Where there's a will, there's mail

I have been reading a lot these days. Back to back – three books. Unusually me.
And all the three are amazing read. First was the ‘Kite Runner’ by Khaled Husseini. Guess the second one.. Well..when you read Kite Runner, you are bound to be impressed by Khaled’s style of writing. So I decided to pick up ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. And both the novels – though similar in characterization – are really poignant. Amazing! I was left numb when I finished both the novels. Especially, the Kite Runner. Khaled’s ability to weave a fiction from seemingly non-fictional events and bring out something which readers could relate to is really admirable. I think Kite Runner definitely deserves a review by me. I will definitely put up a review for this book sometime. But that task is left as of now.
Meanwhile, I have now picked up ‘The World is Flat’, by Thomas L. Friedman. See the change in taste. From Kite Runner to The World is Flat. Two entirely different genres. That is how I am. I am in the midst of the flat world. Am liking this one too. I would say it’s a layman’s book. If you want economics simplified to the extent that it seems like eating an apple, then this is THE book.
One of the things I want to talk about here is the concept of ‘Who Owns What?’ that Tom describes in his book. And, must I say, it hit me real hard. Have you ever thought of making a personal will. No? Well..I know most of us wouldn’t have given a thought to it. OK. Suppose you were to make a personal will. What all will you include in it – your home, your belongings, your bank account, or anything that you legally own. But amidst all this you forget one important thing. Guess what! .. your e-mail account. Surprised! Yes your e-mail account could be an important asset for your family long after you are gone. As Friedman shares his fears, “As you get rid of more and more paper and communicate more and more in digitized formats, you better sort out before you die, and include in your will, to whom, if anyone, you would like to leave your bits.” Friedman also puts his case to prove the gravity of his situation, “I stored many chapters of this book (The World is Flat) in my AOL account, feeling it would be safest in cyberspace. If something had happened to me during my writing, my family and publisher would have had to sue AOL to try to get this text.”
And moreover, suppose you might have stored important mails in your gmail account, some conversations with your loved ones, your favourite pics. What if you were to die today without telling the password of your mail account to anyone? Only two people know – you and Google. But you are dead..and there is no dead man walking in real life. So cut it. And even if your family requests Google to share your passwords and user ID because it’s the only source of information about you. It’s like they might want to hold on to your memories long after you are gone. Well…Google is not obliged to entertain your family’s requests. Why? Simply because Google asked you to agree to its terms and conditions during sign up. And the terms clearly stated that your rights to your account terminate after your death and its contents are nontransferable. See the problems of living in the Internet age. And it’s not the end..just the beginning.