It was 2011. Somewhere in the sweltering heat of a tier-2 Indian city, a teenager named Rohan stared at his Nokia 2690 with a kind of desperate hope. The screen was barely two inches wide, pixelated, and glowed a dull blue. His friends had moved on—first to Androids, then to iPhones. They shared photos, formed groups, and lived inside Facebook.

He typed: “hey, i’m online.”

Yes.

And then, magic. The news feed loaded. Text only. No images, no videos, just status updates and cryptic song lyrics. But the chat worked. A green dot next to his best friend, Meera, who had moved to another city.