My.Life

I don’t know who Dark Angel is, but Bluetooth connectivity usually has a range of 10 metres. So the guy/gal had to be in The Ghetto. Was it the one with the goatee? Was it the person I saw on the way to the loo? But I accept the challenge. Twenty minutes of hard gaming later, I emerge victorious. My opponent, a surly-looking boy of about 19, in baggy jeans, shaggy hair and an oversized football jersey, stumbles past the pool table from 30 feet away, congratulates me and walks away.

ONCE back home, I reflect on my radio wave-aided gaming session and am glad I wasn’t bluejacked. But when you’re as into technology as I am—I get severe withdrawal symptoms if I can’t access my phone, my Nero Wave editor and Bluetooth memory card reader—even bluejacking is par for the course.

My friends accept me the way I am and the fact that I often hang out with boys my age, talking tech, breathing tech. But I don’t think I’m the odd one out. Look around you and it’s what most teens and people in their early 20s are into today.

My dad will never understand why I cried and snapped at him when my N-Gage QD got misplaced. For him, it was just another phone. But it stored 300 of my favourite songs, eight games, close to 40 pics of my contacts. Without it, I was—simply put—lost. Forget it, my folks will never understand. You’ve got to be born into the right generation.

I started off as a nine-year-old with Prince of Persia and Super Mario Bros. Fourteen-odd years later, I’ve moved on to waging wars, destroying countries (ever tried Civilisation?) and, once in a while, make Sonic, the superfast hedgehog, run really fast. Some days, all I do is game, download, upload, connect—24X7.

MOST of my days usually begin late, since the night is utilised to ‘do stuff’—the information highway is less crowded then. A typical night involves downloading music videos, songs, games for my phone and at times, movies. I also scour hundreds of websites for free software and download them all. Not everything is of use, but it helps to get updated on the software scene every once in a while. Plus virus scan. I might forget to brush my teeth at night, but never will I forget my virus scan. I’m constantly on the hunt for news about new viruses and often get extremely stressed if I can’t get my hands on a virus-fighting software.

NIGHT is also when I check my Civilisation status—Civi is a game you can play only over the net and it’s about running your own country, controlling stock markets, guarding borders, planning strategy and so on. It’s also about playing God. I like that. Who doesn’t?

Every couple of days, I get a call from one of my clan members. We hooked up because we all loved Counter Strike, Doom and Civilisation and we share cheat codes for popular games on the market. But what I like best is the respect we get from our peers and fellow gamers—nobody messes with Angeleus (that’s my online nick) and co. The respect sometimes also spills over into our real lives. And unlike in the real world, we have no idols or heroes to emulate (don’t even say Bill Gates—he’s highly overrated—and we just don’t get Stephen Hawkins). Each one out there is his own hero.

The origin of my name lies in 18th century Ireland where Angeleus lived and became a vampire. After a long battle between good and evil, he got his soul back. I like that.

A COUPLE of other things do the rounds. Juicy MMSes, for instance. When news broke that there was a ‘Sania Mirza’ clip floating around, people started accessing UK-based sites to find this alleged clip. But their attempts were met with stubborn firewalls. And I got a hundred calls from my less tech-savvy friends about the clip. Then there’s the anti-Bush, anti-US sentiment that is a trademark of any hard-core gamer.

By the way, all this media brouhaha about a sex patch on Grand Theft Auto comes way too late. It’s been around for the last four years. Kill a man, strip women, run over an old lady crossing the road: Where else could you do this besides here and the San Andres city version of GTA?

Among the things I love is converting data. I choose a song and open it with the help of the Nero Wave Editor and convert into a wave format after which it is transferred to my mobile via my Bluetooth-enabled comp. Then there’s Smart Movies, which helps you do the same thing to videos. The converted files are compressed and take way less space on your phone/ comp/PVP.

In fact, my brother and I have a 64 MB card, which is reserved for movies we want to watch on our phones on long journeys. We are now aiming for a Sony PS2—an essential if people like us have to exist.

BUT even better than gaming or downloading entertainment is hacking—or sort of. Now, I’m not the malicious sort of person, I wouldn’t hurt an HTML on a site. But did you know you can download anything you want—from a specific Windows XP software to the latest Nokia enhancements (which are otherwise paid for)—if you know how to get into the mainframe? And wait till I tell you how I can, if I need to, fish for message centre numbers of a particular service operator on the internet. What this affords me is unlimited SMSes anywhere in the world for about two days. Now, that’s extreme fun.

If you saw me, you wouldn’t think I’m so into technology. I’m a perfectly normal 24-year-old, maybe a little too chubby but that’s it. I love my kebab rolls, want to buy the new Coldplay album, have my crushes and deal with acne.

I also realise I have two lives, just like every person for whom technology is a substitute for life.