Tracing Lost Love With Technology At 80
Uncle Hari Kishan Sharma was a loner. His family moved to the USA, but he did not want to go with them, leaving his dear country and his own home. He was a very quiet, sweet and helpful person, spreading happiness all the time with his million-dollar smile. He was loved and respected by everyone in the neighbourhood.
Hari Uncle had two sons – one lived in New York and the other in Chicago. They were both doing extremely well, but hardly ever came to see their father, who lived all by himself with some servants.
He was financially very secure and led a comfortable life with all the luxuries one could have. But there was always sadness in his eyes.
One day, as I returned from work, he was sitting and talking to my mother as usual; both of them got along famously. Mum loved to talk to him, or, for that matter, anyone who would praise her knitting or embroidery. She loved to be appreciated. To my surprise, that day Uncle was requesting my mother to teach him how to use a computer! I was amazed at this young man of 80, who at his age wanted to learn and be with the times.
My mother asked him, “Are you missing your grandchildren?” He said in an annoyed tone, “No, I am not learning because I want to talk to them, but I have my own interest to learn the computer.” She did not say anything further and promised to teach him every day. Two months passed, he learnt the computer with dedication and a lot of commitment. Soon he had mastered computers and got the hang of the Internet as well. He seemed to be as excited as a child. It was some kind of achievement for him. He was thrilled when my mum told him that he had learnt more than enough and would get better with practice.
Some months passed. One day when we were having our dinner, Uncle visited us.
He looked excited; he smiled and his eyes sparkled. He was raring to tell us something, and after a long silence, just said, “She is alive!”
We were all stumped on hearing this, and after another minute’s silence, he again said, “My wife!” Everyone’s jaw dropped on hearing this. We had assumed that he was a widower.
Then he explained that they had separated several years ago due to a small misunderstanding and ego clash. Both had moved and she was untraceable by the time he had realised his mistake. He had wanted to patch up and was trying to locate her ever since. Recently, he had heard of the power of the Internet and social networking sites. Knowing his wife to be one of those who kept up with the times, he had hoped to find her online. It was then that he decided that he must learn if he wanted to achieve his goal.
Now everything fell into place. The emptiness in his life would finally be filled up and hopefully, happy days would return. The computer played Cupid and helped them come together again.
