I Got Cheated

One of my friends played a trick on me for a couple of months. She used a new ID that i was not aware of and chatted with me. This was earlier this year. She found it a lot of fun and she discussed this with some close friends. I am pretty sure they had a whale of a time giggling and smirking.

Some time later I found out who this "new" friend really was but I never told her that until recently. She claims she didn't want to reveal it because:

• She didnt want to let me know that she had been playing this game and since the game was well and truly over why bring it up now...
• And I guess she didn't like the idea that she tricked me and I assume she didnt relish making a fool out of me when she told me (but then she DID relish it when she used the other id!!!).

This friend of mine told me that she went out of her way while using the new ID to behave & speak differently and portray a different kind of person from what I know her to be. And then she said she would ask me something for which she knew the right answer and would wait with bated breath to see whether I would give a different answer to her.

I was deceived initially. I had little idea that it was a case of the old person in a new ID. But then despite that fact that she was cautious (and perhaps because of the fact that she intentionally threw some hints trying to make me catch on) I wore my Sicilian hat (as Tom says in "The Godfather") and figured out the person in the new ID. But then I didnt mention it to her until recently. And she told me y'day that she found the whole thing hilarious then.

I was very amused at hearing this confession ... a kind of prank I might play myself..

Then it started me thinking. Chatting is serious business. Most people start off asking you the age... And I always wondered... Isn't the age something to be figured out based on how a person chats rather than figure out what to chat based on the mentioned age... But I guess we don't want to spent time figuring out who or what a person is. We are so hard pressed for time, we might as well give a questionnaire to the other party (preferably multiple choice questions) and then get the answers, hope they are honestly and correctly answered and if possible outsource the collection and analysis of answers to a company in Bangalore that specializes in this area...

I have seen one person using two different ID's and I have recognized both to be the same person. I have seen two different persons logging in to the same ID and chatting with me and I have recognized the different people behind the same ID. Going back to my friend (with her alter ego ID), its very interesting to see how a person uses the same phrases, the same kind of language without realizing it... There is so much info available to be processed.

And yet we ask people damn fool questions like age and rely on those answers. Whatever happened to the good old way of slowly discovering what the other person is like.

The Last Puppy

A stray dog couple had made my shed their home for the past one year. The two make a nice looking pair, the male is especially handsome. And I had gotten into the habit of feeding the dogs slices of bread every day.

A few months back the female gave birth to 5 puppies. 4 were of them were alike - cute, healthy while the last one, which resembled the father (he was black like his father - other puppies were brown like the mother), was a loner and gaunt, looked sickly. And he behaved weird, he would run the moment he saw anyone. His whole demeanor was awkward, while the other 4 were very friendly and come running to me when I was passing by or bringing bread.

About a month back, I returned home one day to find that the 4 puppies (that were similar) were no longer there. Apparently someone had called the dog catchers and they had come and taken them away. Only the father, the mother and the sickly puppy were left. I wondered how it was that these three got away from the dog catchers. I used to look at the father and mother to see how they reacted to losing 4 of their best. They didn't seem to behave in a human way throwing tantrums. Life for them went on as usual.

Earlier a friend of mine had commented that the loner would not survive. And she and I were both surprised that it was the sickly loner that survived and not any of the other four. And we concluded that's how life is.. so unpredictable.

Today as I was going out my mother asked me whether the loner was alive. Apparently my sister-in-law who saw the puppy y'day had commented that it was not going to survive much longer. So I went to look at the puppy, I found him lying with his jaws open and teeth showing, very much dead. I was stunned. And there the puppy's mother was lying wagging her tail and the father circling me as usual, handsome as ever.

The loner didnt make any noise. He just died quietly during the day.. Ugly while alive, he had a young and a graceful death.

I almost had tears in my eyes. How does it feel to lose your children.. Does one feel sorry for the dogs that they don't seem to realize what has happened? Or is one better off being like the dogs?

The illustrations were done by Tukun.

Additional reading:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/to-be-one-with-a-canine-buddy/article9018371.ece