For forgetful people like me, the Birthday Reminder Service is proving to be a real boon! But it’s not just me who’s crazy: read what Adrian did in this edition, along with my winter woes and what an angry father has to say. Here we go…

Love can change you in the most unexpected ways! In my previous newsletter I told you that Adrian was going to propose to his steady partner Cathy on Valentine’s Day. The update on that story is that he did and Cathy said “Yes!” Adrian was so delirious with joy that we thought he might go crazy with happiness. Because all of our friends knew that the proposal was in the air, everyone on Adrian’s ecard dashboard left a message asking what Cathy’s answer was. Adrian had to spend half a day answering those!

Adrian has a tune on his lips and a spring in his steps all the time! You can almost feel his nervous energy when you talk to him. Our friends flooded him with congratulatory messages and many of them dropped by as well. It was late in the night when I woke up for a glass of water. I saw Adrian trying to read the time on the wall clock by using his cell phone’s display light! “Why don’t you see it on your phone?” I asked. Adrian grinned shamefacedly and said “It didn’t occur to me!” That’s what love does to you!

While Adrian enjoys his new-found joy, I had very little to do this winter, except work and stay at home. It is really difficult to keep your concentration level high when you don’t get out of your desk once in a while. Of late, I had no reason to do so. My friends are busy with their lives, in building new bridges or redressing the old ones. At my end, things have kind of stagnated. It’s not that I have isolated myself socially, but winter has this gnawing ability to draw on your energy reserves.

My friends tell me that it’s time I put myself on the dating map once again. But I have delayed that for a while. The whole routine of meeting someone, saying some smart lines that only you think are cool and then wooing the person for all it’s worth, is not something that I want to do right now. I also have this strange feeling that relationships are not working out for me. Megan tells me that it’s a negative attitude to have and she’s sure it will turn on its head when I meet someone special. I hope she’s right, like she always is!

Maybe I should take Megan’s suggestion and organize a small party by getting my friends together! Sending online invitations is not a problem and if I track RSVPs, I will be able to do a decent job. I should get started on that one, what say?

Speaking of Megan, no doubt she’s so ebullient about life! Megan is going through a fantastic phase when things are actually going her way. Just a year back, things were not really up her alley. Her career was going haywire and her personal life was in disarray. Then Megan decided to take stock of her life and give it direction. It’s not for nothing that I keep telling you guys that Megan is the most sensible friend I have. When it comes to taking definite decisions about herself or people close to her, Megan is calm like a surgeon.

I asked her how she manages to avoid the brink of depression. “Most people feel that your state of mind is affected by external events,” Megan explained, “But the real difference is made by what’s inside you.” Megan went on to say that we must begin to feel good inside. “It’s not hard, you know,” Megan said, “The only thing is that you have to genuinely feel that you are better off!” Megan feels that we compare ourselves with others and feel we have let ourselves down. “That is just unfair, because you are unique. You can only be a better Bob, not X, Y or Z!” she rounded off.

The problem with digital communication is that it’s working more on the inverse! It was supposed to make distances closer, get people together and unite the world as a global village. Instead, it has alienated neighbors, isolated friends and made it ever so difficult to reach out despite our best intentions to do so. Steve likes to remain cooped up his own world, hardly coming out of his digital cocoon. “I like it like that,” Steve says, “It makes me feel in control.” I cannot honestly blame Steve for thinking so. There is a thin line between being alone and being lonely. He likes the former.

There is someone, however, who doesn’t like this habit of Steve. That’s his father! The octogenarian has little knowledge about what he calls “fancy toys” of communication. To add to it, his son probably made a phone call when we still had dialing fixed phones! Steve’s dad is angry that his son hardly ever calls home and they are totally clueless about what he is doing about his life. Steve tried to explain that he was caught up in different things but his old man would hear none of it. Finally he told Steve, “Are you sure you’re not doing it wrong?”

Here’s what Clarence Budington Kelland has to say about his father: “He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.”