Today is International Friendship Day. A day to remember
friends and commemorate friendships. Friendship is not be mistaken for "Frandship”,
a word that took birth when Totally Random Indian Guys on Orkut copulated virtually
with Every Random Girl on Orkut. The Totally
Random Indian Guys on Orkut (TRIGO) is a large conglomerate of desperate guys
who spent approximately 99% of their lives searching for female profiles and
sending them 'frandsdhip’ requests. This made Every Random Girl on Orkut (ERGO)
to either block the requester or tell him to eff off. TRIGO led to the birth of
privacy tools and later to another conglomerate called, ‘Facebook’.
“Frandship’ has redefined friendship. Today you can block
your friends on Facebook from viewing your timeline, friends list, photos and
much more. You can even delete their
comments or block access to your account while the person remains in your friend’s
list.
But how many of us acknowledge the TRIGO brotherhood and
their contribution on heightened online privacy and better social networking
experiences! No one.
And this raises the question. Where is TRIGO? Did they die a
natural death or are they somewhere around working ways to get their frandship
request across impenetrable firewalls!
A little bit of digging gave a few answers… and raised a few questions.
The TRIGO is alive and kicking folks… on Orkut. One TRIGO member
told me that the ERGO are much more chilled out these days and accept their 'frandship' requests. But they are shy. They do not reveal their photos and the TRIGO’s
are fine with that. After all they are girls right? They need to keep their
photos from being downloaded by creeps right?
The girls do not mind sharing their mobile numbers too. This
has led to steamy conversations and late night clogging of the 2G spectrum. It
is happiness all around. But there is a grouse. As one TRIGO told me, girls do
not sound like girls these days. I was intrigued. Were they bold. Did they talk
ungirly things like ‘you know what’. It was nothing of that sort said the TRIGO.
It was just that… their voices are so masculine.
Erm…
So why did I write this post when today is International Friendship
Day which is just the opposite of International Frandship Day! Because I want 'Frandship’
to be included in the Oxford Dictionary. It deserves it don’t you think! It qualifies
on many levels too, like its extensive abuse err... use, it is used online and
well as in print and it has been around since the beginning of time err... I
mean since the beginning of Orkut.
However I will dwell on only one which will drive my point
across rather nicely to the Oxford Committee members and that is:
Several female members of the Oxford Dictionary Committee were
Orkut users and will not forget the harrowing 'frandship' and 'loveship' days.
Nice!
