Lo and Behold | Day One

By Dhananjai

'Lo'

Our journey has started way before this blog was written.

This is an attempt to document the journey as we build this 'alternate but very real' reality - voxel by voxel.

It started, like so many contemporary stories of our times, during the pandemic. The possibilities of 'connectedness' had been redefined for all of us ; we realised how interconnected we really were, what the scope of the internet was. It also lay bare the stark inequalities which our access to technology were, it reflected the challenges of the real world, especially in a world which is increasingly divided.

Most of us were left with a premium subscription to Zoom, and the semantics of what connecting via video conferences to a multitude of people was.

The three of us, V and M and me,
we were left with 'Happyface'.
And a space within the web world where we could meet, in a sunlit stadium, where we could ride a car around an obstacle field, or fly a helicopter - as we saw each other's faces, heard their voices and held innumerable conversations.

Over the course of the pandemic, we had built an immersive, web based world, where we could talk, walk and share our screens - a virtual conference in motion - if you may; free to roam and invite anyone in.
Why did we need 'Zoom', or 'Teams', or 'GMeet', when we had our own cozy space on the web?

While we had been working fervently towards what we created,
it was only when the three us finally met in this world, when I knew that this was it. I could see this for what it The moment.
The beginning.

As we moved around, stretched our virtual legs, soaked in the evening setting sun in the horizon,
we decided to call it
the 'Happyface World'