One Fine Day (no, not the flick), Dinesh, an ex-colleague, asked me whether Naru, our director, was on Orkut? I told him that Naru was not available and then pondered to myself why would Naru want to be on Orkut.
Orkut is a social networking site.
Naru is pushing to 60 and is a well know Marketing Consultant in India. Why would he need Orkut? He already had memberships at some of the prestigious clubs in Chennai. He is also, I am sure, is part of the strong IIM alumni club. Many of his peers would be of similar age and may not prefer Orkut to be a place to network. I am sure that either at this age they prefer not to network or do so in different platforms.
Turning to myself.
After some initial enthusiasm, I found Orkut to be dull and useless site. But I kept hearing more and more about Orkut. It seemed like a place to be in. Just like once upon a time Yahoo Chat was supposed to be.
Then one day my wife told me that one of her college mates had scrapped her. No she did not do anything dirty, Scrap is writing a scrap note. Easy way and non-fussy way of writing message. She told me that she had lost contact with this friend long back and despite trying could not establish any contacts. And then suddenly, after a long time comes a message from this friend. That lady is now in Mumbai. My wife met and stayed with her when she travelled to that city.
Now that excited me.
My dad was in the Air Force because of which I changed schools every three or four years. I would make very good friends and then loose them. Even today, I miss Titus from Sulur, and Sanjay Yadav, Rajeev Chakraborty, and Shaji from Delhi.
I tried hard to search them on Orkut but wasn't as lucky as my wife's friend.
Then one day two young girls came to office and I was discussing Orkut with them. I told them my problem and they said that I should check out school communities and check for my friends there. They also taught me how to do advanced search.
I tried my luck again. But...
Then one fine day...
A mail on my GMail from Shaji Menon. I was thrilled but acted with caution. I wanted to be aboslutely certain. And to my releif and excitment it was him. My good old friend from Delhi. The guy whom I had last met of heard some 20 years back. We both are excited. He is in Gulf. We have decided to meet when he is in India this July.
Isn't this great?
Both of us had joined KV No. 1, Delhi, community. Here is where he searched for me and reached.
Thinking back, Batchmates.com and another site, think it is Mates.com or something, also offered this scope.
But then it is Orkut, which is making its presence felt.
Coming back, am still relatively young and spending time on Orkut. If I was 40 and more matrued, would I do that? Will Naru ever use it.
Btw, I am still waiting to hear from Titus, Sanjay, and Rajeev.
Image source: http://www.egothemag.com/archives/images/scitech/orkut_main.JPG
