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 😀
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. 😡
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”
Man, You are able to put some level fart! treat are ther if you can guess who this is…
Man.. this post is written as though it’s dying to be quoted in a Hindu article..
Really Nice. U cud hav added lots more though.
it shows u worked hard on this post. and it pays off too. nice.
uh, my preferred permanent status whether on mnsgr or in real life has just been this: idle.
Hi,
This post for me was like one status-message-maniac meets another status-message-maniac.
I normally spoof up names or people in current affairs and put them as the status message. For eg:
– “Dear-Oh-Bye Ambani” on Dhirubhai Ambani’s Death
– “Subrata Roye” (means ‘Subrata cries’ in Hindi) after the Jet-Sahara Deal was called off.
My current one, though, is different. I changed to it post Mumbai blasts. It’s “Waiting for ‘My Empire’ to strike back” a lift from the Star Wars movie title.
Keep ‘coolshankin’. (y)
Nice post… one of those why-didn’t-I-think-of-this thingies 🙂
Actually I’m surprised you haven’t drawn any flak yet for claiming that you were the first in IITM to start the status message culture… I mean atleast I was tweaking status messages long before U2 was nominated for the grammies… and I’m sure there were N people doing it before me…
Or was that sentence a misnomer? I mean… what is a status ‘massage’ anyway… lol… cool post da
@anon 1: you must have been in swizz or chennai when you commented…i am guesssing its patiala or rahul(maddu)
@anon 2: thanks 🙂 who are you
@sunil: thanks, i though the post would get too long
@uday: 😀
@nirav: dear oh bye was a very good one … anyone from your friend circle interesting in status messages too?
@aziz: thanks. as soon as i got my comp in second year, i started that….then, i dont recall anyone with status messages…of course i had very few people in ym! then. there was no gtalk. at least, i can say that i did not copy from anyone 😛
nice post. just that, there are some parts which i hate to read, these are those that refer to a particular somebody which i guess u can guess.
btw, oba you are not the first person to use status messages. I have been using them since i ever started using y!m, and that was ages ago.
1) i assume you are vettier than usual at your internship. aren’t there any ascendas equivalent nearby?
2) seriously da. i haven’t seen anyone else blow his own goddamn trumpet like his life depended on itlike you do!
3) interesting post nonetheless…
4) liked your ‘you are not thinking therefore i am’ status message.
5) you have deliberately mentioned every dog’s name in the post so that he is forced to comment. very cheap strat.
6) i commented for the same reason. thanks for the mention.
@baaju
1. no
2. a litle publicity dosn’t harm anyone
3. thank u
4. 🙂
5. seriously … no ….. you are the only one among them who commented
6. thankl again for the comment
Ahh….Great post. How is this for a status message , ‘Your posts are like wine, they get better with time”. Too cocky, i know….Keep blogging “Trend Setter”.
“I can arguably (and proudly) claim that I was the first in my college to start the culture of status massages.”
what bullshit da???
Hahahaha… nice ‘anthology’ of status messages. Nice reading before a painful kwij!