I vividly remember the first time I used the internet back in 2003. I was in class 9, about 15 years old, and the experience was both thrilling and mysterious. At the time, I didn’t have a computer at home, so the local internet café was my gateway to this vast, unknown world.
The café was a simple setup. A small table with a monitor and CPU, the mouse resting on the side, all cramped into a modest corner of the room. I remember paying ₹10 for an hour—a small amount today, but it felt like a lot back then. It was enough to buy a meal, so every second I spent online was precious. The café owner was strict about the time limit; if we went even a minute over, he’d insist we log off.
Google was my main portal. I would eagerly search for images of flowers, cricketers, or anything that piqued my curiosity. There weren't many websites available, so choices were limited, and YouTube wasn’t nearly as popular or full of educational content as it is now. But for us, this was more than enough.
Social media was also just starting to gain traction, and Orkut was the go-to platform for chatting and connecting. I remember feeling a surge of excitement each time I logged in, reading scraps from friends and discovering this early form of social networking.
Because internet access was a luxury, I didn’t visit the café every day. When I did go, I would save downloaded images to a floppy disk—a storage device that could only hold 1.44 MB, barely anything by today’s standards! But back then, it was all I needed to carry my newfound internet treasures back home.
And, of course, I couldn’t forget about the games. Road Rash was a favorite—a classic racing game that, for the brief moments I played, made me feel like I was in another world.
Looking back, it’s amazing to think about how far the internet has come. Those small, simple moments of discovery, saved images, and the joy of a successful search are memories that still bring a smile to my face.
It's hard to imagine now, but back in 2002, smartphones were practically unheard of, at least in our circles. Social media didn’t exist, and entertainment wasn’t as instant or as accessible as it is today. In those days, school life was woven together by friendships, endless gossip, cycles rides, and the occasional, treasured photo on a camera we used to call the “digicam.” One day, I took my prized digital camera to school. It was nothing like today’s cameras, with its grainy, low-resolution images, but it was magical for us. I was in Class 11 at Chittaranjan Colony Hindu Vidyapith, Baguiati, Kolkata. I had no idea at the time that the pictures I took that day would become my only visual memories from my school days, spanning from KG to Class 12. My friends were thrilled about the camera – boys and girls alike crowded around, eager to be part of a rare moment captured on film. Everyone wanted their picture taken, smiling wide, making faces, and goofing around. But of course, we ...
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