Nowadays you cannot do anything without an OTP. Ordering grocery online? Type in the OTP you’ve just received as a mobile message. Making a payment to someone? Type in the OTP. Tracking your postal parcel? Type in the OTP.
But be quick! It will expire in 10 seconds! And as you fumble with your ancient smartphone, quickly going back to the message inbox to retrieve the OTP without closing your current window (otherwise the whole thing will disappear and you’ll have to start the process all over again), as you desperately try to race to complete your transaction or whatever you were doing, and just when you manage to find the OTP and copy it and revert to your original window to paste the OTP there in the right box, guess what? You’ve timed out!
Sorry, says the gleeful exulting message baring its teeth in a wicked grin (can almost sense the sinister tech coded to do this to hapless users) — sorry, says the message flashing on your screen in no uncertain terms, you have timed out, please start again. It’s non-negotiable, this message. You can’t argue with it or plead your case and explain that you’re just one minute late and can you please reconsider. No.
You’ve timed out is not a simple statement, it’s a damnation. It’s tech code for branding the user slow like a sloth from the savannas and tech-challenged and a miserable sod with fingers that aren’t moving fast enough to complete the transaction at one go. Some mean-spirited IT geek sitting somewhere in a cubicle has hardwired this into your system, to make you feel like a lost cause idling, floating rudderless on the choppy waters of technology, flailing about to get ashore but the end is nowhere in sight, it’s water, water everywhere.
So you go back to the beginning when life began, and start all over again, reinventing the wheel, this time determined to be extra vigilant and sharp and super-quick in your reflexes. Your heart is racing, your pulse is erratic, and your BP is probably high enough to warrant immediate admission into the ICU — yet, like a brave invincible warrior you plod on ahead to face the enemy — the OTP — head on. Hum honge kaamyaab (we shall overcome), is playing in the backwaters of your mind, to egg you on and give you strength and courage and vigour to conquer.
And this time with your superhuman skills and sharpness of mind and nimbleness of fingers, you manage to get the OTP in time and paste it. Victory is yours! You’ve achieved! You aren’t a lost cause! The world is a liveable place again!
But wait, what’s this now? Another step of security has been added to your transaction? There’s one more ring of fire to get through? It’s called a “captcha”. Please decipher the jumble of letters and numbers in the muddled background and rewrite it in the box below.
Is that a 6 or is that g? You’ll never know for sure.
