Never Say Never

“Do you know XYZ is a member of Orkut?”
“Really? Do I care? But what is Orkut – Porkut in heaven’s name anyway?”
“It’s an online community where you go and make friends.”
“And?”
“And you join communities and can have discussions.”
“On what?”
“On anything under the sun.”
“Ok, just tell me one thing…at what point does this thing stop being shady? And at what point do you start making sense?”
“Why does this sound shady?”
“Online community? Making virtual friends? I mean, hello? Are you out of your mind?”
“Will you just give this a try? You will meet new interesting people, trust me.”
“Stop bullshitting me. Just because you are into strange, shady deals these days it doesn’t mean the rest of us will be convinced about it as well. I mean, I already have enough friends in real life to go looking for new ones in the virtual. How desperate will it look! Searching for friends! Real life friends are not getting the kind of time and attention they deserve, and virtual now? Puhlease!”
“I am sending you an invite. Just fill it in and give this a try.”
“Not promising anything. But send it anyway.”

****
“No, I decided against joining that thingy. There are way too many things you have to write about yourself. I mean “passions”, “from my previous relationships I have learnt”? What the hell?!”
“Whatever! Stop being a prude! Your choice.”

****
“Listen lady, I have sent you an invite to Orkut. You have to join it.”
“Oh no, not again.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I was sent this thing a while ago too by another friend, and I started going through the process and it’s long, boring and tedious.”
“But it’s fun.”
“Ok, give me one good reason why I should join this strange sounding thing.”
“Because it’s fun. Because you can leave scraps on people’s scrapbooks.”
“Why on earth would I want to do that? Leave scraps? What are scraps anyway?”
“Messages. And stop asking so many questions. Just join it ok?”

****
“Ok, I paid heed to what you said and joined Orkut.”
“After such a long time? I sent you that invite like a million years ago!”
“No, not your invite. I was sent another one yesterday.”
“And this time you joined? Chalo, that’s nice.”
“You have quite a few of these scrap things I saw.”
“You should actually see some people’s. Theirs run into thousands!”
“WHAT? Who are these vague people? Don’t they have any other work?”
“You know this can become addictive.”
“Well, certainly not for me. I am telling you now…am going to be very cautious about who all I become friends with, and scrapping or talking with strangers on the virtual world? Never!”

****
Last I checked, I had 78 friends and 5379 scraps.