Guest Column: A Day Without Facebook

I opened my eyes in the morning and looked out the window. The leaves of the Ashshatha tree waffled slowly in the November air. I went close to the window. The clear blue sky was covering the cityscape. Patches of crystal clear sunlight fell here and there on the apartment buildings leisurely. I could smell the fresh air. I forgot the last time I felt this way.

Okay, here is my usual morning. I open my eyes and while doing that search for my cell phone. I open my eyes and check the Facebook notification icon on the phone. I click one; that takes me to Facebook and I keep scrolling there until the moment I need to start for office.

I read a lot, but I cannot tell you what I read about. Apparently I don't read anything important or interesting although when I am on Facebook all those seem interesting to me. I haven't read any book in months. I started a few but never finished one. I sleep with the books around thinking I will read, but all I do is keep facebooking.

So now I felt different; I discovered that there are some green chilies hanging from a small plant in my balcony. And also some small, thin white chili flowers.

Those lovely flowers reminded me my childhood's favorite song -- Akash vora, shurjo tara, bissho vora pran… (Translation in English: The sky is full of stars and the sun; the universe full of lives; here I'm, I have found my place and I'm amazed and wondering….).

I played the song and suddenly realized I haven't seen my mom for about a month. Mom, the person I love the most in this planet. I rushed for my mom's place.

She was brimming with happiness at my surprise visit. I spent the day with my parents, brother and cousins. I went to my cousin's place for lunch. When I saw her, I was shocked and I shouted– "oh my god, you look so fat!"

She smiled with shyness. I shouted loudly, "Why are you so happy about being fat!" She stopped me, saying, "Don't you know I'm expecting a baby?"

Oh my god, I didn't know she was pregnant for six months. I never noticed that before!

Then I was in the family Adda after years where everyone was talking to each other instead of half the people keeping their heads down and eyes glued to their phone sets, facebooking.

So we talked about life, travelling and what not. Oh yes, we didn't talk about who liked what on Facebook.

We played football on rooftop. We had to watch out my mom's rooftop vegetable garden. I never noticed those plants of lemon, mint, and cucumber before. I thought those were just ornamental plants. I met a neighbor's two years old kid there. I taught him how to draw a man with pastel starting with which one is an eye, a nose or ears.

It was such a fantastic day! I can't remember another day so warm and full of love and friends before. And I realized that most of what I found on Facebook that gobbled up so much of my time were actually worthless posts.

It's a lovely day in such a lovely world without Facebook.