A Gang of Girls

“I swear to say the truth and nothing but the truth”. This is an oft heard dialogue in courtroom dramas of most Bollywood film’s. The reason for its reference here is because, what I intend to write in the next few lines is of utmost significance to me and I don’t want it to be coloured by my own biases. This is a brief account of a group of five girls in college. We may not have been the best of friends, yet some of my most memorable moments have been with them. Let me begin by describing each member of this gang, in the order of our first meeting.

Pallavi: She was the first one I met in college. We were together ever since the time we first met at Venkateshwara college, Delhi, appearing for our ECA trials in the debate category. Right from standing in long queue’s to paying the course fee at our college, to getting selected in the dramatics society of our college, we have been there, seen it and done it all. Pallo or Pals has been extremely popular in class for having the finest sense of humour that came naturally to her. In fact it was this humour that could help us be our normal selves when the two of us fought like cats and dogs. She would amuse me by saying things like “achha….ab mooh band karo varna makhhi andar chali jayegi” (Close your mouth or else a fly will get in.). She was an excellent orator, and even if she would be the least prepared during most of our presentations, she had the capability to defend anything and everything she said.

Preeti: My initial interactions with her were just restricted to the usual greetings of ‘Hi’ n ‘Bye’, but little had I realised then that she would later become the most bullied member of our gang. Her sympathy for rickshaw drivers made her the butt of our jokes. But must say this gal always put up a BRAVE front, as our pranks at times would go over the board. She would always keep her cool during some of the worst of our fights and try putting things in perspective.

Nalini: I have a faint memory of when and how exactly we initially met. Her impeccable sense of writing is her best professional asset. I would often run to her with my assignments and ask her to improvise on my language. Poise, serenity, simplicity are her other valuable traits. Her lunch box would be gone with the blink of an eye. We have feasted our hungry tummies on her Sambhar rice and other South Indian delicacies.

Rommani: The person I was closest to amongst all the other members. A bong to the core, very talkative. She has been a topper throughout in college. She was the one thread that bound the group together. Though the four of us were together for all class presentations, Roms joined a little late. But from then on, she has held us all together. No wonder, she was the most accommodative of the lot. All her personal qualities would reflect in my interactions with her. She was whom I would relate to the most in the group. From working closely in our presentations, to our film, to our radio program, I can sense that hard-work, sincerity and dedication come naturally to her. And that is precisely what I appreciate.

In spite of all these qualities, we somehow couldn’t sustain our friendship for long. The cracks had started appearing during the first year, when I and Rommani began grappling with the fact that other members were not putting in as much efforts during class presentations as the two of us. When we tried confronting the others with the same, the situation turned from bad to worse. So much so, that it was suffocating to stay and work together for our 'film'. I remember how much of a tough time we had during the shoot of the film. There were two camps in one group. One led by me and Rommani and the other led by Pals, Nalini and Preeti. We all hated each other and that made matters even worse. If one made a suggestion , the other camp discarded it, irrespective of the fact that the suggestion was good. This resulted in ego clashes over nothing! Yet, we have had our share of fun, be it sitting in the front stall of a theatre and watching a film or roaming around at Connaught Place and hunting for stuff worth 10-50 bucks! Those were indeed good timesJ All of us have parted ways today. I am only in touch with Rommani. The gang no longer remains, what remains of it is just memories…

Orkut-To Be or Not to Be???

Social networking sites have become so popular today that almost the whole world finds it convenient to make new friends with a click of a mouse! Not that I am against such sites, but I guess the initial hoopla surrounding one such site Orkut is slowly dying down. With communities like ‘I hate Pakistan’ and a few incidents of female photographs being morphed, more and more people have become skeptical of continuing their membership therein.

Being a student, I too received invites from friends to join Orkut. But I flatly refused. My friends would keep discussing their experience with all kinds of people-from the smartest intellectuals to the weirdest ones, from the road side romeos to the most handsome hunks. In short you did not have a life if you weren’t on orkut.! They would often remark “It’s a fantastic place to meet old friends”. One of them even admitted “I could get to know more about film festivals through a friend I made there.” While a few others were of the view “It organizes a lot of your database in a brilliant manner”.

I would be lying if I said I was never tempted enough to join Orkut after hearing their stories. I have even tried filling in my profile twice, but on both occasions, I backed out owing to the kind of personal information asked! Besides, when I learnt that anybody can read anyone’s messages (sorry scraps, as they are popularly called) I was determined to not have a membership with them.

It was on one such occasion when I happened to open my gmail account (which I strictly use for formal conversations), that I come across a school friend of mine called Rohan. He had ‘scrapped’ me saying “Hi, I am ur classmate from dks”. On first glance it seemed like junk mail to me. But later, I found the mail was sent to me via orkut. What made me worry even more was the fact that how could he possibly find me on orkut, when I did not have an account with them?. Nevertheless, I wrote back to Rohan saying “Hi good to hear from you after such a long time. I do remember you, but I am not on orkut. We can henceforth carry on our conversations via e-mail” , after which Rohan never responded :( Similarly, one of my younger cousins also scrapped me and I gave her more or less the same reply.

All this while I kept pondering on how could I possibly land up with a profile on orkut. A quick search with google’s search engine made me realize that I had checked on the clause of signing into ‘other google services’ when I created my gmail account!I felt like a fool for having told Rohan and many others the fact that “I AM NOT ON ORKUT”. Little doubt, he never wrote back.


A few days later, one of my school friends from Mumbai, Arya, ‘scrapped’ me and now we have regained contact after a very long time. After all this, I decided that merely criticizing the website, without actually visiting it once would not be fair. Hence, after much hesitation I logged onto orkut and lo…..my suspicions came true. God knows how many people had sneaked into my profile(which had nothing beyond my name and place of stay) and written scraps. One fellow writes “Hi…ur in delhi and ur Konkani?. I am also in delhi. Wot say shall we meet?”. Ya why not, after all I love being friends with all konkani’s in this world, especially through such social networking sites! sigh


“Look if you don’t want people to scrap you or read you messages, you can always ignore them. After a while no one shall bother you.” was one of the suggestions I got. If that’s the case then, what the heck is a social networking site for? Till yesterday these were the people who would laugh at me for not being a part of what was called ‘the most happening place of them all’. Today, some of them have withdrawn from it, as they consider it too time consuming and addictive. Like everything ‘Orkut’ing too has reached its saturation! Well at least for some.

My privacy is sacred to me even if I am discussing some stupid shahrukh khan film. Nevertheless, I am forced to question “Isn’t blogging also similar?” If one blogs regularly, most people can gauge the “inner you” thanks to your posts! There is no privacy if you decide to publicly display your profile, which is applicable in my case as I want to reach out to more and more people. So I am wondering if I am doing anything different. Any answers?.....

First Steps

Anybody who knows me well would be surprised enough to find me writing this blog. I too am. I am in the least expressive, and to come out with my own blog is like achieving a milestone. I’ve always been bothered about my writing skills. But my summer holidays changed all that. After days of getting bored by watching the television and doing unproductive things on the computer, I decided to do something worthwhile. That’s how this blog was born.

But hang on, please don’t jump to conclusions. If you are looking for intellectual discussions and thought provoking debates, this is not the place to be (Oh!.. I’ve already lost my readers!). Rather, I shall chronicle the most interesting experiences of my life from today (Hope that gets me enough readers!). For how long will I continue writing, what exactly will my focus be on, are questions I myself have no answers to. If nothing at least it will keep me occupied till the time I find myself a job!

So in case you just happened to bump into this blog, please…. please….do read it regularly. It will keep me motivated to continue writing!!!