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Out Of Sight? Never!

Skype keeps the flame alive across 500 miles or more

Out Of Sight? Never!
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How does one bring intimacy to virtual communication? Skype sought to do just that with their video-chatting platform in 2003. It was such a game-changer that it entered our lexicon and has since bec­ome a verb. You could google this, if you weren바카라t busy skyping. And though it isn바카라t the only way to do it바카라there바카라s alsoGoogle Chat, FaceTime, Facebook Messenger바카라it is Skype that바카라s become synonymous with live video calls.

It wouldn바카라t be counterintuitive to say it바카라s people in long-distance relationships who experience most intimately the way Skype changed the intimacy factor in online communication. Distance, time zones and the possibility of not seeing one바카라s partner for months might have ended many rel­ationships, breaking millions of hearts before 2003. But that, as they say, is history.Today바카라s long-distance couples have found in Skype the virtuality바카라unavailable to the world of pre-2003 courtship바카라that makes face-to-face conversation across miles of separation just a couple clicks away. So distance has ceased to be a ­taken-for-granted factor in the post-­mortem of broken relationships.

Take Kushagra Singh, a 23-year-old entrepreneur based in Bangalore. Last year, he bec­ame friends with a student. They had everything going for them, except that the woman was studying in faraway Calcutta. They had met only at inter-college events, but wished to keep in touch regardless of the distance. 바카라We started chatting in the same WhatsApp groups and soon moved on to personal WhatsApp messages,바카라 says Kushagra. 바카라One day, she fell asleep during texting, leaving her contact lenses on. After waking up with her eyes swollen the next day, she sent me this text: 바카라Do you mind if we talk on the phone instead of texting?바카라바카라

They found voice chat easier and more comfortable than texting. However, with calls getting longer and bills turning more expensive, they realised Skype was the best way to stay connected.

That was the beginning of daily Skype sessions, often lasting eight to 10 hours. 바카라I told her that maintaining this relationship would be hard, as start-ups and girlfriends don바카라t go together. But Skype has helped,바카라 he says.

These days, though, Kushagra바카라s girlfriend has been upset with him as they ­skyped each other only 15 times or so last month. 바카라Last week, she was nervous as she had a presentation to make at work. So we discussed it and talked for nearly six hours,바카라 he says. 바카라On my birthday, my employees took me out. She was sad she couldn바카라t be there. So I got her to join us on Skype and she bought a cake and cut it for me, during our chat. Recently, I was invited as a speaker to an engineering college. She wanted to hear me speak. So she came on Skype and I used Facebook Live, so she did not miss it.바카라

바카라We use Skype because it gives a personal touch,바카라 he goes on. 바카라I am talking to you now over the phone. You can hear me, but you can바카라t see my expressions. You can only imagine it. On Skype you can see all that you see face-to-face.바카라

Catching people바카라s reaction is important to Kushagra in another area too. While speaking to clients or suppliers at his furniture company, Grabblocks, he prefers to Skype with them so he can gauge how happy they are with his products. 바카라I have suppliers in China and Germany,바카라 he says. 바카라Skype now allows you to 바카라share screens바카라, which means I can play my presentation on my computer. While the presentation is going on, I am able to see their faces. There are times when I have changed a few slides if they did not seem happy or if there are particular things they seemed to be keener on. If they have queries, I get my designer to conference-in to the Skype conversation, so he can explain to them about the designs. And when I바카라m on Skype, I ask my entire office to pay attention in case they need to handle these clients sometime as well.바카라

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