Introduction to Cyber world - Part III (Final)

I came & settled down on my chair. I was so embarrassed then that I failed to notice, helper was a girl. ;) Damn, Now I cursed myself & the thick book even more. We looked at her & she flashed an assuring smile. We felt relaxed & we surrendered ourselves (and our precious 20 minutes) happily to her. She took charge of the desktop now. She closed all the windows we had opened so far. I got to know, whatever we had attempted so far wouldn’t have led us anywhere. Then she went to “Start” option, “Programs” & clicked on “Internet explorer” icon. Bingo, door to magical cave of internet was wide open in front of us. I started thinking what magic a knowledge can do to you. What took us 40+ minutes, she did in hardly 4 seconds. When she opened that window I felt like we should take the control back as we knew what we wanted. But very next moment, what we had done in last 40 minutes flashed in my mind & I controlled my urge, for good.

She asked me & my friend, “Guys, what you want to do? Emailing or chatting?” My friend replied, “Email”, randomly. Then she opened yahoo page & opened new user registration page. Then she turned to us & asked one of ours name. I got alerted. Sticking to childhood lesson of “Don’t tell your name to strangers (though she is a girl)”, I decided not to tell my name. And I told her my friend’s name. My friend did not believe I voluntarily suggested his name for the coveted new email id. He smiled at me with anticipation. Such a win-win situation it was for me.

She then filled other details. When it came to selecting a user name & password, owner started calling her. In hurry, she told us to keep user name as name itself & password as anything we can remember. We knew these 2 things are essential. My friend obediently chose user id as his name only. When it came to password, I asked him the same. After a while, he said I want to keep my password as “RAINBOW”. I said ok & started typing it on keyboard. My typing pace was slower than the ultra motion cameras which we see during cricket matches these days. So, I used to type completely & then look at keyboard for typing mistakes.

I finished typing his password. When I looked at the screen, I was amazed. In password section, instead of showing “RAINBOW” (which I had typed), it was showing “*******”. I was confused. I mean I can go wrong for 1 or 2 or max 3 characters. But here, entire password was wrong. Strange. I decided to try again & erased everything using back space. Again I started typing password, this time in ultra-ultra slow motion. I finished typing & looked back at screen. Damn it, again it showed “*******”. I though may be something is wrong with “Password” field. I decided to try same password in “Confirm password” field & did so.

Needless to say, all I saw was “*******”. I was more disgusted & less surprised now. May be keyboard is malfunctioning, I thought to myself. I started typing junk in that field now. No matter what I typed, it showed only “*”. I was sure now that keyboard has gone kaput. I went up to helper & informed her so. She came back to check why keyboard is not working. She asked me what happened. I narrated what had happened just now. For 5 minutes after that, all I heard was she laughing her lungs / liver or whatever out.

After such an embarrassment, I felt like killing myself. When she stopped laughing, she explained why those “*” were coming instead of password.  I was dying of embarrassment now. My curiosity towards “cyber” world had fatally wounded my reputation (which I had built by denying help before). We had exhausted our time now. But we were given free extension of half n hour for the entertainment we had given to them.

It’s been 9 years now. I don’t remember that email id. All I remember is what all (stupid) things we did to get it. Somebody has said it right, “Destination does not matter, journey does”.

Part 2 >>