Gupta ji's digital world

Gupta ji's digital world

Gupta ji was a simple man of fifty-five years, who loved technology as much as cats love water. His world would start with reading the newspaper in the morning and end with discussing politics with Ramlal in the park in the evening. Once during a discussion with friends, he heard that smartphones have many advantages. Today every man is going digital. He too wanted to buy a smartphone. He told his wish to his son Mohan. When his son Mohan got him a smartphone, his life's vehicle directly collided with the signal of Wi-Fi.

Smartphone and Gupta ji

Mohan gave the phone to Gupta ji with great enthusiasm and explained how easy the world has become with smartphones. And how to use it. Gupta ji nodded, but thought in his mind that going to Hanuman temple sitting on a rickshaw is easier than this. Still, he happily accepted the smartphone.

On the first day, Gupta ji switched on the phone, and saying 'Oh God!' started shooting arrows on the screen with his finger. Mohan understood that his father was trying to hit the screen thinking it was a wall. He lovingly told him that the screen is touchable, not a hammer. Finally Gupta ji had learnt to use a smartphone.

Whatsapp War

Mohan downloaded WhatsApp for him. Now the real trouble started. The first message he sent was something like this:

"Son, did you receive this message or not?"

Mohan wrote 'yes', and the reply came immediately:

"Okay, now tell me how did you read it? Is there a camera installed in it?"

Mohan banged his head. It took two days to explain the concept of 'blue tick' to Gupta ji. But the real havoc was created when he started sending 'good morning' messages.

Every morning, 20-20 flower GIFs and pictures of the shining sun started pouring into the mobile phones of the uncles and aunties in the neighbourhood. Some people blocked the number, while some started searching for 'ways to avoid overly active elderly' on Google.

Shock of online shopping

One day Mohan taught him how to do online shopping. Gupta ji got so excited that he mistakenly ordered 10 kg onions and 20 kg tomatoes.

When his wife saw that so many tomatoes had come home that now tomato vegetable could be sent to the in-laws, she gave a strict warning to Gupta ji. But, the matter got worse when the next day Gupta ji got a notification of 'flash sale' and he ordered 12 slippers at 50% discount.

Facebook fiasco

Then Gupta ji jumped on Facebook. In the very first post, he wrote 'Son Mohan, go ahead, the country is with you' and uploaded it. Mohan started getting calls in the office asking if he was entering politics. Now what should poor Mohan do that all this is the result of his father's new hobby.

The next day he wrote a caption under his photo - 'Salute to the boys of today, who remain engrossed in laptops. We are people from the era of bullock carts.' On this, his school friend Shobha Devi commented – 'Gupta, you used to fall even from a bullock cart.' After reading this, Gupta ji remained angry with Facebook for two days.

End of the digital age

Gupta ji's technical problems did not end here. One day he tried to do online banking. As soon as he entered the OTP, a notification of 'Your account may be blocked' came on his screen. Panicked, he ran to the bank and complained to the manager. When he came to know that it was just a security warning, the bank employees also smiled.

Finally, when Rs 499 was deducted from Gupta ji's bank account and it was found that he had accidentally clicked on an 'unbelievable offer', he picked up the phone and ordered Mohan –

"Son, take back this smartphone and get me a button phone again. At least brinjal cannot be ordered in it by mistake!"

Mohan burst out laughing.

And thus ended Gupta ji's digital journey, but his stories are still narrated over a cup of tea in the colony!