This is the winning article of Wordism Competition for the month of Ashad on title “My Friends on Facebook”.
Writer: Apekshya Rimal
“My friends on Facebook”
With the introduction of Facebook in our lives, the definition of friends has been contorted and now apparently we have a hundreds and thousands of “friends”. The hangouts, meetings and gatherings have been replaced by group chats, comments and emoticons. Four of my best friends live in four different parts of the world and thanks to Facebook we still manage to discuss every single frame of each episode of Game of Thrones. I have had my beautiful moments with Facebook whether finding a long lost friend or breaking the ice with new colleagues at work. When there is no denying that Facebook has brought the world closer virtually, I do miss the essence of phone calls and actual heart to heart conversations.
Well, as of today, I have almost five hundred friends on Facebook (though most of them are just acquaintances, colleagues , classmates or relatives but Facebook’s dictionary knows no such terms, so let’s call them friends) who have been a part of my lives from 5 years as I have been part of theirs. I have seen their childhood photos, vacation photos, their weird “selfies and wefies”, their party pictures and the list goes on. I have congratulated them on their graduation, wished them luck for their first job, and have extended my blessings on their marriage. But there are some categories of people (or friends) who put their best efforts to irk us every time we log in.
A) The Religious Friends:
When people’s hard work, diligence, intelligence and experience fail to bring them what they want from life, they start putting the burden on God. They start believing God is going to fulfill their every small wish because God has absolute no work and so they decide to please Him. The old ways of pleasing God by visiting to temples and offering coconuts seem conventional, so people have started a new trend of sharing pictures, articles and poems related to God on Facebook. They have so much faith that by sharing a photo of Goddess Laxmi or Lord Shiva, they feel that the luck will come to them in few seconds and if not their life is going to be devastated, the devil is going to enter their home , bad luck will be there forever and what not. For this category of insanely religious friends on my Facebook, I only wish that may their God provide them one and only thing called “COMMON SENSE”.
B) The Patriotic Friends:
All their life they have been attracted to the western style of living; preferred English movies over Nepali; heard western songs and have considered the western food to be exquisite and lavish. They are often overheard criticizing the condition of roads, hospitals, schools in Nepal; and blaming the government for their horrible life. Soon enough, they get a chance, invest huge sum of their parents’ money and go to their dreamland for studying/earning/living the lifestyle they have always wanted to. But, then something happens (I would not know what happens as I have not been abroad) and they turn into this deeply patriotic citizen who is concerned over every social, economic and political situations of the country. They start using Unicode to type in Nepali, express their happiness after every football match of Nepal, are excited about national elections, comment about every other Nepali movie and are even worried about local strikes. I am sure the moment they take a step back in their home country their so called “nationalism” that is limited in the Facebook status will vanish and the nagging about the dirt and dust in Nepal will start again.
C) The Professional Photographers:
Every fortnight I am made a part of a photography page and believe me I have left the groups (don’t know how many times) but somehow someone else adds me again. So, I just don’t bother leaving them now. As a consequence, my timeline is filled up with the photographs of the “photographers” with captions consisting of only hash tags. There are so many pages of photography and so many professional photographers, that I feel like we can go for the Guinness book of world records in this sector. I seriously don’t know whether they are actually, “ I am genuinely interested and want to have my career in photography” types or “Oh my Dad is rich and he has got me a DSLR, so yes I am a photographer” types but they are everywhere. And all thanks to them, my Facebook timeline looks more like an electronic brochure of a photography exhibition.
I think we all have these categories of crazy people who try their best to ruin our Facebook experience. But as someone has said “Facebook is like refrigerator, even if we know that there’s nothing in there, we have to check it out every 15 minutes”; I am going to check what’s new in my timeline.
Question and Answer with Apekshya
1. Tell us more about you.
I am Apekshya Rimal. Born and brought up in Kathmandu, I am an electronics engineer graduated from Kathmandu University. I am currently working in ZTE Nepal Private Limited. I have an undying passion for travelling and have a long list of places that I would like to explore. It would be a cliché if I said that I love to write, but that is true, I have a great zeal for writing as well as reading fiction.
2. What was your thought when you apply to Wordism competition?
I found the topic for the Wordism Competition really interesting. I had no clue that I would even be one of the five writers but as soon as I read the topic so many ideas started running through my mind and I could not stop myself from penning them down. I also thought that YL Nepal could be a great platform to share what I had written down. The competition is an excellent method to motivate people to share their thoughts. I thank and congratulate YL Nepal team for this initiative.
3. What are your dreams and aspiration?
Like every other youth in Nepal, I dream of becoming successful on a professional level and happy on a personal level. As much I have interest in excelling at my technical career, I also dream of publishing a book one day (hope that day will come soon). I aspire to become a writer who can tell stories inspired from real life characters that could act as a mirror to the society.
4. How do you feel being the Wordism Hero for Asadh?
Being a Wordism Hero is such an awesome experience that cannot be aptly described in words. It’s always overwhelming for a writer when what is written gets appreciated. I am really grateful to YL Nepal for this opportunity. I look forward to participate in such competitions in future as well.
5. Anything you want to say who is reading this!
To all the people reading this, I would like to say that don’t hesitate to write and share. There is no fixed format and it is a freestyle writing competition, so make the most of this opportunity. There will be no better way to express your thoughts. I just read the new title for Shrawan month, and I look forward to read a lot of interesting articles on the topic.
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