E-Dependence...Agony.............

Today I experienced one of the worst feelings known to the modern man hugely dependent on electronics like cell fones.. laptops... ipods.. internet.. emails... and so on, but a feeling completely unknown to a large chunk of the population who do not have access to things like the internet, files in soft copies on the computers n external hard drives.

I realized today how much we are dependent on our computers and the files we have on them, and how miserable we feel when something happens to that data. We use our computers to do our work at office, store important files and presentations, stay in touch with friends through various social networking sites and chat tools, communicate with relatives living in faraway places, carry out our banking transactions, store our pictures (our memories) , play games, watch movies, listen to songs and sign along, sometimes even record our songs (when the hidden Kishor Kumar in us raises its head..!! ), find out stuff we need to make that college project, or some information we are no able to get in our course books, and what not. In short, it is an inseparable part of our lives, no actually our life !! It would not be an exaggeration if I said that our lives com to a stand still if something happens to our computers. We are totally 'E-Dependent'.

Imagine that something happened to your precious little computer. A wretched little thing called ‘virus’ struck, and wiped out all your data!! OMG !! The very thought makes a cold shudder run down the spine. But, I’m sure things like anti- virus softwares and back-ups make us breathe easy. BUT, imagine that something happens to your back-up. Ok, maybe we can get a new back-up from the original source. Phew !! BUT, now imagine that something happened to your back-up while your original data wasn’t there and you were counting on your back-up !!! Today, i had given my laptop away for getting the operating system reinstalled. So, naturally I didn’t have my original data which would normally be there on my laptop. And, before giving it, I took some of the new files that I had on my laptop to my external hard disk (which I use as a back-up). It was painfully slow, and I had no clue why, since it was a reasonably fast computer that I was using to take the back-up and the data was not huge. The computer guy said, “your data has virus”, and I rubbished his warning, since while the data was on my laptop, it was not creating any problems. Once, the transfer finished, I gave away my laptop for reinstallation, and tried to see the data I had taken on the hard disk on some other laptop. And…….. the hard disk didn’t get detected on that laptop. Big deal. I tried again, and again, and then on another laptop, and another…and another…………….. THE HARD DISK DIDN’T GET DETECTED ON ANY OF THE LAPTOPS !!! And my friend who owns the shop said, “You have a back-up of the data on the disk right ??!!” NOOOO.. How many people have back-ups of their back-up ???!! How many people lose their back-up and the original data at the same time ??!! OMG .. as I tried again and again, I felt more and more miserable. The feeling that I didn’t have any of the data – my office files, my photograps..my memories, my e-books, my games, my movies, my songs, OMG everything was on that hard disk. It was working 5 mins back, and now it wasn’t..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was dazed, shocked, worried, actually, really really really sad. I had this piercing head ache as my mind raced with multiple emotions of anger, sadness, feeling stupid, disbelief, and what not. But, slowly it was sinking in and i was growing increasingly sad. I was thinking that, what if i had not tried to take the back-up of such stupid movies, what if my laptop had not crashed yesterday, what if i had forgotten my hard drive at my home, what if i could reverse time, what if this, what if that......

My laptop was finally fixed, and i was forced to wait longer to take some files for installing essential softwares, something i would have done on my own had my hard disk not stopped working. I was feeling miserable, and it kept increasing as i was finally alone as i drove home and my mind was racing again. I was riding my bike, dodging the late evening traffic, but i was in a daze. My mind was in an auto-pilot mode, and it was my sub-conscious that kept guiding me on the familiar road home, as i was unaware of the racing traffic, the blaring horns, and the voice of one of my favourite RJs - Karan Singh on his show Rubaroo coming through my earfones.

As i neared home, my Mom called, asking me about my whereabouts, since it was quite late and i had not reached home. The call broke my daze, and i heard the RJ reading out a couplet that kept fighing with my thoughts about my loss, to occupy a space in my thoughts for the rest of the journey. He said -

'Kitne hi khayal syahi mein dhal na sake.... Yuhi hawa ho gaye...

Kitne hi khayal syahi mein dhal na sake... Yuhi hawa ho gaye...

Kaash hum apni ungliyon se likh pate... apne hi khoon mein dubo dubo ke'

He was trying to express the feelings of a poet who expressed the desire of being able to write with his fingers using his own blood to ensure that all the thoughts that came to his mind didn't go back to the winding and confusing lanes of his mind.. mayb never to return back again.

This made me think and feel even more miserable about my day. I felt an extremely keen need to have a power to memorize each and every thing in my head and be able to remove it at will. I wanted to have a safe place where things I needed to preserve, like my thoughts, my memories (in the form of the pictures i had in my hard disk :( ...... )

It was made worse by the fact that i had had some problem in my cell fone a few days back and lost all its data, without any recent back-ups. The only back-up I had was more than 6 months old. And it was then that I had decided to back-up my data frequently to make sure I didn’t lost it. But, today I lost my back-up too !!

There was a glimmer of hope. I thought maybe my brother has my data on his laptop. I called him, only to find that he didn’t have my data. He said that he didn’t have ANY DATA, and his laptop too had crashed !!! OMG this cannot be happening.

I had no words to describe my feelings when I returned home. I told about it to a few friends. But, what could have they done except giving me a comforting word. But, then I thought of speaking to a friend who is a computer whiz. I thought that he might have a solution to my predicament. I noticed that Anurag was online. I started chatting with him, and later called him, and he suggested some solutions to my problem and ended with the words “Chinta na kar… aaram se mil jaayega back-up !!!” OMG … I was so relieved !! I kept on pestering him and asking repeatedly if I would get my precious data. And he said that I would. J J J. Now, I can’t wait to go to the hard drive company’s office and get my data back. Wish me luck !!

PS – I learnt a lesson through the course of events today. Try doing any of the following things to ensure having a back-up that you can fall back upon and prevent any anxious moments (thanks fr the tips Anurag..n Vandana J ) –

1) Burn DVDs – Keep the extremely important data on DVD’s. Don’t use the DVD’s frequently and preserve them. Access them only in case of emergencies.

2) Take help of Yahoo or Google – Most of our extremely important data is not huge in size. Its our movies and songs that make the data huge. The movies can come back. But, the important data like office files and photographs might not. So, create folders and zip them to make their size below 10 MB(the maximum size of attachments a llowed per mail by yahoo) and mail it to yourself .This would ensure that your data rests safely on the servers of yahoo or google.

3) If your data is too huge and all of it is extremely important, then keep a back-up of the back-up. Put files on that second back-up only after scanning them for viruses. And access that second back-up only in case of emergencies.

And of course, use a good anti-virus and keep taking back-ups of your data periodically. I hope things that happened would never happen to any of you, or me too in future. J