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VOL. XXII NO. 6, July 1-15, 2012
a-Musing
By Ranjitha Ashok

The Stat(us)E of being

You open your email.

Let's see now....delete, delete, boorrring, delete immediately.

Your eyes stray to the left hand corner.

Wow – lots of green. You obviously know a whole bunch of cyber-space goof-off-ers.

Then you see it.

A 'status' message peeping out from under a name, stating: 'Stepping on eggshells of thin ice...'

Offered such delightful hokum, you abandon email for this far more promising avenue for imaginative speculation.

Status messages can be such fun – and intriguing.

Like the one that goes: 'I'm the lost cause I was warned about...'

A line like that offers some fascinating opportunities to re-think long held opinions, especially of people you think you know.

Another preaches: 'Reach for the moon, you may at least bag some stars'.

Hmm.... this has addicted-to-self-help-books all over it.

A martyred one sniffles: 'I'm going just so you'll miss me.'

Now that's just sad – silly sad, at that.

Status messages may have begun as a mere means of instant indicators, but they're turning into an art form.

Is it a little like peeping into someone's mind?

Or offering people deliberately tantalising glimpses of your life?

Perhaps.

But hey – it's a whole new world of 'speaking', 'seeing' and 'talking' these days....and 'reaching out to touch someone'.

As Biswajit, our cartoonist, is out of town, his cartoon does not appear this fortnight

 

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In this issue

Still no solutions to woes caused by parking
How do we curb cell-phone use on the roads?
It's fascinating to catch up with local history
Looking back
When Madras went on the AIR
Driving Down Memory Lane
The actor in the shadows
There's urgent need to list heritage in 800 towns

Our Regulars

Short 'N' Snappy
a-Musing
Our Readers Write
Quizzin' with Ram'nan
Dates for your Diary

Archives

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