Love Au.r

Just "unfriend" (or"block"for seriou s hurts or infide lities) and reset your social media status to "single" and you are ready to "mingle'; yet again

"I"BY I' SANAM • SHARMA

Social media has been a game changer at a lot of levels Reading the tweets and Facebook updates of youngsters these days, it seems that cupid has gone digital as well. Falling in Jove these days, and expressing it to the otber person, is convenient, discreet, and "online," thanks co smartphones and a galaxy of social media platforms.

If your heart skips a beat for someone then all you have co do is find (or shall I say "search'') his or her online avatar. A click of a bmton and you are "friends" with that person . A few online chats and a bunch of "pointed" comments on stams updates of the other person, and you are officially in love - or as Facebook would prefer to call it "in a committed relationship".

ot much exrra effort is needed to call off this "committed relationship" or more casually known as a "break-up". Just " unfriend" (or " block" for seriou s hurts or infidelities) and reset your social media status to "single" and you are ready to " mingle", yet again. Love v ia che social meclia thrives on "pings," "pokest "en1oticonst "tags," and " hashtags". Like everything else that has gone online, love, falling in love, and expressing love these days must therefore seem quite effortless, risk- free, cliscreet, and from m y perspective "extremely boring".

So youngs ters, romans, countrymen, allow me to reintroduce you to the tl1rill and adventure of being in love, as we clid it in the 1990s. No smartphones, n o social rnedia, a nd no internet (for most part of that decade) Just good old emotions fuel.led witl1 a healthy dose of Di/wale Dulhanjya Le.fc!)'e11ge (aka DDL]).

I say thrill because in tl1e last decade of the previous millennium it used to cake people a good two to three montl1s (on average) to fall for someone. I reserve the definition of "peop le" for the purposes of this write-up specifically to the nation of l n dia (and perhaps our neig hbori n g nation towards the west). Th.is time frame had notlung to do with any sort of "cupid complacency" on the part of tl1e peop le involved.

You see, in the absence of online profiles, you had to cross paths on city srreets, college corridors, adjacent terraces, and even places of worship, and prayer to get a decent glimpse of each other.

Once you got past the .i.tutial p leasantries between two interested people through random glances, disgui sed snules, and high-speed chases on scooters (you would be booked for stalking these days) , the next challenge was to express the "love" in some tangible way. Archies galler y came in quite handy at tlus juncture.

Dish our a Hallmark card dripped in over the cop romantic poetry and you could not have gone wrong (well, most of the time). However, it was not as easy as attaching the card to an email and sencling it through ether. TI-u s is the precise moment when (in the case of guys) the best friend of tl1e ladylove came in ul tra handy. Pamper her, get her on side and you had a " mecliacor" acting as a pigeon delivering your love notes (usually tucked inside school books), for tl1e rest of the romance.

As the "in a committed relationship" equivalent phase of those pre- social media times commenced, catch -ups between the love stuck souls were few and far belween. Land.line phones were tl1e most sophisticated medium for comn1tmication, howeve r, nor the most discreet

The entire household had one phone at their clisposal and often sat in the bedroom of tl1e parents. If by any IL1ck the.re was another e.xtension of the phone line stretched out to a relative ly remote and private l ocation within the house, yo u always ran tl1e risk of someone else dropping in on you r "love talk" from the other room. So when you you ng lot of today take for granted t he luxury o f calling each other in exquisite privacy of your very own smartphones, spare a tl1ought for u s who struggled our way through getting busred every so often. A lot was said with ink on paper. The moon and the stars featured a lot in love notes ludden amongst notebooks. Accurately timed and frequent drive-bys b y a guy through the girl's street o n his scooter helped fetch glimpses of each other throug h the day (so mething that has been made ridiculously easy by " face time'').

Love and romance in my days may have been slow, tedious, and "Bollywooclish," bur it was the way it ought to be, incense, <;>verpowering, enduring, and at times dramatic. Lovebirds longed co be w ith each other (in person and not online with a green dot next to their names), wrote to ead1 other, and stole se cret moments out of their days to be wid1 each od1er.

So my yo tmg fciends, next time ;701.1 are in love, do not lock yourself in a room and make it a social med ia experience. Get on a rooftop and lee the world know about it. Stand ne.xt to the person who makes yo u go weak in the knees, look into tl1e.ir eyes and tell

Dish out a Ha ll mark card dripped in over the top romantic poetry and you could not have gone wrong (well, most of the time) tl1ern how you feel. \X'rite a letter to tl1em, a hand written one and nor an email. Charrn the girl's rnother. Tell the girl that "bade bade deshon mein aisi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain, Senorita," (watch DDLJ if you do no t know what I am saying) Go watch a rom-com cogetl1e.r (Yeh Ja1n111i H,,i Deei11a11i will do perfectly fine) Hold hands. Go for a long drive.

Take love and romance "offli ne" for a while and leave Facebook for tl1e oldies tQ hook-up with tl1eir o ld flames so that d1ey get through tl1eir uud- life crises

Australian Government

Th e secon d payment of the Schoo l kids Bonus fo r 2 01 3 is com ing in Ju ly. just in time to h el p w it h you r ch il dr en 's mi d -yea r expe n ses.

If you're eligib le, it wi ll be pai d au t omatica l ly into yo ur ba nk account. You cannot claim it th r ough you r tax *.

$410 a gear for each pri,narg student

$820 a year for each secondary student

Hal/ paid in Januarg and hall paid in July

Are you eligi1Jle7

Yo u could receive t h e School ki d s Bo n us if you h ave a chil d i n primary or secondary sc h ool and rece ive a fami ly or i n come suppor t payment (inclu d ing Family

Tax B enefit Part A ) or you are a p r imary o r secondary student receiving an income support payment

See if you'r e el i gi b le at australia.gou.au/schoolkidslJonus o r call 132 4 68

*The Schoolkids Bonus replaced the Education Tax Refund (ETR) in 2013 so you cannot claim the ETR in your 2012-13 income tax return