I though I knew Sandeep Singh Kocchar. But he wasn’t 6’2, nor did he have blue eyes. Could someone who worshiped Daler Mehndi’s poster have abandoned him for Brian Adams. For someone whose knowledge of books did not extend beyond Chacha Chowdhry and Nagraj comics, could his favorite books be Shantaram and The Hungry Tide. At least that was what his profile said.
Sandy (that is the name of his new avatar!) was a typical Sardar, from a typical Pind near Saharanpur, who joined my school in 11th grade. Having studied in a boy’s school all his life, suffered from the mortal fear of talking to the opposite sex. He never learnt to speak Hindi fluently; even his broken English had a distinctly Punjabi accent. But despite his short stature and reticent nature, we came to be good friends. After school, he went on to join an engineering college in Chandigarh while I joined Architecture school. We lost contact, getting engrossed in our new lives. But that was until Orkut came along, and made this world a smaller place (too small for convenience, if you ask me!). Long lost friends and acquaintances best forgotten, came barging in with friend requests and scraps which had to be replied to.
But, everybody seemed more cool, more hip, ‘more embellished’ than what I had known them to be. They photographed better, listened to the right music, read the right authors, and pursued the right hobbies. Everybody I knew had gone for veritable makeovers while I found (still do!) myself to be the most boring creature on the web. While some of my sociable friends came on to net just as they were, the shy and introverted were giving a new dimension to their personalities and networking with people they would have hitherto avoided. With the advent of Orkut, Venustrophobics and some seriously vela people are now checking out the profiles and albums of girls they were too scared to talk too, sending them friend requests in the comfort of partial anonymity and pepped-up profiles.
I met Sandy last week at a high school reunion. He is the same Sandeep from school. He is more confident though, having found his first love in a Dimpy from Patiala on Orkut. I can only imagine, the surprise the poor girl is in for, when she meets him in real life. But I hope she likes him. He might not be the person, who he says he is, but behind the pretence and the false façade is a really nice guy who is in want of a friend...
Sandy (that is the name of his new avatar!) was a typical Sardar, from a typical Pind near Saharanpur, who joined my school in 11th grade. Having studied in a boy’s school all his life, suffered from the mortal fear of talking to the opposite sex. He never learnt to speak Hindi fluently; even his broken English had a distinctly Punjabi accent. But despite his short stature and reticent nature, we came to be good friends. After school, he went on to join an engineering college in Chandigarh while I joined Architecture school. We lost contact, getting engrossed in our new lives. But that was until Orkut came along, and made this world a smaller place (too small for convenience, if you ask me!). Long lost friends and acquaintances best forgotten, came barging in with friend requests and scraps which had to be replied to.
But, everybody seemed more cool, more hip, ‘more embellished’ than what I had known them to be. They photographed better, listened to the right music, read the right authors, and pursued the right hobbies. Everybody I knew had gone for veritable makeovers while I found (still do!) myself to be the most boring creature on the web. While some of my sociable friends came on to net just as they were, the shy and introverted were giving a new dimension to their personalities and networking with people they would have hitherto avoided. With the advent of Orkut, Venustrophobics and some seriously vela people are now checking out the profiles and albums of girls they were too scared to talk too, sending them friend requests in the comfort of partial anonymity and pepped-up profiles.
I met Sandy last week at a high school reunion. He is the same Sandeep from school. He is more confident though, having found his first love in a Dimpy from Patiala on Orkut. I can only imagine, the surprise the poor girl is in for, when she meets him in real life. But I hope she likes him. He might not be the person, who he says he is, but behind the pretence and the false façade is a really nice guy who is in want of a friend...
1 comment:
Hey, you actually named your friend here. Though I agree there are pretensions abound on such orkutting Web sites, there are actually real love stories budding online. In one such cases, the guy did spill all the beans before he met girl. They are happily married now.
Post a Comment