This is a true story that I wrote that was published in the India Currents Magazine in the USA. I was 9 years old when this happened.
In the 19th Century, a man read in the newspaper about something called an Electroscope. He thought it was called a Telectroscope and he misunderstood the meaning of what it was.
He thought it was a giant tunnel that goes under the ocean and when you look through it you can see people on the other side of the ocean. Nobody ever invented it but on 2nd June 2008 I went to Tower Bridge in London to see an amazing thing called a Telectroscope.
It is a giant webcam so when you look into it you can see across the ocean to see people next to Brooklyn Bridge in New York.
When I looked into it there were lots of people on the other side. I saw Brooklyn Bridge in the background. In London it was really sunny with blue skies but in Brooklyn it was raining but normally it is the other way round!
People on both sides of the Telectroscope had whiteboards to write on to communicate to each other. There was one boy who looked about 10 years old holding up a board with his mobile phone number on it. My mum texted him and he texted back! I found out that his name was Andres and he lived in Manhattan. When we texted each other he gave me his dads email address and I gave him mine. I was really excited because I had made a friend across the ocean through a Telectroscope. My Mum and I were laughing and smiling because I had made a friend in an amazing way.
Over the next weeks Andres and I exchanged many emails. I found out many things about Andres such as his hobbies and his family. I got to know that he likes a lot of sports like basketball, American football and soccer. I found out that he had a baby sister and that he lived on 45th street between 8th and 9th in Manhattan.
I told him about my hobbies and my family and I told him that I was coming to NY in the summer so I might be able to meet him.
When I went to New York, it took a long time to find him because I
didn't have access to my email and he told me where he lived and his
phone number on one of his emails. I called him and we made a date to
see each other. We agreed to meet at 2pm outside Wall Street Station .
It was a Saturday. On the tube to Wall Street station, with my mum and
my brothers, I was feeling nervous and excited about meeting Andres.
When we got out of the tube station we were walking to find him. I couldn't remember exactly what he looked like because I had only seen him for 3 or 4 minutes. I was hoping he would recognize me. He did recognize me. Andres and his dad waved to me as soon as we got there. When I was walking towards them I was feeling tense but when I met him my tension left me because he was very friendly. He talked to me a lot about different things in New York.
His dad took all of us to where he works. It was on a very high floor of a building and there was an amazing view of Brooklyn Bridge and the river that separates Manhattan and Brooklyn. His dad showed all of us where the other end of the Telectroscope used to be. After that we went back down and took a water taxi to Brooklyn. While we were on it there was a marvellous view of the Statue of Liberty and all the tall buildings in Manhattan.
When my mum was my age, living in India she had a pen pal in America and
they used to write letters to each other and it used to take 3 weeks
for letters to reach them. Now I have an e-pal in America and it takes
a few seconds for my letter to get to their computer. It's unbelievable
how much technology has changed in the last 30 years.
I asked Andres to maybe get his own email id so he could reply to me more often. I said goodbye to Andres and his family and we got back on the water taxi and went back to Manhattan. It was an overwhelming experience to meet Andres and his family. Just from seeing a boy through a Telectroscope to going to where he lives and actually meeting him was incredible. Maybe one day he might come and stay in my house and I might go and stay in his.
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