The internet opens
Gaurav had come home. The year was 1997. VSNL was giving student internet accounts. After filling a few forms, getting them rubber stamped in triplicate, a train and a bus journey and a walk later, I reached the hallowed precincts of VSNL somewhere in Dadar to get an internet account. There was a counter - Student account - and a surprisingly friendly person at the counter. And a few days, an envelope in the mail announced that we were indeed eligble for a student account with the heavenly mail id of something@giasbm01.vsnl.co.in. And thats why Gaurav was here. To help us get to the internet. Gaurav was the geek in my brothers class - who could make any gadget do anything, my brother claimed. And he got his own modem, you know, just in case our modem did not work and had a few screwdrivers handy as well. We watched from the side as Gaurav typed on the keyboard with the rapidity of a rat scurrying away from the neighbourhood cat into a black and white screen (which ...