Going the orkut way

The five letters that are so common in everyday world 2day - ORKUT.

"Hey, are you in orkut? no? jeez! crazy? i wil send u an invite rite away" - you can hear this statement in one form or the other everyday. And the number of users in this online community seems to be increasing multifold everyday. Having an orkut account is considered mandatory these days - as mandatory as havin a girlfriend.

So, does orkut really serve what it is supposed to claim? That's a question I would expect individuals to ask themselves. It definitely has brought to light the theory of six degrees of separation. You will be surprised to see how close people are connected to you. The chick you used to drool over in the IIT classes was, after all, a friend of Jeevitha and you did not know that all the while. "Hey beauty! did not know you were a friend of jeevi, we cud have known each other better before and definitely not thro those hard equations and stupid theorems". wow! how easy it is to connect to people and say a hi.

One of my friends was telling me yesterday how he met an old friend in orkut. She had studied with him in the fifth standard and people used to tease them together. So wat do you do now? Just drop in a scrap - "Hi, remember me? We sat next to each other in the fifth standard and I used to empty your tiffin box everyday? [:D] Wow, i loved the curd rice you used to bring, does your mom stil make it?". How can someone forget the recipe for curd rice? nevertheless, a gud pick-up line. and don forget to enclose the :D in square brackets - gives a nice touch to the pick-up.

Orkut Communities have become so popular. Your school is bound to have a community, so juz join in. If not, start one, tz free. I have met quite a few old friends there and manage to stay in touch with them thro orkut. There is a community for the samosa shop near your school, for the funny teacher who used to fart in class, for pyscho-the-rapists, for pizzas, for iyengars, for people who copy in exams, for angelina jolie, for your workplace and so on. There are also communities against the college VC, against education, against terrorists and ofcourse against attu figures. So if none of ur friends are online r talkn wth u, these communities help you kill time.

I should mention the get-to-gether's people arrange using these communities. "Hey guys, all of us belong to Mannarpatti, why dont we all meet in the bessi beach this sat eve at 5 and share our experiences? Probably, we can also find our better halves there. After all, where can you find the best life partner, if not from Mannarpatti?" - wow! wat a desperate cry-over of saying "I am single and looking for a partner in the same area so we can have coffee one late night and you can still make it to your PG on time. I am bored of the girl at the other end of the city". And the best part is you end up with a partner ..

The only thing that has really irritated me so far is the about me in some profiles that read "I am fun loving, amicable and love to meet people and get to know them. Do not bother adding me as a friend if you dont know me" - shows they think too much of themselves. And their testimonials read - "She is such fun to be with and makes my life a lot more easy by juz bein there. You are definitely missin somethn if you don kno this girl yet." - beats me! who wud not love to have such a friend? A very paradoxical profile and probably the girl is that way 2. Stay away! Do not entertain complexities in life.

And there is the Lexy London column in the media lounge for the interested, i have never gone thro it but one of my friends has definitely gained a few moral advice from this gifted lady.

All said and done, orkut has definitely helped people who really want to stay in touch or discover old friends. I have found a lot of them here and have no clue if I would have ever met them if not for orkut. And with google's effort to integrate many of its features with orkut, the fame is definitely bound to go up. Just a few words of suggestions to fellow orkut buddies -

1. If you are a girl, it is better to avoid putting your snaps. There definitely are guys out there who are ready to cause trouble. Avoid it. Guys are guys.

2. If you are a guy, never give up. There are some girls who do put up their pictures just to attract you to their profile, don fall for them. If you like a girl, go ahead say a hi, but never try more than twice. If there is no reply, she is probably not worth it. Gals r gals.

3. The funniest part of orkut is a fake profile - guy posing as a girl or viceversa. It is fun to pick these profiles up and have fun by givin them d bait and have a hearty laugh at the replies.

4. There r quite a few communities and messages flyin arnd, so u mite have to take sometime in filterin messages tat r relevant. but tz worth it. u never kno wen a fella needs real help. n don miss d scool alumni get-2-gether, u can afford 2 miss the caste get-2-gether tho - mite lead to complications.

5. Keep orkuttin' - tz fun.

You can find me here in the orkut world.

keep smilin,
sravan