Excuse me, what time is your appointment?

Known to be a friendly person, I’ve been someone considered ‘popular’…or so I am told. I guess my 368 friends on Orkut are proof of my supposed popularity. But believe it or not, I know for a fact that I have a serious handicap when it comes to making ‘friends’… a problem which has simply gotten worse over the years!

In my younger days during my frequent trips to the orthodontist, I would sit bored in the waiting room, having read all about plaque and root canals from the ancient dental magazines. And in my endeavour to kill time, I would look to make new friends.

So, there I would be in this clammy waiting room sitting next to what could be a prospective ‘friend’, framing the correct opening line in my head. After mustering much courage and rehearsing my line a million times I would say "Excuse me, what time is your appointment?"

And bingo! If it was my lucky day, and the next person was as bored to death as me and that would be the start of a friendship. I would leave the dentists’ with my braces gleaming and a sense of achievement in my heart.

But somehow as I grew older, and my braces came off, I discovered the "what time is your appointment line" became redundant! Thankfully my best friends from kindergarten stuck to me and I never felt the need to make new ones until I left college.

It was only after I left the comfortable confines of my home and Mangalore, did I realize that my ‘friend making’ inabilities were of far greater proportions. Though I did manage to get by without seeming like a total loser, deep down I knew that none of my new friends would ever know me inside out? like my childhood friends. I missed the silly nonsense that my old friends were capable of, their open-hearted nature, their non-judgmental attitude and the fact that they knew my soul? bare of all pretences.

Just when I thought that all was over and I had no hope in hell, ORKUT was a God-send. I touched base with a zillion friends and I was back to feeling like my old popular self.

So now, making friends at the dentist’s clinic is pass? and ‘networking’ is the way to go!
 
And considering the roaring popularity of these sites, apparently, I’m not alone.   There seem to be many ‘friendless’ people out there who are just as handicapped as I am, if not worse!  While some like me are looking to get in touch with their long lost pals, others are simply shooting in the dark hoping to strike gold.  I mean, if not for the internet, there would be no hope at all for the "will u make friendship with me" varieties!
 
Though all is well in the networking world, if like the Gulf, India too gets anti-friendship and decides to shut down Orkut, I’m working on my backup plan… "Excuse me, how much did you pay for the potatoes?"… Sounds good?

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Author: Sheryl Tauro- Gurgaon