'Coolguy_09 has added you as a friend. Accept or Ignore?'.....sounds familiar? ofcourse it does for those among us who have been/are a part of atleast one social networking site(ok, so that makes it all of us then!)

Over the past few years, an incredible number of social networking sites have sprung up and attracted people to them as successfully as bees to a flower. I doubt you'd find anyone who hasnt heard of Facebook,Myspace,Twitter,Orkut,Xanga,Hi5,Tagged,LinkedIn...u name it!(the list goes on..) I'm speaking from experience here...at one point of time, I had a profile on Orkut,Myspace,Facebook and Tagged(and a few others that I've lost track of)...and I used to think that online social networking was about the coolest thing invented since the internet! :P Sure, social networking has its advantages...u can make new connections,renew long-forgotten friendships,challenge your friends to a triva quiz even if they are on the other side of the planet! But its not all Sunshine and Roses...

One of the biggest drawbacks would be identity theft. If you dont divulge any information about yourself, your friends wont be able to find you..on the other hand, if you share TOO much, you might discover someone else masquerading under your identity with a fake profile. In 2006,there was a news report about a teenage girl who committed suicide because she was bullied by someone on MySpace(And the person bullying her turned out to be a fake profile.)


Although the example above is a bit extreme, there are realistic drawbacks as well.Social Networking can be overwhelming and addictive at the same time.The other day, I overheard two kids(who cant be older than 12)say "I'm NEVER going to talk to xyz friend of mine because he didnt accept my Facebook request!!" What happened to the good old fights between friends because your friend was "katti" with you...and the fight soon to be resolved only by a simple "Batti"? :D

Honestly, though you may have over 500 facebook friends but how many of those would you invite to your wedding? How many would you call in case of an emergency? That is when you would turn to your real friends and this just shows that nothing can replace the good old face-to-face contact.We are hiding behind the veil of online social networking because it is easier but are we crowding out our real emotional relationships with people in the process? Only Time will tell...
A Bientot mes amis!

First of all, sorry about the PJ title...not that I can help it! If you've been around me enough then you are probably used to PJs but I'll get to the point now :P

Well yesterday, I noticed that theres a balance of about $200 in my US student bank account! I had absolutely NO idea! Not that I'm complaining...finding out about money in your account is always nice but then it sucks that I didnt know about it! I mean I havent even accessed that account in over 6 months but thats not an excuse..I kinda deserved the lecture about "responsibility" from Mom and Dad :( Getting back to the topic...so I've been hunting for ATMs around town which will let me withdraw the money(apparently, not all ATMs will)..its a gruelling job. Today I finally found a machine that would and I asked the bank person to help me out and the moment I said "NRI account"..he jumped about 2 feet in the air and hurriedly put on his N95 mask!! Just an example of how scared people are!(That was my point really..sorry about the rant but I thought it was necessary! :P)

So then it took me about 5 minutes to convince him that I wasnt infected..I've been in Mumbai way before the pandemic started and he finally believed me. As for the money, I havent been able to withdraw it yet :( hopefully, I will be able to before my account closes(yeah, I authorized the bank to close my account at the end of August!and didnt even know I had any balance left in it....Genius, I know >_< )




As for the Flu, yes I understand that it is contagious and its serious but the mortality rate is only about 0.01%! Theres no reason to get insanely freaked out...Sure, you must take the necessary precautions but I guess if you've got a decent immune system, you should be fine. Remember the Avian flu and SARS viruses a while ago? Humans eventually developed immunity to them so I guess it'll happen again. We are quite a tenacious species as we've proved several times over. It'll all get better...always does! Take care people...and wear your masks! Adios for now!

'Text messaging or texting is a colloquial term referring to the exchange of brief written messages between mobile phones or celluar networks' as defined in a dictionary. Sure, its really convienient and more so due to the ingenious texting shortcuts that we've discovered over time.

But its a whole different story for the adults (who havent been a part of our so called "texting generation")....to figure out what their kids are saying. The most common misconception being that "LOL" stands for "lots of love"! This lady heard about one of her coworker's mom passing away and she sent her friend this very thoughtful text "I'm sorry to hear about your mother passing away. LOL! let me know if theres anything I can do"

As you can see, the consequences of misunderstanding the lingo can be disastrous. But thats just the start....ever heard of the "cell phone elbow?"

I came across this article today...the "cell-phone elbow" is a new ailment where numbness or pain is caused in the forearm by too much time spent yapping on ones phone! The solution? Dont talk/text on your phone as much! :P We've all been there,right?

Texting can be addictive...even I text a lot more than I talk on the phone! but I've known people who wouldn't notice that they are about to walk into a wall because they are literally glued to their phones all the time. Sad but true!

Relationship drama over IMs and text messages is like the new "in" thing now! Undoubtedly,the celebrities are the pioneers of this trend.......Britney Spears told K-Fed through a text message that she wanted a divorce....charming,isnt she? A British survey found out that one in seven people have been dumped over an IM or a text message!(just thought this was an interesting statistic so included it here :P)

Inspite of all that, possibly THE worst thing one could do would be texting while driving! The traffic light turns red and behold! suddenly half the drivers have their cellphones glued to their ears/in their hands texting! Good thing the talking while driving has been oulawed here...in a city like Mumbai its an absolutely necessary measure. "Driving while distracted" is can be a lot more dangerous than DUI sometimes. The picture above says it all!

I'll stop this post here before it turns into something like a ridiculously long boring lecture. I'll post again soon...hopefully! ttyl ppl! lol :P

"If I ever get a younger sibling, I'm going to throw him down the balcony of our 6th floor flat!!!" the 4-year old threatened her shocked parents because she was scared of anyone else stealing her spotlight....and of her parents not loving her as much anymore.

yes, you guessed it! That kid was me. I had heard somewhere that if you got a younger sibling he/she would take away all your toys and clothes and your parents would love him/her more!(very thoughtful,I know :P) and that was my very first experience of jealousy,as far as I remember.

I never really regretted being an only kid....I loved all the attention I got. Back then if you had asked me if I ever felt lonely, I would've denied it as vehemently as Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever happened! :P But sometimes, I wonder what it would've been like to have a brother....someone whom I could've talked to, someone who would understand me(ok,maybe not..he probably would've loved to annoy me), someone I could count on anytime and if I got really angry, someone I could've thrown down the balcony! lol

I dont know why I felt like this suddenly today...maybe because its Raksha Bandhan? possibly! All of us only kids have tried to fill out this gap in our lives through our friends but its not nearly the same. I tried it too...try to get a Rakhi on guy friend and watch him run away as if the stupid little Rakhi thread is a hangman's noose that he is going to be strangled to death with! Not that it bothers me, not anymore anyway. I understand it must be weird...so I stopped doing that a while back.

anyway, its not that I regret being alone but maybe things could've been diiferent. Maybe better,maybe worse? who knows...grass is always greeener on the other side, as they say. We'll never know!

oh well,I guess I'll end my rant here. And I'll try to be more consistent with my blog from now on....its been pretty dead so far! so until next time! Auf Weidersehen and Happy Raksha Bandhan everyone! :D