i-fast

After the company whose name rhymes with maple came up with a series of products beginning with the first person singular pronoun things have gotten complicated: when last heard of, a contraceptive pill manufacturing company was considering a name-change for one of its hot selling troubleshooters because the small little i in their product’s name rendered itself to being perceived as an offering from the gadget behemoth. So readers are forewarned that this piece has nothing to do with gadgets or speed or abstinence from food. And, it has nothing to do with the first person singular either, though it has a lot to do with the Self.

There comes a time when one realizes that one is being generous in exponentially increasing one’s spare time for the internet: moments to take a peek at the net or network, become hours in no time. By the time this happens one is long immune to the spouse’s shouts and the boss’ glowering emails. But then further along the chronology of events (aka timeline) comes the moment of reckoning when the long peeks squeeze the wallet and one grudgingly accepts that it is time to act in the real world rather than wax eloquent on one’s profile or someone’s virtual wall.

That moment is when you want to name the activity with no name as something smart. You want to give a name to that concept which you want to enact by remaining inactive in this specific context. You unwittingly agree that on this solemn day, every week, you will starve your three special senses - vision, hearing and tactile sense- in so far as these pertain to the internet. You want to declare to your folks that from now, on every particular day of the week, you will not be found smiling endlessly to a screen whether located on the top of your lap or on the phone. That absence of internet activity may most aptly be named as i-fast.

Our internet-deprived elders used to sing praises of the occasional abstinence from food (yes, they did have list of forbidden feats apart from food). One doesn’t know whether and by how much they were right about the rewards of voluntary food-deprivation but very similar rewards do accrue from the i-fast. You feel more connected in the real world; you perceive that there actually is a world out there- outside of the screens. You find that, at least once a week, there is a relief in not having to respond to emails, birthday-sharing-requests, or ‘liking’ a post on the network. Importantly you realize that you have a real identity outside of the network, a real you who loves meeting real people! You now feel that you have got your bearings right though your GPS is off. Elders described fasting as a rejuvenating activity for the body and mind; perhaps it is also true of the i-fast. Try it..fast!