Monday, November 15, 2010

Magic of Cyberspace

I was over at Ryan's place yesterday for a group study. It was the two of us with a couple of other friends of mine. We had collected over at Ryan's place because all of his family was away so there would be no disturbances and interruptions. I made sure that some girls were coming before heading over myself. If it's just boys, absolutely no studying gets accomplished and the entire time goes by with us fooling around. Girls have this magical ability to keep the guys in line.

After everyone left, Ryan invited me to his room. He wanted to show me something. He switched on the monitor screen, "Did you stumble on some new type of porn?", I asked. Sometime ago Ryan shared a clip with me of some white dude screwing a pig. It wasn't porn, just a video shot with a cheap video camera. For some ridiculous reason, Ryan found it incredibly funny. I found it plain senseless. Was that guy so frigg'in desperate?, I wondered.

"You have got to check these guys out!", Ryan told me excitedly. He opened a gay networking site and logged into his account.

"You know I hate these places, right?", I asked Ryan as I saw what he was upto.

"Whatever! You still gotta see these dudes! I can't believe Pakistan how so many good looking guys!", Ryan said without taking his eyes off the screen. "And here, I thought I was the only adonis to grace our wattan ki mitti! (Translation; Nation's soil!)"


I laughed at his arrogance and wit, only Ryan can meld the two. I have to admit some of those guys were extremely good looking, even though alot of them had not sported on their face pics on their profiles. But with a bod like that, he could be a 'Brown Bag Special' for all I care.

"Why the sudden interest? As far as I know, you have had your account for quite some time. You must have already hooked up with several of them!" I told him.

"Okay, I'm hurt now!" he objected. "I do not hook up as much as you expect me to. Also you are extremely judgmental about hooking up, so for just a small time I want you to open up that little noggin of yours!"

As he scrolled through the various profiles, I realized that not all of the guys present were sex-starved beasts. Some of them actually seemed decent. There were even a few looking for relationship or friends. I haven't really gone to these sites before because of my firm opinion that these places are the collecting point for everything that I find unappealing about gays. "So what is it that you wanted to show me?", I asked impatiently.

"A few days back I was scrolling through Facebook and I came across your profile." he told me.

"So what? You do know I have a profile and I used to be on your list!" I told him back.

"I mean your other profile!", he told again laying emphasis on the word 'other'. I realized what he meant by that. "Why? Why create another one?" he asked me. "Why do you keep on creating gay profiles on these social networking sites?"

I didn't know how to respond to that. "To interact with other gay guys obviously!", I told him blankly.

"Then why not do it where it's actually meant to be done?", he asked me. "These are gay social networking sites!", he told me. "These are meant for gay guys to interact, whether they want to hook-up or make friends or even get involved!"

I was still silent. I did not know how to respond to his statement. He wasn't wrong after all.

"I'm not telling you to shut down your Facebook profile. But whatever you do their, you can do that here and have a greater shot at getting something in return!", Ryan explained.

"I don't expect anything in return!"


"I know you are looking for friends. So why not make friends that you can actually meet up with?", he asked. "I understand you have all these great friends from India, UK, Australia and where not! But won't it be better to actually have friends you could go out with and sit down with!", he explained.

"I have!", I told him. "I have you! You're gay! You're my friend!" I joked.

"Did you just flirt with me?", he asked.

"If the shoe fits!"

"You did!" Ryan laughed. "Still it doesn't change the fact that you are doing it all wrong! Also I'm bi-sexual"

Ignoring the last face, I asked him"If I'm doing it all wrong, how come I haven't messed up yet?"

"Look! There is a way one should do thing and you are doing it wrong. I can't tell you what to do and what not to do. You're 22. You can do that yourself now!"

"You are sounding alot like my mom now, you know?", I told him. "It's so unappealing!" I joked.

"Whatever!" Ryan replied. "You have no idea what you're missing!". He shut off the monitor once again and we talked abit about random stuff. I left a little while later, had to reach home before dark. Later that night when I was doing my late night e-mail checking ritual, I visited the same night. I wondered if it would be worth it making an account there. I'm not looking for a relationship. I want friends. Facebook and Orkut have been very good at doing that job uptill now. I'm content with what I have.

Quoting the words of a recent extremely bright 17 year old I started communicating with recently, I can't help but agree.

But we are free to bare our souls here...as people who shall most probably never meet...it is ironic how you may not get to see another face to face all their life but still get to know them well...this is the magic of cyberspace!

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