2004 Kolkata Book Fair. Our gang of college friends were roaming around the ground browsing books. Debarati picked up a copy of The Simoqin Prophecies. "See this?," she exclaimed. "The author Samit Basu is my friend on Orkut!"
Those were the days of Orkut. Cell phones were still primarily used for making calls and the occasional text and for us most of the communication happened through missed calls. Laptops were available only to the high-flying corporate types. There was no mobility in our access to the Internet - it was either through desktops at home and college computer labs or more commonly at the cyber cafes.
Orkut was our first exposure to the wonderful world of social networking. At that time, it didn't even occur to us that it was a social network. That word just didn't exist in our lexicon. Yahoo Messenger was the rage and therefore it was quite surprising for us to find an alternate platform where we could stumble upon long lost friends or check out the photos of the cute girl from Sociology department.
No wonder we, in no time, became addicted to this new fad. It became possible to carry on the conversation, you were having with your friend at college, through scraps.
Privacy? That was an alien setting. We didn't actually bother much that those scraps could be seen by anyone. But we did have a little trick or two. If we were discussing something that we wouldn't want someone to stumble upon, it was a common strategy to post multiple scraps so that the scraps we wanted to hide got buried deep down.
Orkut also exposed us to uploading personal photos to share with the world, with the super ability to tag friends in them. Once a friend tagged an image of a goat as another friend. No wonder, he got blocked.
The best part of Orkut was its communities. There was probably a community for almost everything. I met several of my college seniors through the Orkut community dedicated to our department at the college and a brilliant camaraderie followed. From discussing professors to excursion memories, everything was allowed. Most popular discussions were on the innovative cheating anecdotes and suggestions before crucial tests. During and after college elections, the communities of the rival unions were most active, exchanging allegations and counter allegations. Surprisingly, such Orkut tiffs also created long-lasting offline friendships.
Testimonials were called 'testi,' and many failed to notice the humour in this. The 'testis' were also a place to show off one's creative side, and I am sure if you revisit your Orkut profile, you'll find a few unusually written testimonials on yours too.
But fake profiles, were even greater fun than the 'testis'.
Not only politicians or celebrities, even many mere mortals had few fake profiles. I am also guilty of creating a fake profile (an act, that can today get me behind bars). It was a professor I faked on Orkut and began adding other students as friends, who not expecting a teacher to be on Orkut were in for a shock. Being the spoilsport that I am, I finally let out the truth, much to their relief.
Now that Google has declared September 30 the day our once-beloved Orkut will shut down, many like me will experience a bout of nostalgia and log in for that one last time.
To me, it is like hearing about the upcoming marriage of an ex-girlfriend. You are not interested in her any more. But still you know, something will be lost forever that day.
Goodbye Orkut. You made us drain our pocket money in dingy cyber cafes but the experience was worth cherishing for a lifetime.
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