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Modern technology has significantly impacted love stories, preventing miscommunication, aiding secret rendezvous, and shaping the destinies of famous romances, states Ruchira, tongue-in-cheek, exclusively for Different Truths.
Browsing through the world’s most famous love stories and romantic tales (irrespective of the original language they were written in), we find the bulk of them ended on a sad note: deception, separation, trauma, and finally, death. Few, indeed, were fortunate enough to witness the fulfilment of their love.
On delving further, one discovers that communication — or lack of it — played a crucial role in unleashing misery or misfortune upon the “pair” in love. Occasionally, the situation worsens due to physical and natural calamities. Human couriers would get ambushed, waylaid, or die of fatigue. The well-known “homing pigeons” would become victims of storms, human hunting, or larger birds of prey. Handwritten, “ink” letters were vulnerable: water drops could wipe out the content, gusts of wind could blow them away (goodness knows where), and the like. The pairs concerned thanked their stars if the missives arrived safely.
From such random musings, I was suddenly jolted back into the crass realities surrounding me.
From such random musings, I was suddenly jolted back into the crass realities surrounding me. I realised with a sense of delight how modern-day youngsters (read lovers) fare better than their counterparts or predecessors, in terms of safe, effective (privacy-guarded) communication. We must profusely thank “the Internet” for this! Personal relationships aside, the most ubiquitous SMS and texts reach the recipients in a jiffy. Moreover, vital information, documents, prescriptions, book extracts, and more, crisscross the globe before you can bat an eyelid.
While comparing the divergent scenarios, my imagination slipped into an overactive mode: How would things be for myriad lovers in bygone ages, if the Internet had been a part of their lifestyles?
If the young Romeo and Juliet had owned personal mobile phones … the entire anecdote would have acquired an altogether different flavour.
If the young Romeo and Juliet had owned personal mobile phones (the latest hi-fi ones), the entire anecdote would have acquired an altogether different flavour. For instance, the poignant climactic scene — where a passionate Romeo clambers up to the balcony adjoining Juliet’s bed chamber, in the dead of the night — could easily be given a miss! Safely ensconced in their private rooms, the duo could have indulged in spirited WhatsApp conversations and conducted live video interactions all night long to their hearts’ content. Neither the elders nor the guards on duty would have any inkling of the goings-on. A few scenes later, mobile phones could have launched speedy troubleshooting and saved the pair from disastrous miscommunication. The lovers would have learned well in advance that Romeo was temporarily sent into exile, and that Juliet’s ‘death’ was a ruse to scrap the wedding with another guy. But Alas…
Mobile phones would have turned into life-saving devices for another famous couple-in-love, this time from desi literature. As is well-known, following Sohni’s forced marriage to a person selected by her parents, her beau, Izzat Beg (aka Mahiwal)—in the guise of a cattle herder — comes to stay near her marital home, with only a river separating them, that is, the lovers continue with their nocturnal rendezvous until her women relatives discover their secret liaison. Had mobile phones been handy, they could have arranged indoor (read online) trysts. The poor girl need not have ventured out every night, and swam across the swirling waters of the Chenab, staying afloat with only an earthen pitcher functioning like a lifebuoy. On that stormy, fateful night, Sohni met with a watery grave because her wicked sister-in-law had spitefully replaced the hard-baked pitcher with an unbaked one!
… technology would have proved helpful for the (legendary) ill-fated lovers, Heer Ranjha.
Most certainly, technology would have proved helpful for the (legendary) ill-fated lovers, Heer Ranjha. After his lady-love Heer was snatched away from him by her disapproving guardians and forcibly married to another, a heartbroken and distraught Ranjha became a mendicant and resorted to wandering aimlessly from one place to another, across the country. If Facebook and Instagram were available in that era, the young man would have uploaded dozens of images and posts regarding his whereabouts to assuage the agony and suffering that his sweetheart was undergoing.
There are many narratives galore wherein lovers perished owing to delayed or intercepted messages or inaccurate information being conveyed to them. In some instances, they lacked time and space to find a safe refuge. If only…
With the Internet, the ‘famed’ lovers could have escaped persecution at the hands of adversaries.
Yet another idea hit me. With the Internet, famous lovers could have escaped persecution at the hands of adversaries. Likewise, paths for conjugal lovers could be smoothed as well. In Meghadootam Kalidasa’s magnum opus, for instance, the dispirited Yaksha-in-exilecould have maintained contact with his spouse, instead of awaiting the advent of Ashaad (monsoon) when he persuaded a cloud messenger to carry his message to Alkapuri (in the Himalayas), where his beloved yearned for a reunion.
Picture design by Anumita Roy
