Cyberchatter: The Joys of e-mail

India Today
September 7, 1998

CYBERCHATTER
The Joys of e-mail

If e-mail hasn't taken over your life, it's time you let it.

Arun Katiyar

About five years ago, Tilak Sarkar, the Chief Operating officer of Axcess, introduced me to e-mail. It was a terrible day: the stuff looked impossible to fathom, there were too many options and the screen was a pain to look at. But Sarkar was enthusiastic and had that look in the eye which said, "C'mon, buddy, apply your mind and open the doors to a new pleasure." It must have been that helpless look I returned which made him suggest that I needn't even pay for the pleasure of using Axcess mail. At the time, it was easier to reach people in India by phone or fax or even by dropping them a simple post card. What would anyone do with e-mail?

Today, it is the single biggest application of the Internet. It is impossible to imagine a day without e-mail. While travelling, I can get by without talking to my colleagues all week, but I stay in touch by e-mail. Recently, while spending a long weekend in McLeodganj, a colleague, Vivek Sharma, closed a deal with a business associate in New York via e-mail. McLeodganj is a small town in Himachal Pradesh, 16 km from the Himalayan snowline. According to Scarth Locke, an American who runs Khana Nirvana, a cosmopolitan but cosy eatery popular with the backpacking crowd which populates the town, the demand for e-mail is very high in McLeodganj. Sensing the need, Khana Nirvana became the first to offer the service six months ago. Today, about 30 people drift in each day and between sips of warm apple cider spiked with cinnamon, check out their e-mail on Locke's laptop. Don't be surprised if your neighbourhood STD/ISD kiosk begins to offer you e-mail -- MTNL is already taking steps to make this possible. The invasion of e-mail is inevitable.

A cheap and practical way of staying in touch with people, e-mail is widely used in exchanging notes and transacting business. It holds the power of communication that no other media can boast of -- it is near-instant, rarely gets lost, can be stored and retrieved without a problem and can deliver rich text, images, audio, video and animation. You can exchange greetings, photographs, send political propaganda, legal papers, ideas, gossip, request charitable donations, just about anything. In the past 12 months, e-mail has helped me save several thousand rupees in phone calls and courier costs alone. What's more, people who I've lost contact with for years have suddenly, to my delight, sprung up in my in-box. Slowly, but surely, an old-buddies' club has begun to hold hands on the Net via e-mail.

If you don't have Internet access, here's one great reason to get it: to experience the joys of e-mail. And, of course, if you run a business, think of all the savings.

Arun Katiyar is executive editor of India Today Group Online. His e-mail address is katiyar@india-today.com

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