I received the following mail from Gmail:
” You are almost out of storage and may not receive new emails.
“You have used 96% of the 15GB of Google account storage that is shared across Google Drive, Gmail and Google photos. Once you run out of space you won’t be able to send or receive emails in Gmail. To prevent any interruption in service, get more storage with a Google One Membership. Plans start at Rs. 130/- a month”.
Should I pay or not pay? Or should I simply delete files to free up more space? As I was unable to decide, I began leafing through my e-mails. There are e-mails that belong to the year 2000! I have never checked my inbox before! Like any other inbox, my inbox too is having personal, social and business mails. 24 years later these mails looked absolutely meaningless to me. They, i.e., these emails, have served their purpose. So much so, even the e-mail which I received yesterday has served its purpose it was sent for.
Who keeps a dead body at home? Keeping these e-mails, especially after serving their intended purpose, would be like keeping a dead body in the inbox. An old email is like an expired medicine. It serves absolutely no purpose. Old greeting cards, old photos and old communication do not deserve to be kept anymore. I am a practical man. What I have not read / saw during the past 24 years, I do not think I will revisit them in this life again. Hence, I have decided to delete all. My inbox became lighter, and Gmail became poorer because I am not subscribing to any of their paid plans.
The same applies to photographs. At my home I see lots of photo albums with printed photos – both black & white, later color photos. I swear in the name of Almighty and say that I never had the occasion to see my own childhood photos or of my relations, during the past 50 years. I was too busy with marriage, children and job. Majority of friends and relations are dead and those surviving few, how should I search for their younger image in that old and unrecognizably grownup old people? I too am at a similar stage. Whenever the surviving few relations meet me, they try in vain to search for my younger self in me! Hence it is useless to keep the photographs too! Practically it is impossible for me visit these digital photos, which I never saw for the second time during the last 24 years! I tell my self be practical, not emotional.
My brother Krishna died 5 years ago. As on the day of his death, his mobile phone has no WhatsApp messages, no SMS, and no emails. I understood that he used to delete his communications as soon as they served their purpose / objective.
Less luggage, more comfort. So, I have decided to empty my Gmail inbox, Google drive and Google photos. What I have not touched for 24 years, I do not think I will revisit again in this residue life! In this cleaning process I saved good money and made Gmail poorer. Now, I shall never get a mail stating “Your Gmail is almost full”!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
