Orkut farewell: Hyderabadis bidding adieu to the first social networking site

‘Importing all the memories’

Dev Raj is a loyal Orkut user. He logs on to Orkut as much as Facebook and Twitter.

The CEO of Innomono Laboratories says, “I have around 10 friends who have still not moved on from Orkut. Actually, we were one of the first adopters of the social network. I joined it when it was released on the servers in California as one my friend’s father was working at Google there.” While Dev is not really startled by Google’s decision to kill Orkut, he is definitely sad that now all his “memories will be lying dead in hard drives”, as he has imported all the data.

Dev and his friends, who were part of the Dr MCP community, are planning to generate a PDF of all the scraps and photos. “In this group, our 80-year-old professor used to share his experiences with his students. We plan to distribute the PDFs to the alumni.”

‘It’s Radio Calling for me once Again’

B. Srinivas Sai, 22, owes his career to Orkut. As soon as he got a Net connection at home in 2008, he joined Orkut. Soon, he joined a group of hackers called Orkut Underground and got drawn into the world of ethical hacking. He followed up with a degree in computer science engineering and now he is working in an IT firm.

Later, he floated his own community called the MTV Wassup India, which was essentially an online radio. “I would have 100-150 listeners at any point in time. With time, I lost my listeners as well as my interest in RJing. But now that Orkut is wrapping up, I am planning to restart my online radio channel on Orkut. I will post the programme on the community and share the link on Facebook. It’s radio calling for me once again. Orkut, you really taught me so much.”

‘We are unrecognisable in those photos’

Raja Mamidi, Chinmay Rajula and their friends from IIIT-Hyderabad are taking a break from FB these days. They are spending four hours on Orkut instead.

Chinmay, who opened Orkut after months  and posted ‘Bye, Bye Orkut’ says, “The other day we logged in, saw our old photos and were like, ‘Is this us?’. We looked so different then, almost unrecognisable now. Though we have passed out from IIIT, we are getting together in a room, browsing the Orkut and laughing at each other.”

Raja joins in, “Remember the polls: who is the most handsome and pretty in your college? We have restarted that. It’s fun. So many love stories had started in the first year of college and still remain strong. Orkut, we are going to miss you.”

‘It was love at first sight'

City photographer M.  Venkataramana was never up for the idea of arranged marriage. So, in 2007, he joined a Telugu community on Orkut to find love. Venky, as he is called, says, “One day, I came across the profile of D.S. Krishna Priya.

You won’t believe, 95 per cent of our interests matched So, I sent her a friend request along with a poem. She accepted it and the very next day, Priya sent me a chat request. We were supposed to chat at 6.30 pm, but I was waiting since 6.30 am. First love, what more can I say.”

“After our marriage was fixed, Pirya flew to California for three years. Yes, we would chat on Orkut every day” says Venky.

Till date, the couple posts updates about their married life on Orkut. Now, they have downloaded all their photographs onto their PC.