Orkut shows patriotism the net-savvy way

New Delhi, Aug 12: If you thought that all the social networking websites such as Orkut were for compulsive netsurfers and in news mostly for wrong reasons, the nation's 60th Independence Day may compel you to change your perception.

The ''Orkut generation'' has not only been indulging in leisure activies like sending scraps, pasting photographs and joining communities -- ranging from their local residential areas to the fan clubs of their favourite rock stars -- but an increasing number of them are engaged in more serious discourse, such as nation building and role of youth in it.

As India celebrates the 60th anniversary of independence, the Orkut site is painted in tricolour and users' profiles are deluged with messages like 'I love India' and 'Vande Mataram'.

There are more than 1000 communities appearing at a click of a mouse on the phrase ''love India''. With the maximum strength comprising 60,638 members of a community ''I love India'', and increasing as the day approaches, matters of national import ranging from religion, nationality, racism, corruption, population and reservation are being given serious attention. There are topics encouraging users to scribble one lakh posts about the country till Independence Day and urges them to work for the nation. Issues such as focus area of India during the next ten years, a permanent UN seat for the country, the UPA government being a success or a failure and former president A P J Abdul Kalam's performance during his term are being discussed.

''A lot of interesting forums and polls on subjects ranging from who should be the next Prime Minister to the recent Indo-US nuclear agreement is being discussed. Users are expressing their views on significant moments in India's past and the big milestones ahead.

They can cast their votes on questions about country's past and future and participate to discuss these questions,'' Shuchi Gupta, the moderator of one such community, said.

There are polls about 'favourite global Indian' with the choices ranging from Nobel laureate and renowned economist Amartya Sen, social activist Arundhati Roy, superstar Amitabh Bachchan, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, actor Aishwarya Roy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Orkut users themselves. Interestingly, 37 per cent votes, till last checked, were given to users themselves.

''Today's youth is celebrating its new found sense of national feeling in a cool way,'' said Amit Kumar, a call centre employee, who is a loyal and frequent 'Orkuteer'.

Not neglecting the neighbourhood and seeking to move away from established shibboleths, the 'India-Pakistan Friendship Club' community charges ''immoral politicians, generals and religious bigots'' with not having allowed both the nations to ''come out of their distressing past'' and calls for writing a new chapter in the history of relations between the two countries.

The community is dedicated to ''the tears shed silently on both sides of the border due to 55 years of hostility between the nations''. With the poll conducted for Indo-Pak love, 86 per cent of the votes claimed that people, both Indians and Pakistanis, loved both the nations alike.

UNI