Grand Union

As a child, I grew up fantasizing that there will come a day when all whom I know - especially the near and the dear ones, would converge for a grand gala union. The thought process was so intense, that culmination was more a question of time than of feasibility. The meticulously drawn list of invitees, check-list of events and all the associated discussions used to unfold in the grey matter with clock-work precision. The rotation of Mother Earth at an amazing speed of almost a thousand miles an hour, brought forth newer days and equally newer nights, but still no sight of the D-day. This is what possibly prompted Vitalstatistix to thunder famously to Asterix, Obelix and the other Gauls that 'Tomorrow never comes'. The invitee list was growing for a while without any deletions. But the indomitable process of aging had its own plans, forcing people to shed their mortal coils. The invitee list was no longer a straight line going up in the first quadrant with constant slope. Soon it dawned that the fantasy may not cross the mental realm for ever.

Years have rolled by and now the Net has grown larger and penetrated deeper, the Web has become unfathomably complex, Mobile and Smart phones packed with features get unleashed at regular intervals. Communication is instantaneous and almost global. Blogs, Tweets, MMS/SMS and a plethora of tools, ways and means to communicate have ensured that people who are miles apart in geography and poles apart in personality, converge, coexist and collaborate in real-time. Is this the grand union?