Since I have been on Orkut it has almost been an addiction- checking the account 10 times a day, leaving scraps, reading scraps, counting fans, reading testimonials, posting pictures, watching pictures and what not. For those who don’t know what orkut is- it is a networking community owned by Google. Orkutting is very popular amongst many Indians and Brazilians..and some other parts of the world.

I really had a good time, meeting lost friends, making new friends who were either my sister's friends or my mom's students. But I really hated the type of people who wrote " I want your friendship" type messages. I generally ignore such messages and move on.
But what I dont like are potential sex offenders. Like a message I got in my inbox this morning where a man explicitly asked me if I wanted to have the three lettered word and that I should not feel shy about it... I mean what the Hell!!! Dont I have a better thing to do in life than read such emails? And dont people have better things to do than write such emails. I decided to delete my beloved Orkut account. Just to put an end to such emails. This man was someone who lived in my hometown.. Probably he could be someone who knows my family..he could be someone who is keeping watch or probably just a desparate sick person.. How do I know? I don’t want to create problems for myself..but at the same time I cannot live without giving voice to my opinion.

If I had a chance I would decide to sue the person.. But in India, where Priyadarshini Matoo had to wait more than 7 years after her death for justice...this is not even worth any justice.. Also this may not be just that one guy. There are many despos out there who write such offensive emails.. and do what not...

I dont know anyone in Orkut and I did not find any "contact us" page on google. So I am making this appeal here in hope that one day my voice will be heard. I know many communities on Orkut have offensive communities..(which definitely are not offensive to someone) Orkut should at least make it a point to create rules and regulations on what should go in as a community and what should not. Like a moderator or something. I know it will not be possible for someone to moderate this every day. But probably once a year they could run a search and put an end to such communities.

I know we cannot do anything about offensive enails or scraps that people send around. But there is something called report as spam on orkut. I am not sure if it works. But Orkut should take this seriously and look at all the profiles and reasons on why the profile should be determined as spam. Or Orkut should run a check on people before letting people use their networking site. I am not sure if these recommendations make sense or not.

All I finally want in life is peace of mind and not misunderstandings due to negative emails.