The Daily Chime

My college, for some reason, calls monthly tests as 'quiz'. In our even semester, quizzes usually happen in second and third week of February around the time of St. Valentines Day, much to the disappointment of some students if i may add. My status on yahoo messenger (ym!) and Google talk was “Quiz is my valentine, ever heard of sleeping with the enemy?” As I had expected, it received much attention. Couple of my friends asked me a while later about my valentine, I had no hesitation in replying, “It didn't show me any love, but it did screw me.”

Of all the things a messenger client offers, the best one is the advent of status messages. I can arguably (and proudly) claim that I was the first in my college to start the culture of status massages. What started off as a true status like 'off to mess', 'off to classes', 'mugging' etc. transformed into an obsession. I have been constantly changing my status messages for over a a year now at least twice a week. And it has always reflected my state of mind. It's as much fun as blogging. I am a trend setter :D

For me, it all started with U2 (my fav. Band) being nominated for 3 Grammies for one song, Atomic Bomb's 'Vertigo'. My status message changed everyday. From 'U2 has an edge' (the guitarist is called 'Edge') to 'U2 are god, it is not hype, it was the feedback' (Their earlier names were 'hype' and 'feedback') to many others. And these 'efforts' did pay off, U2 won all the three Grammies it was nominated for.

What I love about status messages is that they make a good conversation initiators. There have been several occasion when I have commented on my friends status messages and they on mine, and conversation had moved on to something more mundane like bomb blasts and terrorism. Many of the status messages I see are good attempt at light humour, like, for a TV starved hostel student, 'home is where the television is' by Maro. There are others which mostly are like thought-for-the-day status messages or quotable quotes.

Touched by Descartes' “I think, therefore I am”, Venkat scribbled the same on his gtalk. Following which I changed my status to “You are not thinking, therefore i am.” Answering to Maro's 'yay weekend' on a rather eventless Friday evening, Mahesh announced 'won't last, the weekend'. During a Quiz week, the altruistic me presented 'All the best' as my status. But all my friends conveniently forgot to wish me back. Only when it was changed to 'All the best, i expect you guys top wish me back you know', I got some response. :x

Many status have a deep rooted funda. Like Venkat's 'gotta go see about a girl', from acclaimed movie good will hunting. What prompted to him to that seemingly unimportant line from movies is that Matt Damon refers to his girl friend in Stanford when the line was uttered. And he was moving off to Stanford this summer for his internship. Just days before end semester examination, Maro's 'no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun' (Pink Floyd, Time) brought out our real status on the exams' preparation. Timely status like 'its a beautiful day, don't let it get away' (U2) on a nice Saturday morning or 'Sunday, bloody Sunday'(U2 again) on a blistering Sunday in Chennai also reflects our jubilations and dejections. Reeling under the heat of Chennai, inspired by my favorite poem, the highwayman, my status was

Day is a torrent of inferno among the gusty trees

Sun is a treacherous galleon lurking in the hot summer breeze

I hope the ac man comes knocking, knocking, knocking...

There have also been those which talk about status themselves like, 'this is my status message', 'why should i put one', 'status quo' etc. Its not that we are oblivious to current affairs or gossip. During the pinnacle of reservation protests, me and babba howled

we don't need no reservation

we don't need no caste control

all in all Arjun Singh is just another prik in the wall

The day paparazzi announced the engagement of Nicole Kidman to Keith Urban, the heart broken me confessed, 'Nicole Kidman's engaged...no regrets, i can do better.' (should thank Baaju for cheering me up :P)

Lastly, I feel it would be great if this culture spread across the geeky world. That was make us a lot more cooler, don't you think? Also, thanks to the slogan generator i had this rather cool status, “Lipsmackin' Thirstquenchin' Acetastin' Motivatin' Goodbuzzin' Cooltalkin' Highwalkin' Fastlivin' Evergivin' Coolfizzin' Coolshankin”

# posted by Shankar : 7:39 AM