Online friends, or unseen or unmet friends…
It had been my old habit of talking to strangers. The world of internet had opened to me long back, a new way to make new friends. Being member of various tech forums( don ask why I joined them! ), I had so many acquaintances to whom I could chat online in yahoo/msn messengers. There was a peak time, which even persuaded me to enter the chat rooms and I was chatting in 3-4 windows simultaneously with strangers starting with the “asl”. I don’t remember the names now, but I do remember that I had talked to one person who claimed to be from Pakistan. And there was also another person who was so talkative and so impressive in his talk and humour style. Now, when I think back of those days, a smile or rather a sheepish grin originates around the corner of my lips.
Though I had been the regular member of Tech Arena and then the Tech Enclave, it all started with the Digit forums. There are some long lost members who know me (and vice versa) by just an online name and nothing more. But there were few who kept the relation going, and thankfully to them, it is still active, through some strange bond, and also with the help of the common link Chennai, blogging and of course the messenger! Over these years, I knew them only through the posts they make in some new tech forums, the yahoo chats we have, and the photos in orkut, the mobile smses, and very few have gone up to the stage of mobile calls (that too some calling almost daily or twice a week!). The chains were missing in between for a while, but I guess its the Time who linked the broken links of the chain to bring us more closer. These unknown but, friendly strangers, have grown close to play important roles in my life in the form of brothers, friends and some more than that.. It is indeed a strange experience, to discuss with a person, whom you never met, though you have either seen the face or heard the voice. And especially, when they grow up to become your closest friends in your life, just like one of the Top friends in Facebook. The relation may get worse or better after the meet, but I guess its always the same whenever you meet any of them for the first time. Though I agree and I should warn others to be careful while disclosing the details to your online friends.
The month of October has lots of memories related to me in the past two years. And I hope, this month it will turn out to be yet another memorable month. Before any such meeting with online friends, I always feel an excitement, creating a big hush of waves in my mind shore, of past storms, of the hidden consolation, or of unknown future.. Maybe I am again just into such an emotion, as usual…
Hmmmm……
My wishlist is extending without bounds. I am a total gadget freak, and wish to have that and this but i just drool and do nothing else. All keep saying I can do it, and can buy them n all, but I never ever could make decisions so fast. The very few goodies I have is the amd sempron pc, canon powershot a400 (posted in y!360), and my one year old mobile w810i. As time goes on, you get the upgraditis disease especially if you are part of any technology forums like this. I feel like doing the following as of now:
-Buying the following: A brand new laptop, An external hard drive or external casing for my 160 GB PATA or atleast a pen/thumb drive!, Upgrade my pc monitor from 15″ CRT to anything higher!!!, A noiseless keyboard, An SLR camera to boast and show off pictures, -Blogging and ranting about many things and install many plugins -Travel around world, -Study something, -Bunk office (oh yeah!) and see movies, -Spam in FE and TE -Modelling! (am i sure!! :O ) ok.. atleast a ramp walk… -Create a self portrait -Cuddle around with mom’s hugs, -Do house work with dad, -A long drive in my kinetic, -Meet so many friends, -And finally a deeep sleep with a peaceful mind!!! -And one more…hear and try out some english songs, -And..er..never mind..
Aaaah.. the list is endless… hmmm..
Bluediamond. I registered in the digit magazine’s community forum under this name. I don’t remember now, how i coined this name, myself and my cousin might have coined it together at that time. I registered there mainly to solve the comp queries as everyone do.
I got to know few ID’s, lots of links, softwares, tips, other forums, and also what people do online.Out of the few forums, there was Tech Arena, which was formed from Digit members long back… The community was new, members were few and also known virtual faces. I was like in a community school, with bunch of geeky heads, (of course boys!), and with pretty of information passed around. As always spam was there, new interesting threads were created, people added each other on messengers. The discussions on forums, continued in form of conferences over messengers. I became was frequent in this new forum, while I checked out on the old digit forums too. I got to know people like Andy, Pallab, Neha, Grudgy, Sreejith, Digen, Deep, it_waaznt_me and many more from digit..(It seems these people split from digit and formed Techspot.in)..and large list of people from TechArena including Deejay, QuickFire, Anshul, Masky, Switch, Renegade, Aces, Hooligan, Inzider, IceFusion, Medpal, Sunmysore, Venkat, Bosky, Bottle, Blade_Runner.. the list is huge!!! I was kinda getting addicted to the forums and online community, when another split happened and Techenclave was formed. But stil, the old friends were there, some new joined, some left the gang.
All this to just remind me of my old days. Now thinking of the past, I don’t even remember the forums I joined, I created, I spent time on, I read through, I registered… What am I doing? What were I doing online? It gave me lot new people, gave insights of many world, many views, and also the opportunity to meet different people! But then who am I in their minds? A respected member? A friend? A techie girl? Or a flirt? Or a girl whom you can chat with online for time pass? Some people have said, that these online friends are not at all trustful. They just are chatting with me friendly with the intentions of you-know-what.. Are they?
I went on to the online meets in Chennai, without any hesitation. And there, the “bluediamond” was a odd-girl out among the whole bunch of big guys..To be really frank, I am from a usual conservative family and like all families of young girls, they too were reluctant to my decisions initially. But I still moved on.. But these questions have always been lingering in my mind..Do the people whom I talk to, know who I am? Can they understand me? What do they think when talking with me? What am I to them? Do they also consider me as friend as I consider them?
Sometimes I feel like stopping everything and move out of this virtual world. But then what is good in this real world.. The forums, the sites, the internet as a whole, at times have boosted up my spirits, when I had really nothing to do at home. I had many other options, I may still have, but i don’t think the online life is so long. One day, it will really come to an end, and then “bluediamond” may not be alive.. Only me will be left. Who will be remembered then? Bluediamond or me? Or will I ever be remembered? Lots of people have already moved on. As time goes on, I really wonder, whether anyone would ever remember those (beautiful?) clippings of life where we all were together in the big world of virtual community….
