An open letter

Dear Ms. Rowling,
I hope this letter finds you in excellent health and peace of spirit and mind. This has been stashed away at one corner of my hard drive for weeks now, and its like being six again, writing to Santa, except that there is no speculation about your existence.
I have known Harry and his friends for nine years now, so you could say I practically grew up with him.It was such fun! My copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone, a Bloomsbury edition, made its way into my hands on my 10th birthday.It was around 2000 that you can say that “Potter Mania” hit me and my friends and we have been ardent fans ever since.I finished the four books in about 2 months, but had to wait for the fifth one since it was not out yet. Those were the days! We would scrounge the internet for possible teasers, rumors ,took book quizzes the results of which were proudly emailed off to friends, a sort of invitation to a challenge- “Who knows potter better”,which of course were eagerly taken up J.
It was around 2002 that the first movie released.Obviously, me and my friends had booked the tickets in advance and showed up an hour earlier,eagerly waiting for our favorite storybook character to come alive. That was a landmark day for us,you could say.Though we became instant Dan Fans, we remained loyal to the Harry between the pages too.At this point it may seem that we ate,drank,slept and talked Hogwarts, which is not entirely false,for we did.Time and again we had wished for a Lumos,Reparo(that one time when I broke my mom’s favourite china dinner plate), a pepper up potion(whenever we caught a deathly cold), a wingardium Leviosa or even an Avada Kedavra! Mars bars and Hershey’s no longer interested us, we ached to loot Honeydukes!!
When all those years we had to wait for the next book to come out, we used to hate it.We couldn’t wait to read more, see more and discuss more Harry. Now a year has passed since I read the last book and ironically, I crave for that wait which used to annoy me so much. It still hasn’t sunk in that there wouldn’t be any more new stuff to read about the Trio.New adventures of Harry and Voldemort now live in a few good fanfictions I found on the net. Now and again I come across a headline “Rowling says she would write for adults next” and “New adventures from Rowling to hit bookstores”…all of these have been nothing but disappointing and disheartening rumours.
I have grudgingly come to accept that there wouldn’t be no more about Harry.I guess I could live with that, but the moot point of this letter is that I,we,all of your fans around the world want more from you,even if it isn’t about Hogwarts. Create magic for us again!!
For more reasons than one,you are my hero!!!You are the best muggleborn sorceress ever!!
May our wands stay sharp!
With tons of hope in my heart,
Yours truly,
S

Social Networking:Aye or Nay

I have bee an honorary netizen for 5 years now,having spent much of my time at myspace,hi5,forums,Deviantart and a whole bunch of other whats-its-names,now tired but not retired and peacefully settled at Orkut.This association of mine with the world wide web has been looked at,dissected,commented on and criticsed from various angles ranging from "OH!your myspace page is SO HAWT!"(myfriends), "Do something constructive"(my dad),"If I open an account,will you email me daily?"(uh Mom,we live in the same house),"See if she doesn't get molested,I'll change my name"(once a year lulus-the kind whose interaction with you is limited to a phonecall on your birthday which goes something like this :

I-dunno-who:Hey happy birthday! Me:Thank you!!

-dunno-who:So whatcha doing today? Me:*rattles off stuff* ,I-dunno-who:K,gtg see you then. Me:k,take care. I-dunno-who:Oh btw,you did recognise me didn't you? ME:UHH..*UH-OH*!)

As I look back now and contrast between Then and now,I recognise a pattern.The *then* patternwas "Meet as many new people as possible,decorate your page with the glitziest icons,the sparkliest backgrounds,ape your new friends as much as possible to meet more newer and and more popular myspace/hi5 whores friends. And the now pattern is Throw decorating to the winds,connect with your friends,the kind you did or still do get to see on a more or less regular basis.Blogging,however,is a different issue.I have met such wonderful people,got to know their views on different things,get to laugh with them,wish to be a borrower of their pains whther I *meet* them or not.

Social networking can be a boon or a curse,depending on how you use it.I for one have never put personal information like contact numbers or my address online.You just don't do it.The networking sites are sitting up,and there are n number of options to lock your albums or lets you limit the amount of information you want to show to people who are not in your immediate cirle or *list*.I have been silly at times,let slip stuff and had sulked or frowned whenever anyone chided me for it.Major dumbo,I know.You can do a lot of silly things when you are 13,14,15 or even at 40.Reign it in,and you'll be ok!Some people pretend like they haven't learnt to look before they leap,and well,leap.It is for the worldy wise to make sure that they find a safe place to land.The *virtual* world can be a dangerous place.A world wide masquerade,if you so please.People can be whoever they want to be so its important to watch your step.If anybody sounds wonky,don't proceed just because you have a screen and a thousand miles separating you.A few days ago Myspace removed a few hundred sex offenders from their network.But it all depends on how you use it,such is technology.You can use it to feed or blow up a whole nation,similarly you can use it to close up the distance between your loved ones,make your life easier with e-payments,e-tickets et al or pave hell with your life.Some find it too complex a medium to stay in touch,but thats totally up to them.I'm pretty happy doing what I do over here.So,over loud protests(maybe not) Miss nobody squeaks,nope clears her throat, and firmly says,Aye.

P.s:I still haven't gotten over decorating my page lol,though glitters don't attract me anymore.

Disclaimer:This post is not intended to offend anybody,you may chose what you want ,its upto you.Or any of the mentioned social networking sites.These are just my views.And neither am I encouraging teenagers or young adults to hang on to the edge of their keyboards.This is the time you *build* yourselves,use it carefully.Treat it like a ticking time bomb. :D