Unplugged, blacked out and stomped to the ground

My IT manager called last night around 8pm. They need to shut down the internet and mail connection overnight to run maintenance and switch to some new technology. So I need to finish everything by 9pm. Is that okay? It's one of those questions where no is not an option.

I was in the middle of a catty '50s movie called the Women, and was bored stiff anyways, so I returned to my email and tried to send out some quick messages. Then I went back to this book I've been trying to read for last month, called Shopaholic Takes Manhattan. And I fell asleep around 10pm. I woke up at 2.20am. That's when the trouble started.

I have an internet addiction, but this was completely unexpected, so I didn't know what to do. I aimlessly walked around inside my room, and tried to tell myself, at least I'm burning calories. I called my cousins in US, wished my cousin Jamal and Shila happy anniversary in advance. I brought a flashlight and tried to read the book again. Did some pushups, drank couple of glasses of water. A long night to say the least.

The electricity returned at 5am. But I couldn't get back to my usual morning routine: 4 hour Bob and Sheri show via podcast, plus completing my RSS feeds accumulating in Google Reader. I handwashed my socks instead, since haven't had running water for 17 days now (my washing machine has been parched dry).

So this morning, my routine is completely off, 245 RSS feeds to be read, emails up the wazoo, I'm sleepy, tired and cranky. I'm glad that brief rehab is over though.

The last time I was offline for a long period of time, it was twice in three months. Sep 2007, I was in Beijing for a week, so was disconnected. Then Oct 2007, I was in Goa and Kolkata, and was offline for 7 days again. But since then, I've been completely immersed on the web, with broadband connection at home in Dhaka, GPRS on my phone during commute times, fast connection at office and the university totally spoiled me.

Even in Kabul, thanks to wireless at home, two connections at office, and again wireless and wired connection at Bren's place, I take my mail and internet for granted 24-7.

Some Michelle Jones has this project called 52 Nights Unplugged, where once a week for year, she doesn't do anything involving a screen. No computer, no cellphone, no movies. I think I would die, although my cellphone usage has died down significantly after losing my state of the art Nokia within first two weeks in Kabul. I don't like iPhone, the first Mac product that hasn't allured me.

Anyways, here's an NBC report on a Forbes manager who was unplugged for a week. I think he cried in the end.


In all fairness, I will too.