eMail ids for Dummies

Every now on then, we make a small mistake that goes on to haunt us for the rest of our lives. Now I am not talking about serious mistakes - like hurting someone, or causing some material loss or damaging a relationship etc etc. I am talking about those careless, niggling, silly mistakes that you make without realising, that don't appear to have caused any damage Prima Facie, but just give them some time and they come back to eat you alive inside out.

On July 4, 1996, Sabeer Bhatia launched the legendary email service, HoTMaiL. This completely revolutionized the way people and businesses were to communicate with each other in the coming years. Geographical barriers were shattered, distances vanished overnight. It paved the way for the 'e' revolution and also, as a small insignificant by-product, paved the way for one of the dumbest mistakes I've ever made.

Year 1999. The whole world was buzzing with the 'Y2K' fever. It was a glorious time to be in for a 11th standard boy who had just got a brand new computer and was exposed to the world of internet for the first time. And the boy had been waiting a long time for this. He had worked hard the whole year to get good marks in his 10th standard Board exams so that he could get
the computer. Needless to say, he had spent the last couple of months reading up any computer magazine he could get his hands on to familiarize himself with the mysterious yet fascinating world of computers. The 'Nerd' virus had slowly started spreading in his body. His friends had told him that one of the first things he should do on getting a net connection should be to create an email account on Yahoo!, the most popular email service at that time.

Fast forward a few weeks. The computer and the net connection have finally arrived. The boy goes to yahoo.com and starts creating an email account. He is asked to select an email id.

The boy thinks for a while.

The boy types - bunny@yahoo.com (bunny being his nick name, an unfortunate consequence of being an Indian(hence the concept of nick name) born into a sikh family (hence - bunny!! ) )

The computer replies with message:

"Email id already in use. Select another"

The boy thinks long and hard.

The boy types - 'bunny2k@yahoo.com' (please note the '2k' .. referring to.... guess....guess.... ok.. here it comes.... The Y2K bug!! !!! )

The boy smiles.

The boy says to himself - "Who's the man!!"

The computer replies with message:

"Email id already in use. Select another."

The boy really thinks long this time.

The boy types - 'bunny2k_2002@yahoo.com'

The boy had always been a little ahead of his time.
The boy leans back and smiles.

The computer replies with message:

"Congratulations bunny2k_2002 . You have successfully created a
yahoo account"

What the computer really meant to say was:

"Congratulations dumbass, on selecting 'bunny2k_2002' as your id. Your friends and complete strangers will laugh at you for this for the rest of your life"

Of course, the boy did not see this message. The boy was happy. The boy was now 'IN'. He had an email address to give to girls. He had an identity that was funny and witty.

He was - 'BUNNY2K_2002' !!! All Hail !!


Now, I can act smart and say that this boy was a very good childhood friend of mine who now resides in a mental institute with similar crazy fools, but the sad truth is that this boy was indeed me and I now work in a software firm with other IT professionals!
Sigh... the places where life takes us.

The email id still prevails.
It doesn't seem so witty now that the boy is 24 years old.
It's still the butt of jokes among friends and complete strangers.
Not so popular with girls either.
bunny2k_2002 - not so funny anymore. Damn, it even rhymes! Sob sob.


Fast forward about 5 years. I was in final year of college. I was working as in intern in a IT firm. I decided that I couldn't possibly give 'bunny2k_2002@yahoo.com' to others as my email id. Oh the shame! The humiliation!
So I decided to create another 'respectable' and 'formal' email id.

Now, there are 2 kinds of people in this world. The kind who learn from their mistakes and move on in life and then there's the kind who like to practice making the same mistake again and again and again till they become masters of creating bad email ids.

My 'formal and respectable' email id turned out to be ...... wait for it........ here it comes......


sukhbirsingh.ait@gmail.com


..



..



WHO PUTS THE INITIALS OF THEIR COLLEGE IN THEIR PERSONAL AND RESPECTABLE EMAIL ID ???????

Man!! That's got 'Loser' written all over it.
Once again, not so popular with girls.



Today, just before writing this post, I created another email id for myself.
This one on sify.

ribhkus@sify.com


In case you are wondering, that's my name spelled backwards.
You may laugh now.


"....with every mistake, we must surely be learning
while my guitar, gently weeps..."
-George Harrison.