When She Learnt to Get Her Voice Heard

Aria was visiting her native land after many years, and she visited her high school after what seemed like ages. As she parked her car near her school, she stood looking at a pathway and saw herself once again. Distant. A faint silhouette slowly moving away.

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Young Aria sitting on the back seat of her school teacher’s bicycle while he rode leisurely. This slow-moving bike journey along the short tree-lined path, took them from their school to All India Radio, the local radio-station that had recording studios within. Those days when private channels had not yet mushroomed, the government-run AIR was the only radio-station in her city.

Hashtagged Lives of Social Media Junkies

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(Lonesome twitterer sitting on road-side wired network)

 

#Hashtagged Lives of #SocialMedia Junkies

This life full of hash tags
Our fragile life support

These jumbled networks on the net
Too widespread, too shallow yet

These fluctuating statistical dips
Ego-boosting followers and likers

These spheres in the blogosphere
Going everywhere, reaching where?

This highly connected disconnect
Surmounts isolation, then rejects

We, the wirelessly wired, the restfully tired
Our sleepless sleeps, our aimless aims

Where are we all going hand-in-hand
Riding this media horse, towards what end??

© 2015 Alka Girdhar

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The lonesome twittering Crested Pigeon, that I pictured from many angles,  is commonly found in Australia. It is often solitary and makes distinct whistling calls and hooting sounds, to draw attention of others like him.

My poem and the lonely pigeon convey one aspect of social media – that it has connected us all like never before and yet disconnected us from the real world…a bitter reality we find hard to digest.

On the other hand, without media I wouldn’t have been able to share this post with you.

Connected

Feel free to share your thoughts via your comments.