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Story Time: When he needed our attention
“May I disturb you? Saba Api, are you there?” Danish entered the room. “Oho ... Whenever I come, I have to locate you among files and notes and books? What are all these assignments for?” He looked at my assignments title irritatingly “Aldoux Huxley as an essayist”.
I stared him and said, “If you are free after your Matriculation exams, it does not mean that all the students of medical, MBA, B.Com and Masters are also free to pay homage to you”.
He shrugged his shoulders carelessly.
“Stop doing that and tell me ... what do you want?”
“Only answer these questions for me,” he said.
“What is the area of Pakistan?
“Oh... very easy. 7,96,096 square km,” I said according to my general knowledge.
“Ok. Now what were the famous personalities of ‘the Pakistan Movement?”
I told him some of the names, and then, “Idea! Why don’t you search the Internet?”
I connected my PC to the Net and started surfing www.ask.com
“Danish! Look ... only enter your questions here,” I pointed at the blank space, “You will get the required answer”.
Danish completed his work and said, “Api, it really is an amazing blessing”.
Some days later, Danish brought my favourite black forest cake for me. He also had some good news: he had acquired his own computer and Internet connection. We both were very excited.
Then Danish joined the academy for F.Sc classes and stopped his frequent visits to my house.
One day, beyond my expectations, a strange thing happened. My uncle, (Dani’s papa) visited, asking, “Where is that foolish, idle boy?” He hammered his fist on the table angrily. “Look at the record of your dear cousin. It’s all due to you!” he shoved Danish’s report card towards me.
“What, uncle?” I said, not understanding. I opened the file. I saw weekly and monthly tests in which Dani had received extremely bad marks, and a big zero in Chemistry.
But Dani had been a prominent student and the situation was shocking. Uncle screamed at me again,
“You told him about using the Internet. Now he spends all his time chatting. He doesn’t study properly. Look ...”, Uncle thrust forward a note attached to the report card. It said, “Your child’s performance is not satisfactory. Please keep a check on him. He does not attend his lectures regularly.”
Now, even I was extremely angry with Danish because he had me insulted in front of my uncle, my parents and even my own conscience. I plopped down on the couch, was thinking what to do.
Uncle thankfully left for Islamabad soon. I thought that at this time, Danish needed our attention and guidance, and not anger. I went to Danish. He had his face buried in his pillow, and I pried it away.
“Sorry Api,” he said remorsefully.
“Dani, why do you misuse the Internet?” I said sternly.
“Oh, Api ... Actually ... all my friends ...”, he stammered.
“Listen!” I patted him, “Chatting only wastes time. I just introduced you to a very informative, accurate and necessary way of communication, but you just use the Internet for chatting and the outcome is before your eyes.”
Now Danish was listening to me silently, playing with his fingers nervously.
“You can explore and surf the net in a lot of positive ways, but I don’t know why you just use it for this stupid chatting. Don’t you know it’s addictive and harmful?”
Suddenly, Danish stiffened his lips. Pain was evident on his face, “Api ... Api ... !” he yelled, “I can’t forget how she insulted me...”
“What? Who?”
“Nadia ... my net friend. She left me when I thought she was such a good friend of mine. She said she is a lady of 30 years and she was a good friend of mine. But ... but she played with my emotions ...” He put his head on his knees. “Please Api, leave me alone! Please go ... I beg you.” He cried.
Now I understood that my cousin had been badly hurt by a woman whom he thought is a sincere friend.
“Dani, get up! Wash your face and just forget about that selfish lady,” I pushed him towards the washroom.
After washing up, Dani seemed better.
“Api! Due to her I neglected my studies, my old friends, my sister and you ... my sweet Api.”
I smiled at him. “Thank God! You realized that you were deceiving your good friends for mere chat friends.
“Yes, Api, I realized a lot of things.”
“Yes, a good friend is he who absorbs all your tension and worries”.
After this, I kept a check on his weekly tests. He was improving.
Now my cousin is a successful student of computer engineering, not an ordinary ‘chat addict’.
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