Toastmasters Project 5 speech

Again a speech with roots the past.

this is a speech as Project 5 in my aim to reach a competent communicator status(5 more to go)

A lot had to be added to make it worth it.

“Scrapped Unfortunately”

Scrap... There was a time when a scrap automatically brought visions of waste. But then occurred a revolution and they called it 'Orkut'. After that a 'scrap', it seemed had a whole new meaning for the masses.


Good evening Mr Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and welcome guests.

Yes I am talking about the website Orkut. There seem to be various descriptions for it and its bethrehen include a networking site, a community website, a social site, etc. However I will not clinically analyze 'Orkut' today, but rather reminisce about the good old times, when things were still simple


My first introduction to Orkut were the unsure steps I took when a good friend of mine sent me an invitaion and literally forced me to register nearly five years ago. Of course back then Orkut was totally unknown and I was confident that I would never go back to check on the site again.


Time it seems has proved me wrong.


First came Internet in the college hostel where I was studying, then came 'Orkut mania'. The first signs were long hours on Orkut waiting in desperation for new scraps. As one of the first victims, I remember checking for scraps every hour and getting gloomy if I did not find new ones.


Of course suddenly the number of scraps became linked to popularity on Orkut and it seemed no number was big enough and no means mean enough. One afternoon, I remember this conversation between two seniors using scraps.


Gujral- “Oye Akshat, How come you have become so rare these days. I never see you around”
Akshat- “Hi Gujral! Have been pretty busy with life. Wassup with you”
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some 20 smaller scraps...
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Gujral- “So from where are you accessing the net? I am using Minocha’s comp.”
Akshat- “Yaar, I am sitting on Ashraf’s comp.”

Of course they conveniently forgot to mention Ashraf and Minocha were room-mates. The two were basically sitting back to back and chatting using orkut. I heard that one afternoon Akshat sirs rating jumped by 20 percent.


Beyond the addiction there are many benefits of Orkut. Somehow, I personally have never seen any. For example what is discussed in my engg class community on Orkut? Everything except academics. There are games like, will u kiss or marry the person above, whether the person above is sexy or hot(byt the way, I was hot and heavy) , etc. Somehow all games seemed to have something to do with the person above you. Or else there is someone trying to make me rich by working from home or even worse, advertising another equally boring community.

So after some time Orkut started to become boring. I wondered, is it over? Is the colour in life gone? Will I now have to watch a balck and white movie. However I should not have despaired!! To rescue me came a knight called Sir Facebook. Suddenly everyone was in love those funny apps , that ability to poke into other people’s conversations using comments. Of course Orkut in its later avatar would suddenly sprout exactly the same features but there is a charm with the original.

These days people folks automatically assumed that everyone and anyone else is on Orkut and Facebook. And when someone states that he does not access any of these sites, people automatically assume that something must be wrong with him. Afterall since everyone else is on orkut and everyone else cannot be weird, the person not on orkut must be weird.

Of course these days so many social websites have mushroomed up that its hard to decide on an essential list of social sites. I am drowning in spam. Someone want to meet me on Hi5, a bot by the name of Shruti invites me to apna adda, someone else has sent me a private message which will expire soon unless I accept an invitation to Jhoomla.com. The list just goes on. I suddenly miss the old days when even gmail did not exist. Forget facebook or Orkut.

Recently my parents became my friends on facebook. Initially I felt proud,” My parents are so tech savvy that they are on facebook.” I felt like writing a poem about it.

Five minutes later the panic set in. “My parents are on Facebook. They can see all my pics , the flirts with girls, the sarcastic comments in my friend-circle”. Ten minutes later , my facebook account was cleansed. Everything funny, interesting and even mildly suggestive deleted. Now of course I have been joined by the entire gaggle of relatives , cousins and even family friends.

Now I think twice before clicking publish always wondering who all can read it and what potential scandal can occur .The good days when liberty reigned are long gone never to return.

I am now beyond Orkut having left the temptation behind. But you like this speech please ,please let me know by scrapping me. My Orkut ratings are still at 80 percent. The scraps may just help.

Over to you Mr Toastmaster