A neighborhood at an angle from 45* to -45* on my laptop screen

There is a unique, virtual neighborhood that exists on the right hand side of my laptop screen. Like any other neighborhood, this neighborhood too comes alive at the crack of dawn. The only difference being the dawn at this part of the world usually happens at around 9:00am. Here, my neighbors live in houses made of four different colors.

Green - given prominence at the top as the people living in these houses are often at leisure, welcoming, and interactive

Red – a blend of genuine and imposters. I say so because Red here signifies ‘being busy’ /‘may not be available’; however, not often that occupants of red houses are truly busy and unavailable. They are at times as relaxed as the ones in Green are, but for some inexplicable reason they choose to live in red houses.

Yellow – residents of this house leave the premise unlocked. They are there but somewhere hard to locate. Even incessant knocking won’t wake them up from slumber. They can only be found in neighbours house i.e. green or red, only when they chose to step from their own yellow houses.

Grey – The inhabitants here are modest and simple. They are on vacation, out of the virtual world.

The occupants of Green, Red and Yellow houses are more privileged than the ones in Grey. They are allowed to communicate indirectly with onlookers. They are provided a window through which they can vent out frustration, preach, request, plead, promote, and emote.

Just to satisfy the quest of an inquisitive lot, I have always been the occupant of Green house.

No prizes for guessing! The neighborhood I am talking about here is called Gchat or Gmail chat. It starts at an angle of 45* on our screens and could go up to – 45* when browsed fully. I myself have been a daily visitor here for many years now. It has been so long that I can’t even place the first time I came here.

Unlike in my real neighborhood, I have a set of favorite neighbors here who I talk to every day. Some I speak to in the morning, some in the afternoon and some in the night. There have been neighbors in the past I would talk to all through out the day. And such neighbors were all girls! :)

Since I am a Public Relations practitioner I have had neighbors who I would bother for work and always go to in the hope of a favor. Among them, those I failed to charm with my wit and suaveness ignored me and in some cases slapped the door on my face (here it means resorted to a Grey house).

This virtual neighborhood has many advantages over a real neighborhood. Here I could look through my neighbors a lot more frequently than I would ever do in my real neighborhood.  A flip side to this is that it has given a birth to an intruder in me. When doing nothing I would just scroll through my neighbors for no good reason.

Being here has also meant adrenalin rush and emotional damage. I have wooed girls, dated them, made love to them of course virtually, fought with them, and then again made up with them. There have been a few it got really messy with, and as an effect, much to my dismay, they relocated into Grey houses.

This neighborhood continues to be a favorite den among my pals for gossiping, bitching, flirting, and lending a shoulder to another pal to cry over his/her woes. However I may crib and dislike, it has only grown deeper into my life too. Now, I am always here through mobile!

For those interested to become my neighbor, my address is arpitgarg8@gmail.com ;)