ISLE LIKE NO OTHER

What’s in a face?

Idon’t think you will take me to court for suggesting that we islanders are among the friendliest on the third slagheap from our star. If there is a place in the sun for friendships easily made and even more readily sustained over the never changing seasons, it is a teardrop shaped island where serendipity was discovered or invented.

And the best thing about such serendipity is that it is discovered when one is seeking something else… a friendly feeling that there’s something new under the sun after all.

But I may be getting ahead of myself. And I had better begin at the beginning, go on till I reach the end – or 5,000 friends, whichever comes first – and then stop.

So there I was of a sunny day and a sunnier frame of mind. I was busy with the pleasant rediscovery of Serendipity’s friendly nature. And the real joy was the discovery that on Facebook – of all places under the sun – there was a friendly face to be enjoyed, simply for the trouble of seeking it.

I was aware that there was a certain etiquette involved in adding friends on Facebook. It was the only fly in the ointment. One had to have met, or have more than a mere nodding acquaintance, in order to extend a friend request.

But I was in a mood for adventure, having recently suffered bereavement, and then entertained a great sense of gratitude at the release of grief and thankfulness for blessed release.

So I took the plunge… and pressed ‘send.’ Try to imagine my surprise when people from all walks, dives, climbs of life responded positively. My joy at newfound friendship – even if it is ‘only’ on Facebook – could not be contained. Very happily for me, most of my acquaintances or friends of friends seemed happy enough to share the joy of serendipitous discovery. Thank you for the add, friends – especially on ‘only’ the face of it… literally.

“Hi, do I know you? But never mind. Rest assured it’s good to get to know…”

“Just remind me where we met, please. Feels like I know you already!”

“Thanks for the add – hope to touch base more regularly…”

Of course, there were a few gremlins in the machine.

“Bro, it’s great to connect on Facebook! BTW, can you loan me a hundred thousand bucks?”

I’d always suspected that Messenger was a platform that offered more bang for its buck… but this was – almost literally – a hundred thousand times worse. Naturally, I declined as politely as possible.

Even if I had that kind of pocket money to lavish on someone with 65 mutual friends, I’m not as generous as to invest in a relative stranger in a milieu where my yardstick was to extend invites to only those with first 200 and finally, after discovering how joyfully friendly we Sri Lankans are, 100 friends in common.

One grouch even couched his grudging acceptance with the cautionary proviso that he was befriending me only on condition that I did not chat up the other rare and precious birds on his friends list.

Interestingly, despite seeing himself as an ‘adventurer’ in his FB bio, he was not open to the idea that ‘friends will be friends’ and even – or especially – that ‘friends of friends’ will become more than mere nodding acquaintances.

Talk about flies in the ointment. Even in serendipitous paradise, there are goblins and hobgoblins – if not dragons of fury – at the presumption of some people adventurous enough to discover Serendip and then explore it.

So Facebook for Sri Lankans – like citizenship in the only two states with larger populations than King Mark’s domain – is a triad of good, bad and ugly. If China has faceless billions and India hundreds of nameless millions, Zuckerbergland is the pot of gold or honey at the end of the rainbow.