The “Net Connection”:

21/9/08, 3.00 p.m

Last night was chattin with an “Orkut” friend where I was mentionin to her that I m not havin anything interesting to write…..n she replied y don’t u write on benefits of online frenz,,,I jus laughed n said ya mebbe I can thou m not sure how interesting it wud b n I first intend to complete the second part of my earlier post….Then later that nite, met another “Orkut” friend online and we had a long discussion on a topic (which I ll describe later) and then post conversation with her I decided I ll write abt my online frenz and wil continue with different strokes –II at a later tym….
But before I write abt them, the first question that comes to mind wen we talk abt online frenz is y do we chat wit ppl whom we don kno et all and how comfortable are we doin that? I guess for sum its jus fun, for sum its jus to make new frends for the sake of it, thou sumtymes I think ppl r more comfortable discussin their problems with strangers online than their close frends/relatives…strange but true….As far as I m concerned, I like chattin with ppl who either hav a gud sense of humour or I feel are genuinely interested in listenin to me and conversing with me….but ya I continue chattin only when I m sure that at some point of time he/she wud become a gud frend n not just remain the so called “Online friend”
Till date I guess I can safely say dat I have made 3 such frends (all gals…ohh is dat jus a co-incidence….) and for obvious reasons m not mentionin their names…..

1. K : My first online friend….met her in sum yahoo conference room when in the common conversation room I jus mentioned my college was in Matunga (this was post my ty bcom exams- apr 05 I gues)….n then she buzzed me n asked which college I was frm….n I said Podar n incidentally she happened to b frm same college…same batch,,, (ok no further hints)…but we obviously dint kno of each others existence…neways I added her onto my frends list at that tym n post that for couple of months we used to ocassionaly catch up with each other….n after that I gues she used to be online quite regularly (had nothing else to do lolzzZ) n I toh was always online as soon as I came bak frm office (was doin my articleship then)….n then conversations became quite regular …..n thought t 2 be sweet wen she wud sms me askin me to come online…..n I guess I even missed her wen she wasn’t ther online or wen I was on outstation audits….infact she was da first gal whom I mite hav smsed sayin I miss u (n pls note that this was strictly as a frend so don start makin conclusions ….ofcourse nw I very occasionally sms sum1 else sayin dat,,,,who??? Keep guessin lolzzzzzz) gues we met sum 1.5 yrs after we first started chattin… at a coffee shop and this was the first tym I was meetin a gal whom I had never seen be4…(n I made sure I took couple o chocolates for her n her cuz who was also supposed 2 b der, but she wasn;t)….n first reaction on seein her ….U luk very pretty actually much prettier than in the pic…..dont remember the conversation that happened except for that she was smiling throughout….Now its been over 3.5 yrs and guess we mus hav met 4 tyms till date n keep in touch thru calls/chat….thou ther was a brief period in between wen I wasn’t too sure if she wanted to continue with the friendship and so I also stopped contactin her but then sumhow I gues talks revived again…..n now consider her to be a gud frend thou not very sure how long wil the friendship last… ….

25/9/08….1.00 am
2. V: I guess after I met K, I had stopped the conference room chats probably coz I din think I wud be makin any more frends online till ofcourse “orkut” addiction happened.. ….Met V in a community of which both of us were members and there was this topic “Would you add the person above you”, thou I don quite remember if I added her or was it the other way round…but then even after dat I gues we would jus scrap each other occasionally n the regular conversations started after Gtalk became a part of gmail….n as usual I was 24*7 online….i guess rgt now she s probably the one with whom I chat/ talk the most, discuss the daily happenings on a regular basis…I generally feel at the end of a conversation with any frend, that I probably kno wats happening in his/her life but he/she hardly knows wats happenin in my life…but its different with V thou n both of us know wat exactly is happenin in each others lyf…and abt her…comes across as person with loads of attitude…lolz……a helping nature…Sum1 who always tend to remember everythin I say n I tend to fuhget almost everythin she says…ohh btw did I ask u wats ur bros name…I guess I jus fuhgot…hehe …n I kno I can always expect a frank unbiased opinion frm her wenever I need it…..n shes generally the first one to read my blog n giv an honest feedback.. I think now its been over 1.5 years now….n we have met jus once at Mc D n since she also stays in Chembur, it helped….though she has promised me that she wud come for Karzzzzzzzz (incidentally K had promised dat she wud come for Aap ka Surroooorr n then ditched after she made me buk tickets for her) Now u dare not ditch me on dis…but more importantly don’t fuhget dat u hav promised to gift me da perfume dat u make n it doesn matter if it doesn’t smell all dat grt…(after all I lyk anything dat comes free…hehe) ….n hey I do expect u to be ther as a frend for atleast sum tym to come…..

