Orkut – to network or not work
It is 9 am in the morning. A typical morning in an IT office. I nervously look around and find the coast clear. With sweaty fingers I key in www.o…r…k…u…t.com. My sixth sense tells me that the boss is near and I reduce the window to a size just bigger than a dot. Since I am in the world of dots, I have developed this unique vision of discovering other dots too.
That’s when it dawned on me. There is a fever more serious than dengue and potter mania in this country (my country universe for 5days a week 14 hrs is my office !!) Serious, that the health minister is looking into it ( He has a profile in there too !!). I call it the orkutting fever. Just like there is eating, sleeping , anthropologists have discovered orkutting as the next stage in the evolution of man.
I have been in touch with the guy whom I slapped when I was two and the other day I met this girl whom I had kissed when we were 5. Of Course the girl cried and my first love was the start of many disasters to come. When you write a message to some one it is called scrapping. A scrap is so called because you can even write crap and get away in public. So, there is your profile sitting pretty with an introduction and list of friends.
Then there are the communities that may range from I hate Himesh to I love Tulsi to North Pole to no pole.
Orkut is a world in itself. Every person on my floor has a profile which he keeps checking every hour. I seriously believe that after the discovery of telephones, there is no better way to network than orkut. You may find a person’s phone switched off but still can reach him through Orkut.
Then comes the ethical question, should I access orkut at the cost of productivity? Productivity that is defined today as sitting in front of my laptop like a drone for hours and aeons at a stretch. Or do I explain to my manager the value of this asset to network and at times not work?
As companies ban orkut for information security reasons and block it for people like me, I procrastinate on this crossroad and I decide to use the myriad proxy sites available on the net. I think the IT security guys in offices need to start working harder or probably they want to ‘network’ themselves!! I see my manager glide away to torture another soul. I procrastinate further and the window is restored it’s due respect and size again.
"The Internet: where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents."

change in guard

I was this normal guy focussed on studies, off booze and fags until I went to do my journalism in Delhi. I have an ear ring today, live on rock and roll and ya pubs at times. People say Sai u've changed. I wonder a lot of times, I have changed but for the good or bad? I have come to a simple conclusion that even I am in the circle of time and looking at various facets of myself. I still enjoy carnatic vocal and love floyd, I still love my sambhar andvada pav tho the occasional run to Mcdonalds is fun. I still love being the simple guy next door, but there is a thrill in those 'brands'. I ain't no Dr Jekyl & Hyde, but am living many lives in this short span. I am in love and I love this feeling.

For all those who feel they have changed, I would say u may have changed but there is no change in guard at the top.

Sai