Suvrat Sinha sat chewing his nails as he read some of the posts on a Laundromat discussion group site. “Gosh, this is crazy, the kind of things people discuss… and with so much passion! Now, who would have thought that there is a whole bunch of people discussing laundry machines!” he mused as he read the posts.

• You got to be kidding. We’re going to finally see a front-loading washer? It’s going to have an internal heater? A pump screen? A ‘prewash’ detergent dispenser compartment in addition to the ‘regular’ detergent dispenser? And a WINDOW?!’
    
• Are you confident it really is a Speed Queen? It looks like a close relative of your GE. The knobs look just like the GE/Hitachi clones sold here. I have attached a link to a later model Hitachi on Aus eBay. If you look closely, you can see the small knobs (water level, temp,) are the same as the stacked pair in your photo. The timer knob isn’t there because the one in my pic is electronic. But the timer knob in your pic is the same as GE600N and its Hitachi equivalent.
     
• Robert, your new basement is marvellous. What’s the scoop with the 55 Hotpoint? You said it needed some work before you hook him up. Also, where is the 53 frog-eye Kenmore? The one that was next to the 57 Lady & 52 Whirlpool at the old house. I didn’t see it in the new basement photos. I also didn’t see the 57 GE dryer or the sunny yellow Maytag. How about some pics of the tubs and agitators. I’d love to see the inside of that 55 Maytag and a close-up of the timer dial. What an awesome collection. I’m envious of the 56 Frigi.

Suvrat was smiling deep. Strange it seemed that the world would not let you be who you want or what you wanted to do, but on the Internet space, you could wear alien-like names and speak your heart. Uniquely, it were these space jammers who finally delivered the verdict. Or did they create the verdict for others to follow? Were these then the subtle opinion leaders of behaviour and expression?

The alarm on his mobile announced 11 a.m. Suvrat picked up his laptop and began to collect the papers for his meeting with Ashutosh. Three doors away from his office, sat Ashutosh Guha (AG), CEO, Crown Music, who at this time was engrossed reading a mail from Jai, his friend in Bangalore. The subject read ‘A great New Year!’ and he expected to see a two-line message. Instead a two-page extravaganza exploded into his face — the Deos had been for a skiing vacation to Switzerland, Madhavi was quilting, Arunav had won acclaim for his designs at a contest for car designers, DJ was setting up a school in the valley for children of criminals, the cat had a litter… Ashutosh wondered what this mail had to do with a great new year. In fact, the only thing that had caught his attention was Jai saying, ‘And I rediscovered Johnny Cash’.

Why were people laying bare their lives on e-mails? The sense of disconnect came bounding back and hit Ashutosh squarely, when he suddenly noticed Suvrat sitting before him. Suvrat was his product development manager at Crown Music. Suvrat had come with plans for a new research, but interrupting that Ashutosh said, “ I thought at New Year one sends out CRY cards and wishes friends a happy new year. But I have a letter from a friend and he has told me all that his family did during the year… does this make any sense to you?”

Suvrat smiled and said, “Ya, this is becoming common. And these are the people who get others to think and these are the people who get heard. Because they get up to say, you and I don’t have to. Or maybe we would not anyway. Some people are vocal about feelings and thoughts. Funnily, they have around them people who are waiting to listen to what they have to say. These are valuable people. As for new year greetings — I send a CRY card with Seasons Greetings’ and my name signed at the bottom. All that it tells the recipient is, ‘Hey, I am alive and have managed to locate your postal address.’ My secretary does the mailing. In 10 minutes, I forget whom I sent the card to. I guess there are card senders and mail writers. This world has place for every kind!”

“But is anyone interested?” asked Ashutosh. “I mean, yes, Jai is a close friend and all that, but do I want to know about his cat? Personally, I would not do what he did… it is a bit embarrassing for me.”

Suvrat understood that, “But not anymore. Ten years ago, can you imagine yourself discussing a Maytag washer at a college reunion? They would have certified you. But today you can set up a blog! Today you can do just about anything. These are times that celebrate your uniqueness. Our culture has encouraged a privacy but then we have extended that to a point where even talking about our joys becomes embarrassing. Yet when you ask ‘Is anyone interested’ what I also hear is this: I am interested in those things that connect to my way of living and thinking… cats are not one of them.’ We as people have become so severe and work driven that we cut off everyone and everything that is not connected to our work life. But there is hope, because people with their special passions are congregating on the Internet in different forums and blogs… and you are likely to find a whole family out there!”

Ashutosh was growing more ponderous. There certainly was a critical mass forming. Whether it was a Jai or these bloggers or the chaps who wrote lengthy letters to editors and yelled about some mango tree being felled somewhere… why, even those chaps who made a big shindig about the court handling of some recent crimes and thus engineered change… these were the get-uppers and doers. No. They were the guys who expressed what they felt. And they didn’t give a damn if you thought they were weird.

But then the flip side was this rash of public opinion that also renegaded. Like Jeet, this effervescent new voice unleashed by a TV singing contest show, who Ashutosh was very keen to launch… this lad had been voted out by the public. It had surprised him that Jeet had not been the choice of the millions. To Suvrat he had said, “All this public voting is nonsense, has absolutely no reverence for good talent!”

Suvrat nodded and said, “Yet the public is voting for the voice they want to hear more of, the style they want to see more of, the package of adaa, grace, pleasantness, voice and expression. And expression for the public is the feeling they are left with when they hear and see this chap. The public smells the voice, AG… and finally they are the consumer.”

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