In Transit — An Orma Story
Aria was fuming. She had gotten off the plane from New York a few hours ago. She looked at the flight display board for what felt like the millionth time. Delayed. The Mumbai bound flight from London was not going to be flying out any time soon due to the snow storm. Horrible horrible snow.
In 12 hours her best friend was going to be married. Aria had prepared a lovely speech that she was due to give as Maid of Honour and couldn’t help but grimace at how upset her friend would be knowing that she would not make it on time for her special day. She truly wanted to be there for her dear friend Leanna who had been there for her through thick and thin.
Leanna was there for her when her father passed away. A strong shoulder for Aria to cry on. Leanna was also there to celebrate when Aria got her dream job as a photographer for a wildlife magazine. So this little situation was doing nothing to quell her nerves…but clearly she was never going to make it in time. The snow didn’t seem like it was going to let up.
She sighed and opened her messages. “L. I am stuck in London. I don’t know if I’m going to make it.” She paused — What if L freaks out? She was anyway a very nervous person. No. She had to let her know. Maybe someone could step in and give a speech instead of her?
She texted Reena, Leanna’s elder sister instead. Moments later her phone flashed. “Don’t stress A. Wish you were here. I’ll inform her. Was looking forward to your speech, I know Leanna was waiting for that one.” Aria frowned. What could she do? Wait — what if she sent a voice note of her speech? No. There has to be a way to make it personal. It sounded silly right? Her voice echoing through the reception hall — waxing lyrical about her oldest friend.
Aria pulls out an old photo of Leanna and her. The memory behind this photo was one of her best ones with her old friend and it was this story that she wanted to bring up in her speech. She starts writing a note to send but realizes that doesn’t do justice to her story, and felt the need to be able to narrate it herself. She then begins creating a video but half way through realizes that she is constantly holding up the picture and pointing to details in the photograph — a bit inconvenient, especially when recording a selfie video, phone in one hand and photo in the other. The video looked awkward to say the least.
A few seats away, a young traveler was watching her with a bemused expression. After a few moments, he casually strolled over to ask her what she was up to. She told him her dilemma. He smiled and recommended downloading Orma, a new app that lets users combine photos and videos in one screen. This was perfect for Aria — all she had to do was download the app, upload the photo and record herself talking about it without having to holding up the picture — she would beable to speak freely, pour her emotions and story out and together, it would look so real — as if she were there at the wedding giving her speech.
She went to her app store on her Google device and searched for Orma. A blue and yellow logo caught her eye. An app to make memories using both photo and video. She hit the download button and walked to a nearby cafe.
She placed the photograph on the table in front of her. It had creases in the middle so she smoothened it out and placed it on the table in front of her. She took a photo of the photo. Now the video part. She placed her phone in front of her and clicked the record button and began to narrate. She reviewed the video and was satisfied with the results. This way Leanna could hear her and see her and the audience would get to be a part of this wonderful memory that was one of the defining moments of their friendship.
She reviewed it one more time and then sent it to Reena to play at the wedding. Moments later, Reena texted her “Marvelous! It is so lovely, it will be as if you are right there!”. And with that Aria smiled and relaxed back on her seat. Everything was going to be fine.
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Like Aria, You too can download the Orma from the Play Store.
