LIKEs - A Short Story

It was a cloudy Saturday afternoon.

In the balcony were seated Gautam and Sharath. Both have known each other since sixth grade. Their friendship grew, stumbled and by the time both finished schooling, it has attained the "best buddies" status.

Both are in college, studying third year commerce. They had couple of classes on Saturday morning and after that they reach Sharath's home. Sharath's parents were busy at work, so both the lads had the third floor second portion home to themselves. Now coming to the discussion which they were having on the balcony.


Gautam seemed troubled, finally sitting straight speaks out his mind, "Why anyone's face on FaceBook always as to be handsome or charming. I hardly remember seeing a pic that is ugly or someone in it crying. Until unless it is some kind of charity or fund raising stuff."

Sharath interrupting Gautam, "Macha, are you against FB?"

Gautam blinking as though searching for words regains the conversation, "My concern is not that, but the situation it has lead me into."

Sharath scratching his head with his finger, "I don't understand you dude."

Gautam resumes, "Is posting some body's birthday photo on FB a crime?"

Sharath nodding his head little bit as though he observed an important clue, continues,"I am not sure, where you are trying to lead this discussion. But, I am guessing it has something to do with Gomathi and her birthday."

Gautam giving Sharath a serious look: "Grrr...What you want me to do, give you an award or call you the Mentalist for guessing it right?"

Sharath composedly replies, "Calm down Gautam. Tell me exactly what has happened between you and Gomathi?"

Gautam responds, "Remember last week, on her invite we went to her home for the birthday celebrations?"

Sharath pauses with " I do.", then instantly pointing his index finger towards Gautam,"Did you do anything stupid there?"

Gautam face turns red and speaks in a loud tone, "Why on earth, friends instead of supporting their buddies, always go and vouch for the opposition?"

Sharath remarks, "Don't beat around the bush, just say what happened?"

Gautam continues, " I took few snaps on that day with my Black Berry phone and posted it on FB."

Sharath asserts, " I saw those pics. I even remember giving couple of LIKEs to them."

Gautam protests, " You did?"

" Of course, I did." Sharath replies, "Especially the one where her face was covered with cakes' icing. Hilarious"

"Coming to that. You know what, that is THE SNAP which is bothering me now."

Sharath inquires, "What's the problem with that, when I first saw it, I had a good laugh.".

To that Gautam babbles, "You know what? She is not angry with her friends for rubbing the cake's icing on her face. But the guy, who took efforts to click and post the snaps of her birthday on FB, is the person who is under attack now. Since then she is very angry at me and behaving in a weird manner."

Sharath chuckles and replies,"Now, I understand your situation."

Gautam complains, "She is not happy for getting 84 LIKEs for her current profile photo, in which she is like an princess in her ball gown dress, photo courtesy: ME, I took the snap, instead of appreciating me for the gorgeous profile pic, she is yelling at me for THE SNAP with the cake on her face. Although, I don't understand one thing."

"What is that?", Sharath inquires.

Gautam mumbles, "That particular snap with the cake on her face has got precisely 123 LIKEs"

Sharath bursts out with laughter.

"Really?", Gautam protests.

Sharath controlling his laughter questions, "What you are going to do?"

Gautam sighs," I don't know, she has asked me to meet her tomorrow at City Center, Subway"

Sharath cheerfully replies, " Good luck bro"

                                       *~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*

The next day, Gautam and Gomathi meet at City Center, Subway. They ordered one mini Sub Veg Delite and Chicken roasted salad. Both are comfortably seated on thick heavy iron chairs facing each other with food on the table in between them.  This entire meeting is taking place on the terrace with a roof top, and cool breeze from the close by Marina beach is made the atmosphere more appealing.

Gomathi was sporting a ponytail hairstyle. In black t-shirt with printed art work and Levis blue jeans pants, she was absolutely gorgeous. The name might seem some what old but her looks and attire were that of modern and very trendy.

The conversation, by the time both had the last gulp, gradually ended up in a heated argument.

All of a sudden, there was this silence. 

Gautam started pondering and said to himself, "It was my mistake, I shouldn't have tried to tally the 84 LIKEs for her profile photo and 123 LIKEs for the snap with cake on her face. Now I have messed up."

Her eyes now avoided Gautam and shifted its focus. (Gautam was wondering whether she has already initiated the process of seeing someone else, before he could ponder further on this possibility, tears have already started rolling in Gomathi's eyes.) Then Gautam realizes that if further delayed it would lead to a cold war, emphasizing the state of "being hurt". 

Gautam said to himself, "this cannot and should not continue..."

Finally, he gets the courage to break the silence, "Gomathi, I don't want to reason, who's mistake it was and how it started. It took a while to understand each other and know each other's comfort zones. Day in, day out, we would like to see each other. Today, I had realized that I have crossed the lines and have taken things for granted. Why don't you forgive me. I had decades of friendship in mind and you are trying to diminish the very thought of it."

Now for the first time, (post war), Gautam gets an eye-contact. It said to him, of course her eyes, cut the blah-blah, what is your point?.(For those of whom doubting, Can eyes talk? Yes, they can!) 

Even though Gautam thought he was not totally responsible for the fight, he decides and says, "Forgive me."

Again a moment of silence. 

Gautam understood now that without the sorry word, things will not have an impact. So he continues, "Gomathi, I am very Sor.."

She interrupts Gautam, "Don't, thats alright Gautam. When I saw the number of LIKEs the snap with 'cake on my face' was getting, it irritated me a lot. Its just that, I am little sensitive to these things. Anyway, let us not talk about it any further."

They chit-chat for some time and then call it a day. 

Gautam walks to the Light House railway station. While waiting for the train, he becomes conscious of the fact that social networking sites have become a part-and-parcel of our life.



More importantly, he realizes that there is such a thing called as "Digital Reputation". May be, Gomathi was hinting at it ignorantly. The headlight of Chennai-Beach train interrupts Gautam's train of thoughts. 

Gautam boards the local train and secures a seat near the window. The fast moving people nor the city's landscape outside the window catches his attention, because his mind is now occupied with Gomathi. The very thought of her instills a smile on his face. 

He pulls out his Black Berry phone, after a little bit of scrolling, he types. It is a post on his FB wall, which reads: "Its always complex to reason and explain. But, don't you worry, in true friendship and love, the balance is always restored."

Gautam gets 123+ LIKEs (actually 156! and still counting) on his FB page, for the above post. :-)




Image source:
http://hello-son.blogspot.in/2010/11/call-64-birthday-message.html
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chennai_City_Centre.jpg; 
http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/chennai,station/Timeline