Off the cuff: The world of Larry, the bird

This is the tale about a joyous, little mountain bird called Larry. The blue little creature lived a very peaceful life, creating a realm where all could exchange their views and share their thoughts in a benevolent manner … leading to an environ that generated a unity in diversity vibe, ‘virtually’ shrinking the real world. P.B. Shelley probably would have referred to it as a “blithe” spirit akin to the skylark he wrote about.

Initially, all the human beings who trod this blissful expanse enjoyed the ambience created by Larry, as their views flew around the world in the form of harmless ‘tweets’ … benign and happy, mesmerising and connecting all. Hence this world was called ‘Twitter’. The official logo — the little blue bird was named after former NBA player, Larry Bird, who played for Twitter co-founder Biz Stone’s home-state team, the Boston Celtics.

I entered that world of Twitter after a lot of procrastination. It was the curiosity, wanting to see what it was all about. My friends warned me about the monsters that were on their perverse prowl across the Twitter sky. In this day and age, when a gross, dangerous game like the ‘Blue Whale’ could be the brainchild of some sadistic person, would Larry, the blue bird, remain unaffected?

It is a strange world after all — these skies, where Larry flies around delivering countless number of tweets. After all, it is just a virtual sky of fluff. There’s a real world, with real people who need us more!

- Navanita Varadpande

Follow the authors

Some encouraged me to join the social media networking site lest I should be left behind. The motivation being, I could ‘follow’ authors of my choice, stand up for a cause or connect with others and share my thoughts and opinion; ‘networking’ has become a word of great eminence these days! The hashtags such as #metoo enthused me to reconnect with my redundant account.

Gradually, gruesome trolls (akin to werewolves) began tearing apart folks here, hiding sometimes behind cowardly masks of anonymity — with their sadistic, venomous abuses … probably spitting out the poison that had infected their own lives. Keats would have woven an ‘Ode to Larry’, the blue mountain bird, if he lived in our times, expressing his disappointment about the polluted realm of Larry.

I learnt that a ‘troll’ is a being that exists in Norse and Scandinavian mythology. “Scandinavian trolls tend to be very big, hairy, stupid, and slow to act. Any human with courage and presence of mind can outwit a troll, and those whose faith is strong can even challenge them to mortal combat.”

Thus, it did not matter to me. I am sure I could handle one! This realm brought to fore the emptiness of certain celebrities (I thought very highly of them earlier) who belonged to the unfortunate, ambiguous tribes of snobbish gentility.

Carpet of denial

The pseudo-authors or intellectuals, as I deciphered them on Twitter, wear strange cosmetic hoods to hide the fragility that render them insecure, because beneath the facade lay fractured souls! However, I met some really intense and spiritual intellects. There were some modest messengers of joy who share slices of life — the diurnal reality that is often swept away under the carpet of denial.

There are scholars and historians who share the immense knowledge they have gathered in their lifetime. These people never cease to surprise with their humility. Then of course there are the lonely souls who do not have any ‘real’ sense of being and rely on the ‘virtual world’ for succour.

Larry’s world has become a microcosm of what the real world is turning into. Right wing and left wing supporters are seen to wrestle bitterly, expletives are sparked off and then the intolerance heightens to such enormity that one blocks the other. Some take their freedom of expression for granted, with their toxicity spewing and polluting the little bird’s world!

A few tweeps use this platform like a diary. They enter an hourly rant or a post, which could sometimes be laced with a spirit of gaiety, or a proclamation that a beverage has just been ingested. I wonder what Anne Frank would have said about such hourly posts.

Entries in diaries that were once upon a time so personal are now flaunted publicly to strangers. Our modern lifestyle probably has rendered us so lonely that we have this immense need to share the minute happenings in life with strangers.

It is a strange world after all — these skies, where Larry flies around delivering countless number of tweets. After all, it is just a virtual sky of fluff. There’s a real world, with real people who need us more!

— Navanita Varadpande is a writer based in Dubai. Twitter: @VpNavanita