The Fraaandship Days – An Ode to Orkut

Once upon a time, there existed a planet in the galaxy of social networking – the planet Orkut. This was a planet whose inhabitants were ‘fraaandship’ addict. In those days, there were very few medium to socialize. Unlike today, when you can easily get a hard on on click of a mouse, finding a mate was much harder. To lure the opposite sex, people used to decorate their profile with stylish fonts, added subtitles to their display names which conveyed subtle messages, flaunted their fraaandly persona in the about me box. There were various designs in the profile created using only text to welcome the visitor.

Those were the days when the number of scraps was considered as popularity meter, the days when your mood determined the theme of your profile. A person’s individuality was largely respected on the planet. It gave you the freedom to be anyone you want without the fear of being judged by a colleague, family or a friend. On, Orkut everyone was equally crazy. People were free to express themselves in whichever way they like. There is a faint memory of a place called testimonials where we sometimes visited.

For amusement, there were communities and forums on planet Orkut. Orkut was everything rolled into one. It existed not for any other reason but for the mutual love of ours for networking. People didn’t use to like or share a bond with each other for generating business. The love on the planet was truly unconditional. People used to put their trust on each other though they did not use to have their mobile number. Though there were some thugs too, and every civilization has had them, but it made the living much more interesting.

The internet had not penetrated the length and breadth back then so we used to ride in the ship of the cyber cafe to land on our paradise. There were no instant buzz or notification so writing a scrap and waiting for hours, days and months for a reply used to be the ritual. Today’s fast moving generation will never be able to feel the magic when you are waiting in love.

But as nothing lasts forever, there came a trouble for this planet’s existence. There is a law in nature that if you are able to adapt yourself according to the events occurring around you, you will survive else you will be called outdated. Orkut failed to do so. It failed to evolve and hence was lost in an abyss. The days of fraaandship were gone. The bond between people was broken and so did their hearts. Some of the inhabitants moved to a budding planet called Facebook. It is imperative of human nature. They keep looking for something new as they get bored of repeatability. But little did they know that king of the planet Facebook was much shrewd and cunning. Initially, it promised to provide better connectivity. People were elated and joyous. But soon, the happiness bubble busted as the king became money minded. With the passage of time emotions lost their value on this planet. It was all business now. People were connected but the bond was missing.

The changes took place so gradually that people didn’t even realize what they have lost. Today, as the generational shift has taken place, most of the people have forgotten what the old days offered. How slavery of peers was injected into our veins? How everything we did became influential? No one remembers anything. Except for a few Orkutiyans,  who still search meaningful scraps in between the crap that is posted on the internet these days.

I know it is tough to go back to rejected things and people. But if they change a bit then we can give them a chance. Someday I shall go back to that planet and do more of fraaandship and blabber about it. To me, Orkut has been like a school going kid who is bright and exciting where Facebook is akin to an employee who is quite professional and formal. Needless to say, I love the child more.