No, this isn’t meant to be a sequel to The Lunchbox; my life isn’t as spicy as
to inspire the making of a Bollywood film, atleast not as yet!
After the much revered Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
added ‘selfies’ to its lexicon, the word ‘inbox’ has hope of joining the others
in the pages of the OED. But that apart, there’s something about the ‘inbox’
that makes the heart aflutter with excitement and anticipation – a mail from a
dear one, a job offer, a tiding or the spurious mail regarding an even more
spurious lottery that you just won!
This morning my ‘inbox’ had a very cryptic mail:
“Hi! Wonder if you remember me. I was the one who took of
your shoes and the one you shooed away, as soon as your father was back home”.
That mail perplexed me! For one, I wondered how it made
it’s way into my ‘inbox’ instead of landing in the ‘spam’ folder; and secondly,
I had no memory of anyone who I shooed or who ‘shoe-d’ me! I quickly asked my
mother and she confirmed my ‘shoe-y’ behaviour when I was 2 years old. That
someone could carry a memory of that for all these years amused me. So, I
thought I would do the right thing by apologising for my inappropriate behaviour
when I was a toddler needing help with my shoes. The mail, as of now, rests in
my ‘drafts’ folder…
Every so often, my ‘inbox’ is inundated with mails from ‘fans’
and after the few nano-seconds of feeling wonderful about having a fan
following, I realise that it isn’t me but the wonderful singer from the Bhendi
Bazaar Gharana, Shubha Joshi! My balloon of euphoria bursts right there – a clear
case of mistaken identity, this! Earlier, I would painstakingly reply to each
of these, sharing their appreciation of the artiste and even sharing some of
her wonderful music. Now, I have a standard format of my response…
I wonder how the post(wo)man must feel, bringing our
snail-mail to our doorsteps and gauging our emotions from the way we collect
the mail – grab it, take it casually or with the shaking of an anxious hand.
Thank God, the ‘inbox’ is not human!
Shubha Joshi, for 'Sardari Begum'
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