5 things erstwhile Orkut users will identify with.

An obit to our first step into the wilderness called Social Networking. Paying respects to Orkut

So, you remember the times you fought with the sister over the number of scraps you had? Or the days you spent convincing your friends, "I will write you a testimonial if you write me one?" And the times you would strive to up your coolness quotient to a 3 star? Well gone are the days… ummm… if they weren’t gone already. Because, Google has finally decided to take suo moto cognizance of Orkut’s irrelevance in the regular netizen’s life and decided to put it to sleep. September 30 is the last you can access your account and you have till then top recover all your data (and thus relive the gone-by era). What was that song again? Wake me up, when September ends…. Was it? Ah well…

5 things now embarrassed Orkut users will identify with:

1. That story doing the rounds that Orkut was created by this old dude who had lost contact with his lady love and built this social networking site only to launch a search for her

2. The fact that you had to bug your more-technologically-advanced friend (duh!) to send you an invite before you could join Orkut.

3. Disguise was super cool. Using the picture of your fave hero as the profile picture? Naming your Orkut avatar RaatJaagaTara or BatmanNoShit? That was the norm. You see, it was our first venture out into the unknown (read: social networking) and security was a concern!

4. When a friend left Orkut (of course only to return three days later), the mourning of the lost scraps and the heart-attack that accompanied the falling behind on the number-of-scraps competition.

5. You don’t remember your Orkut password anymore. In fact, you don’t even remember whether your account is still active or you decided to put it to sleep once your FB account had more than 100 friends. And the your first reaction to the news of Orkut shutting down was, “What will happen to my pictures!”