ walk—, smiles beaming out at the space in front of
them.
ALEX put on his thinking cap as they sat back in her
car. He felt that he had been extraordinarily witty and boastful over supper,
encouraged by her flashing eyes. Irica was past her bed time already, and was
up since 5:30 am. Sensing this he assured himself --- silence is golden at this
point.
Irica started driving back to where ALEX parked his
car. While he gave directions to Irica from her smart phone. (Her phone seemed
like a baby cousin of the ALEX’s Android phone which he held in other hand). Instructing her where to take turn and exit,
he contemplated to really 'Thank ' her. He had some really real great time because of
her after a long time. However it was
getting late, he shivered to bid farewell and give a thank you handshake as quickly as possible, before jumping out of
her car.
As soon she left, ALEX fired up his car… it started to rain cats and dogs, the kind of rain only shown in movies, buckets of water splashing on the wind shield. The rain indeed was giving a reminder to ALEX, “The flood is coming “. He got home and thought to ask if Irica has reached home safely in this heavy rain or not, and while he flips his phone to do so. He found a text from Irica, stating ‘she is home safe’. He read the same text intently a couple of times.
This day was indeed something unexpected for him.
Rain was making heavy noise outside the windows, with occasional thunderstorms. He retired to bed, closed his eyes. Tossing and turning around a couple of times, he tried to enter the ZZZZzzzzzzz world but in vain. There was something subconscious going on in his mind, which made him happy.
Sleep left his eyes and he turned on the TV. The media was filled with warnings of flood on its way. Emergency alerts started to fill up the phone and TV screens.
The pressure of rain drops splashing against the windows was giving a reminder to ALEX. The flood is coming. In his mind, he knew; yes indeed ‘a flood is on its way’. Not the one media and rain alarmed him about. But the flood of something unexpected. He paused for some moments, picked his pen and journal. With shine in his eyes, words to express in his mind and ambiance on his face He wrote reminding himself, “this is how a Jazz evening - full of life, philosophy and literature should feel like “
To Be Continued.... until Part 2.
