Adieu my Friend .....

This is my story , story of a 10 year old who rose the ladders of fame bringing about a revolution in connecting people… I was named after my Turkish Dad creator, who was so loyal to his company Google , that he gave me up to them to be brought up and they lovingly called me Orkut ..

Like any child , I started on my knees, crawling, trying to find my way and I kinda found it quite fast. I was termed a child prodigy then.. My website was a novel idea basically to revive friendships, bring people closer, connect people and allow them to freely interact and express….. I was witness to so many outbursts of joy and happiness when people found their childhood friends on my platform, when classmates had a great time scrapping messages for all to read, when lovers found a way to express their self privately… Scraps, testimonials, videos and photos… it was a lovely world of glitter for everyone to see….People across the globe loved me…

But just like every coin has 2 sides, some people misused me …they created fake profiles, chatted with many at the same time under different names, made groups on me that insulted the public sentiments of certain groups . Photos and pics were misused and subjected to vulgarity. Users were dragged to several groups even without their knowledge or mine…

USA, India and Brazil loved me , while Iran, UAE , Saudi & Bahrain hated me and banned my presence in the names of national security , ethical issues about dating and matchmaking etc.

I was just a silent spectator to all this abuse. I let myself be carried away in the glory of my fame. Nobody was there to guide me and put me back on track.

During the same time, I noticed a severe competition budding up… new kids on the block were Facebook, Twitter, My Space etc .. And Facebook was the strongest competitor. I should admit, the kid had great looks. He learnt from my mistakes and people love him for the same. He was charming yet private, he was friendly but cautious, he had groups, but had moderators, he had pictures / videos but they were protected. The kid started pumping blood ( hard cash) into the website… marketing campaigns, like groups , internet marketing etc etc.  In 2011, he became a hero by surpassing me ….

My own Dad started praising Facebook, I even hear from private sources that he invested in him. And in 2011 , my Dad himself paved way for my fast death today…he brought in my younger brother Google +. Instead of trying to revive me , bring me back from my rehabilitation , he disowned me ….maybe he was ashamed or maybe he wanted a better son ; a son who would put him back on the charts with his peers.

Today my rehabilitation centre too, has given up on me. I used to get a few loyal visitors every now and then , now they have been strictly prohibited as well. I am confined to this room as in quarantine. In fact the rare visitors and my old friends have been told to take back any of their memories or remnants they have mistakenly left behind with me.

Today I’m just like a brain dead vegetable, people have taken out all the removable parts from my body – my life, my heart, my lungs, my brain and I have been left to die… a silent death… the D Day has been fixed , September 30th is when I shall breathe my last, will the hangman come with his noose or will I be beheaded… don’t know…all that I know is that I have been left to die, unwanted , uncared for …Couldn’t they have been a little more kinder to me than leave me suffering till the D-Day ? Will someone come and release me from this pangs of waiting for death?

With these thoughts, I bid Adieu to you today….

Lovingly ,

Yours Orkut ….

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda