Caught in a "Scrap"

It was a simple line from long lost friend on G-Talk while we were catching up , that said " They have banned Orkut here (UAE) crazy people" and my instant reaction was "Well, thank goodness I do not live in the UAE - where would I be without my daily scrap ? "

Such is the hold that these networking sites have on me. I can lose myself for hours, work comes to a standstill , chores remain undone as I "scrap" , "shout-out-loud" and "chat" on orkut or Hi5.

My experience with Orkut has been amazing. I have found school friends, my roomie from my college days, ex-colleagues and even an ex-boyfriend or two ! It's interesting because there is always this morbid curiosity to find out how "so and so" turned out in life and it is addictive because there are some soul buddies who had got lost in the whirlpool of "college-career-marriage-motherhood" who suddenly find their way back into your life and you keep wanting to talk to them.

Infact , this blog owes it's existence to one such "chuddy-buddy" and this very post owes it's inception to her constant "nagping"(nagging through scrapping) on my orkut profile. After reading her completely appropriate post on the positive effects that orkut and hi5 have on our careers. We stay back at work to "network" and ensure that we are visible on our "Communities"...while our bosses gaze on in delight at the soaring levels of "initiative and dedication" in us (they don't really worry about us being effective because that's an arbit concept).

People attempt to appear their best on their profiles. So we have pictures of foreign trips taken ages ago while undergoing a process training for some BPO , lovingly uploaded and captioned - " "MOI in front of the Big Ben/Eiffel Tower/Statue of Liberty" while we have a fashionista striking a glamorous pose inside a mall and telling us that it was "Inside XYZ Store at New York " . Poses are struck in the profile so that the expanding waist line or the double chin is duly camouflaged. The make-up is striking and the clothes are killer in the pictures ....every one wants to show their best faces to the world.

Oh ! and of course the "happy family" pictures are not to be missed. The guy with the maximum "family " pictures on his page is the one in my office who is having an affair on the side with the lady who sits across him at work !!!

The next thing is the "Professional" bit. Those who do well make sure that it's known to every one and the ones who really haven't got their (or are still on Daddy's pay roll past age thirty) let us know what great "free spirits" they are - they travel, party, make music and generally have a ball whilst you and I wonder where we are and what we are doing in our jobs.

People who ignored each other in school now call themselves " best friends" - I wonder how and why ?

On a more serious note, it is interesting to see that the girl who got a zero in her ICSE is now looking after accounts at a retail store or the girl who could barely write a straight sentence is now runs a successful export firm . At the same time it is with a tinge of regret that I learn that a boy in the class with an almost magical ability with animals has become a "techie" while another with god gifted artistic ability is an auditor with a known management firm.

There are people I have discovered who were insignificant in their younger days, never a part of the "cool" set who have grown into well moulded individuals while members of the 'erstwhile" cool set seem to remain frozen in time with their "cool act" as life passes them by.


More on this strange phenomemon follows.....