Orkut

Dear Diary,

Orkut's a great service. A cousin of the likes of Friendster, it is a great way to keep in touch with old friends, make new friends, and when in the mood, to go into some controversial community and argue to your heart's content with people you neither know nor would ever lay eyes on. Sweet deal.

So it has now become something of my daily ritual to log at least once a day into Orkut. I sign in, scrap a few friends with the customary "How are you?" and "What's new?" They respond with the equally customary "I'm fine, what about you?" and "Nothing much, just work (or study)," and that's that. My contribution to online socializing. Done.

Then I take a quick peek into the communities I own and see if there haven't been any "Hey I earn $20,000 a week by working from home!Leave your jobs and families and join me!" kind of spam messages. If there have been, I promptly remove them. That's fun too, removing junk and then banning the culprit who posted it. Ahhhh, the thrill of power!

Then if I have some more time, I go into random communities to enjoy some discussions. Very interesting stuff sometimes. Rarely anything intellectal though. Pakistan Women's Issues has a variety of cat fights on all the time, ranging from mild clashes to downright bitching. Then there is Religion is a Personal Matter where a group of people are found passionately arguing how it's not. Issues of Men and Women is a boxing ring for all the feminists and male chauvinists around the world. And so on and so forth.

So just like everyday, I sign into Orkut today. I take a look at my homepage and see some new scraps. The "Recent Visitors" to my profile include "Faizan Laadla, dr virus, Dilbarjani, mAngAl pAndey, and ßLòÖÐ §Ü©KéR."

I am a magnet for losers.

Moving on.. I get done with the scrapping and the community maintenance. I then move on to surf some other communities. And I see a post titled "Soccer Match between Christian and Muslim Clergy" in the News Room community. It instantly captures my attention. The image of men in neckbands and beards chasing a ball flashes through my mind. And I end this post here, dear diary, to give this intriguing news item my full attention.