The new con in connection

Remember the year 2001 – beginning of the new millennia. What a fantastic year it was for the movies! Many of our still ever so favorite movies can be listed in that year.

Movies centered around connection, social interactions, family and friendships, separations and reunions.

Bollywood and even Hollywood alike, It was a year for the stars to rage and roar on cinema, moving the audience by portraying diverse characters, showing us what meant by being social and even anti-social sometimes.

In that year, if you were moving schools, jobs or perhaps the country, your friends, your livelihood and your then miniscule sense of existence, was up against a giant wave of uncertainties speeding to wash it all off shore. Leaving you barefoot and ready to only leave your prints in a new sand, as you move ahead…

No uploaded stories on your social media, no memories of the year went by created on your iPhone, not even a compilation of your favorite songs. Just a bunch of memories and emotions, packed up and relocated with you, within you.

With this very phenomenon at its heart were born some of the biggest blockbuster Bollywood movies, framed around separation, loosing connection, years going by and then reuniting.

Just imagine, how differently would Anjali’s story unfold in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, if she could only upload her transformed hairstyle and ootd posts on Instagram for Rahul to slide into her DMs.

Or how easier it would be for Laddu to pin down on Rahul’s location in K3G, had he kept in touch with Poo over WhatsApp or at the very least followed her blue ticked Influencer page on Instagram.

RHTDM would require a series of tech updates, in spite of Maddy’s profession in the movie - but let’s not deviate our focus on his career, or his sense of style for that matter.

And let’s not forget Sameer.. Oh Bechara Sameer! Wouldn’t his dating life be so much more vibrant in Dil Chahta Hai, if he lived in the age of swipes? How many more cheerful songs would the movie give us with each swipe right? ‘Ye ladki hai kaha’ would have a whole different implication.

But the truth is – BBM, Video calling, sliding into DMs on Instagram or sharing memes/locations on WhatsApp was unimaginable. Keeping in touch was difficult, sharing life at the touch of a fingertip was a concept non-existent.

Yet, connection between individuals was ever so real.

Screening ahead to 2021, the world saw a giant wave of corona virus wipe its social life out.

A pandemic so severe and wrecking, no stability was yet designed to sustain it. However, on the flipside, Online Networking did! Not only did it sustain it, It thrived in it.

As factually mentioned in the headline of the article published by New York Times, 'The Virus Changed the Way We Internet'

Or the way I see it,

" The Virus Changed the way we connect. "

To be continued in part II