Hello, this is my first post in this community, so please forgive me if there are any mistakes.
Fifteen to twenty years ago, the pace of life was different. Mobile phones were not yet in everyone's hands; Facebook and Instagram were unknown names.
Whenever they got time, friends would sit together for adda, chatting over tea about all sorts of topics, heated discussions, or thrilling moments. The place for that adda might be near the railway station, in a club, on someone's house veranda, at the corner of a field, on the railing of some bridge, or at the neighborhood shop. Someone would get heated about politics, someone would argue about cricket or football. Yet, after all that arguing, there would always be a big smile at the end. People then kept track of each other, spoke face to face, and stood by someone if they heard of their sorrow.
Now everything is available. Smartphones, networks, video calls, smartwatches. But people, they seem to have become a bit silent. Friendship now is in follow requests, love in reactions, and feeling down means silently scrolling. A "Seen" says more than words, yet inside, it feels somehow empty.
I thought technology would make life easier. It has, no doubt. But within that ease, somewhere a bit of hardness has crept in.
We now post instead of speaking out, argue instead of listening and understanding, and have lost the time to even look at the face of the person close to us.
Sometimes I wonder. Have we really changed, or have we just grown tired in the race of change? Time has given us speed, but taken away the peace.
Today's people know work, know calculations, but do not know the value of the heart. Or, even if they know, they cannot quite comprehend it. Before that, something else comes along.
That person, who before would rush to a friend's house on a stormy night just to be by their side. Now writes a "Take care" and fulfills their duty. Perhaps they are compelled to do so.
Time has advanced, that's true, but if people paused a bit and looked towards themselves, they would see. Amid all the busyness, an emptiness is gradually growing larger.
Yet, the place of hope has not run out. Because as long as we can rest our head on someone's shoulder and stay silent, as long as when someone's mind is upset we can say "Come, let's walk a bit," and speak from the heart, until then people have not completely changed.
Image Source Pixabay