Pen Friends

To put it in twitter lingo, 'Pen friends #youremember?' Most of the current generation may not know the concept of pen friends. But I grew up in a home where everybody duly read their weekly AndhraBhoomi magazine. And showed the kids' sections like cartoons, pen friends to me and my brother.

I hardly had any 'friends' in my school till my 6th class. There were very few kids from my village in the school and I hardly interacted with most of them. Only after 6th class when more girls joined in my school, I had some friends.

So when my uncle explained the concept of pen friends to me, I was quite fascinated with the idea of befriending someone with similar interests. And started the journey. My uncle would help me look at the profiles and pick the ones who sound similar to me, I'd write her a small note on a postcard introducing myself and why I want to be her friend, and lo! a new friend was made. However, this didn't continue for long as I grew up, found new friends later, got busy with studies etc.

And then came internet. Chat. Social networking. I am a social person, but not the kind who initiates conversations and makes friends. I take time to get pally with someone, trust them and call them friends. So when I had friends talking about getting into chat rooms and having 'chat friends', I couldn't relate to it. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of talking to a total stranger about myself and befriend him/her.

But when my brother introduced me to orkut and told me how he has made some good friends there, reconnected with old friends and generally had lot of fun discussing things with like-minded people, the idea seemed interesting. And the journey started again.

I logged in, but didn't know what to do initially. I observed, said silly things, added wrong people as friends.. but I learnt. And then made some wonderful friends. One of my closest confidants is a person I became friends with through silly 'Community' banter on Orkut. He supported me through thick and thin, lent me an ear whenever I needed to pour out about something - all virtually!

Now, it's the turn of Twitter. As I said, I'm more comfortable with interacting with people and getting to know them slowly before I call them 'friends'. That's why Twitter works for me. I've made some wonderful friends through regular interactions over common interests - books, movies, music, Hyderabad and a lot more. Call me sexist, chauvinist, whatever you may please, but I've made girl-friends more easily on Twitter than in my real life. It's easy to spot the right minds by looking at what a person is tweeting, and you can choose who to become friends with. It's not so easy to make friends as you grow older. But when I do manage to make some, I choose not to lose them. And then, friendship extends beyond the virtual world. Is it forever? May not be all, but certainly some. Cheers to the modern 'pen friendship'!