3. S: Another frend whom I met on orkut….again in some community not sure if it was the Mallu community or the Chembur Community and again conversations thru Gtalk…..she I guess would be da sweetest gal I ve met till date…. ….the innocent- bholi bhali types…n can get upset at very small things… typical mallu ….find it cute wen she actually calls up to say 2day we had a lecture by a professor who luked like u (n I say as lon as he luks gud I hav no issues….lolz) n then hangs up sayin m runnin out of balance…. I gues it mus be jus 1 yr or so since we started talking n met her jus once….infact as I jus recollect my first meeting with each of them, interestingly, wen I had met K, it was my treat, wen I met V, she insisted we go Dutch n wen I met S, she jus din allow me to pay…..thou as far as commonality among them is concerned….they all happened to do MBA after I met them…n each of them always cribs abt bein low on balance (thou I always insisted on them givin missed calls simply becoz I wasn’t too sure if they wer chattin jus lik dat or did they really intend to continue wit the friendship, but I guess now I pretty much kno dat….)
n now comin bak to the discussion with S that I had mentioned earlier, I would be describing, which actually left me wonderin…I guess I ll put it forward as the conversation actually happened (with her permission n in case u r reading this it means she had no objections to this ) with minor edits and rearrangements to link it to the context n removing the irrelevant parts….
S: so wat is happenin at ur end? Any new crushes? Galfrends?
Me: nopes……only u….
S: hahahaha
Me: waise tu bata? New crushes in college?boyfrend?
S: no chance of a boyfriend. No tym
Me: no tym ya koi mila nahi
S: koi milega bhi nahi
Me: kyon kyon?
S: bas aise hi...don consider myself to b a galfrend material
Me: ok this is interesting..wat is “a galfrend material”?
S: I don hav the damsel in distress luk abt me, nor am I tall, fair and definitely not slim.
Me: hmmm…..so do u feel bad abt it?
S: I dont know if I feel bad but sometimes ppl saying things like I am fat hurts me. I know its true but the way they say it makes it look like its wrong (I actually don’t think she is all dat fat..neways I think definition of Fatness is diff for guys n gals)
Me: i actually liked wen u said u donno if u feel bad coz i probably was expectin u to say “No”
S: Its true…I donno how I feel
Me.: But then if luks are all dat important y is dat wenever I go to the town side..i can see hot babes goina arnd with sum sidey lukin guy (wen I m absolutely khaali…lolz…)
S: see guys dont have to necessary look like hrirhik roshan but girls who are not aishwarya rai or shilpa shetty are not looked at the same way
Me: hmm…but da positive side of lukin at it is when sum1 likes u....it wud b for reason much beyond luks
S: Really?? Don see that happenin too often. frankly when I first started talking to you
was alittle apprehensive about it . I expected u to disappear forever after seein my pic…
Me: so y do u think i dint disappear?
S: because you are one of the rare breed of sensible, sensitive, genuine, trustworthy guys
Me: or do u think mebbe coz i was lukin for a frend n not a gal frend?....thanx for da tareef
S: Bulls eye!!!!
That’s it I stop here,,,,, n I guess ppl mus hav realized the point that I was tryin to make…Y are looks considered so important when we all know that they aren’t too important in a long term relationship…ok this doesn mean m gonna stop starin at beautiful gals hehe but very weird dat relationships are rejected/ accepted based on photographs…..Y is it dat between a beautiful n not so beautiful but much more intelligent gal, a guy always prefers to talk to the former? Ppl feel bad abt their luks obviously not because they want to but coz of the way the world looks at them… not to say that I m any different … N my thoughts jus drifted towards my crush….Thou I can say for sure dat I dint like her becos of the way she luks.. coz if that were to be true then I shud hav liked her wen I met her initially…but if I were to turn around the question n ask myself “would I have liked her if she wasn’t pretty?”… I guess at best I can jus say I donno………
Well tym for me to hit the bed….. bye for now…..

28/9/08:
I jus thought I will also write the initial feedback from the abv ppl in the order in which I received since I m not really expectin them to comment on this post:

S: Very well written…thanks for writin abt me….made me feel special n no issues with postin the conversation!!!!!!
V: May I get sum more footage? J (aah n I thought I cud get an unbiased feedback from her on this post….gals wil remain gals!!!!!! hehe…neways all dat in italics I hav written abt her have been added after she demanded additional footage….but wait a min …isn’t this my blog…so y do I hav 2 lissen to her….on second thoughts...did i precisely do just dat?..lolzzzz.)
K: achcha likha hai......n the conversation is interestin.....