Letter From the EDITOR

I know what you are doing right now, right here. Not only me, but millions of people the world over know it. That at the moment, you are reading this column. Or, pulling your pet cat's whiskers. Or whatever. Welcome to the world of open secrets - where everything is known to everyone, everywhere. Yeah, it's twitter.com - the latest fix on the internet that has the gated community of netizens drooling over. Gated community, did I say? Sorry, there are no gates here, though there is a certain gent by that name. If you are still all atwitter, here's what you can do: Tell the whole world that right now, right here, you are all atwitter. And hear what the rest of the gang on the planet are doing.

Sharing utterly meaningless dope about what you are doing at the moment with the whole world, is fast proving to be an idea whose time has come. Why it is so, no one knows. But it is the hottest thing on the Internet right now. Perhaps it's the Power of Now. Simple, but too complicated to understand. Example: Right now, my wife is changing her lil' brat's nappy. The world is interested in it! Millions of people stop by to listen to this drivel, and then they tell HER what THEY are doing! Apparently, stuff like THIS is what makes the world go round nowadays.

Where did it all begin anyway? Probably, when Post Cards neared their end, with the birth of email. And threw open the floodgates. YouTube, MySpace, and now twitter.com, have changed the way we interface with the world. Life, and everything surrounding it has gone digital.

Ideas, are increasingly getting disruptive and challenging the status quo. The Internet showed the way to have all kinds of things at our fingertips. First, it was information. Then films, music, and entertainment followed rapidly, leading on to a whole new life on the Net. You could make friends, chat, and virtually do all things that you do in real life. When You Tube, a video sharing website, happened, it made great sense. You could now upload your own profile, and let the whole world see it. You could now blow your own trumpet before the whole world. You could be what you wanted, a composer, musician, artist, writer, or why not, even killer. Like, --, the madcap who killed - students who posted his own testimony on the Net for everyone to see. You could now literally be one in a billion. Some people got lucky - they made their pot of gold, parading themselves before the publics. All this is fine, but why are people working themselves into a lather about a "twitter", you wonder. Try as you might, you just can't figure. Sample this grab for example:

What are you doing NOW?

•Sassy: I am stifling a yawn and trying not to doze off. I have exams!

•Puff Man: Am trying to make up with my wife who thinks I am not sincere (true).

•Dolly: Am taking my doggie for a walk.

•Superman: Dreaming of impossible dreams that are best left to themselves!

Not exactly earth-shattering stuff. But on present evidence, it rocks. It could be even better - if twitter.com had like-minded interest groups talking to each other rather than a free for all. For instance, actors cooing sweet nothings to each other, one politician relating to another of how he made fools of his voters, doctors sharing their dinky thoughts with one another, and so on and so forth. If you aren't doing anything right now, why don't you pop in this idea at twitter.com?

(Response to ksmurli1960@gmail.com)