Faltugiri

I don't know about Gandhigiri, but faltugiri must surely be our national pastime.

Why else would someone spend time and energy trying to take Google to court for an 'I hate India' community on orkut with 100 odd members? What's more something like this makes front page news in all national dailies?? Hindustan Times reports:

The Bombay Hight Court's Aurangabad bench has served a notice to Google for allowing a hate campaign against India on its social networking site www.orkut.com. The order was issued on Monday by justices A P Deshpande and R M Borde in response to a public interest suit filed by a junior advocate in Aurangabad, Yugant Marlapalle. His petition said that a community called 'We hate India", which has anti-India propaganda and a picture of the Indian flag being burnt, has been created on orkut.

Um, 103 odd members is hardly a 'hate campaign'. It's a whisper in a room with no people!

Type the word 'hate' in the Orkut communities 'search' box and this is the top 5:

# 1 I hate to wake up early 82,269 members
Community for those who can't stand waking up early in the morning!

# 2 I hate ekta kapoor 32,552 members
isnt there anything left in life of women apart from plotting against each other & sleeping around with there husband's friends????? may god help me out!!!!!!! --

# 3 I Hate Himesh Reshammiya 23,133 members
Save the humanity, Please don't sing

# 4 I HATE EXAMS! 15,014 members
Y do we have to take EXAMS ..they really suks sometimes..
i don't care if u don't agree with me..this community showup the feelings about taking freakin exams ..if some one doesn't like it i must say "WHO INVITED U"

# 5 Himesh Reshamiya Hate Club 11,034 members
Are you fed up with all those noisy,crappy songs of Himesh Reshamiya.Do you feel like taking off the cap from his head(he wears it to hide stolen music cds from Pakistan and smuggle them to India)and show the whole world that he is only bald and nothing else...blah blah blah...then please join this community..

If there's anyone who should be suing it's Himeshbhai. But even he is smart enough to know... these are just kids with frustrations in life - or just plain keeda.

Actually most of the "i hate" this that or the other sites seem to have been created/ populated by Indians. I mean sue, American teens are more into myspace but there are a lot of Brazilians on orkut as well.

I tried typing in the word 'odio' (hate in Portuguse) and could not find 20,000 members in an "I hate Ronaldinho for not winning the world cup" community... I could be wrong but I think Brazilians are more laid back and happier online citizens.

Meanwhile we Indians are venting at:
- I Hate Discussion After Exams 10,198 members
this is the community of the students who are really embarresed of discussions about Question paper that some people do after each damn exams....

- I hate Kareena Kapoor 8,374 members
Why do you hate Kareena Kapoor? I hate her for her arrogance and lack of abilities. As if you need more reasons!!

- I hate Shahrukh Khan 5,384 members
there maybe be plenty of fans of SRK (shahrukh khan) but this community is for his haters.

- I hate to study 4,780 members
I know, even you hate to study!! what say? Join in..!
- I hate Arjun Singh 3,594 members

You get the picture.

So why bother if one LiTtL3 DeViL in Karachi, Pakistan has started an 'I hate India' community? This is the last message posted there:

Yaar it's boring community
This is the way to hate someone?
Lagta hay salay Galian nikal nikal kar thuk chukay hain.
Ha jeee---What is the end result???

Aur kya bhai. Flag it for google and forget about it. Please, don't go around creating 'I hate Pakistan' communities (there are already 10 such lame efforts, no need to add to the idiocy!)

There is enough hate in the real world, to keep us busy for a long time. And enough far more important cases in our court we need to attend to.

However, frivolous as it may seem to me, perhaps Google will have to respond. The Washington Post recently reported

Google Inc., which refused in the past year to hand over user search data to U.S. authorities fighting children's access to pornography, said yesterday that it was complying with a Brazilian court's orders to turn over data that could help identify users accused of taking part in online communities that encourage racism, pedophilia and homophobia.

There are some legitimate concerns, and google will have to address them. But a couple of hundred looneys here and there should not be one of them.