I was never an online person. It was only 2 years ago when I got engaged that I began realizing that there was this entirely different world of Internet which I had missed out on. I am sure you might be thinking "Who is this gal who did not know about Internet. Was she from a remote corner of the country?"
Nope. I am very much from India but my schooling and friend circle and even the family's financial condition did not allow an encounter with a computer. No PC, no internet.
When I got engaged, it was my fiancé who introduced me to internet and email. Once married, he told me about websites, online ticket bookings and email of course. As fate would have it, I had to travel to a distant land with my hubby and I was totally disconnected from my family, relatives and friends. Here 'disconnected' does not mean 'disconnected from internet' as most people would think these days. I was physically disconnected from the world I grew in and put into a strange land with everything unfamiliar.
My hubby introduced me to Facebook, Gmail video and audio chat, Skype and some VOIP services as means of connecting with family, relatives and friends. Found it difficult at first but gradually and surely got the hang of it. I began spending up to 6 hours online every day of the week (while hubby was away in office) and only during the weekend I would be off-line.
I was totally ADDICTED to this new world I had discovered. And then I discovered FB contests. I even a few contests and bagged some nice prizes. This only meant that my addiction became even more pronounced with my online time increasing from 6 to almost 9 hours a day.
Life was cool and I was enjoying this new life … when Life took another turn (twist in the tale)
We came back to India and I had to take up the role of a 'ideal daughter-in-law' … I could no longer spend time in front of my laptop and on FB. I hardly went online on certain days. Life of a housewife under the 'guidance' of a mom-in-law is not really internet friendly J
This problem got resolved by my hubby by a solution which surprised himself (and of course, me too). He got me a internet connection on my phone (with a warning that mom-in-law should not find me peering into the mobile phone again and again. One complaint from Mom-in-Law and the connection would be withdrawn.
WOW !! I was back online. Of course, I wasn't online like I used to be earlier but still managed a 10 minute here and a 5 minute there on several occasions throughout the day. At night I would spend some time on the laptop (it is definitely more convenient on the laptop). But the mobile internet became a saviour for me. Now I am back on FB and Gmail/chat ….
This blog post was inspired by a contest on IndiBlogger.in with support from Vodaphone www.vodafone.in/fun
P.S. I wrote about my hubby being surprised by his own idea. Well, that is because in spite of being well versed with the internet for more than 20 years, he was never interested in using his mobile for internet surfing. So we both were surprised when he suggested that to me. In fact, he now has mobile internet BUT he got it on his phone AFTER he got it got it on My Phone J
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