I think I do not have to explain to you guys what Orkut is and what all it has. Those who know it, may just as well know about testimonials. It is a facility provided by the site to its users, which allows them to write about the people they like and make it known to others. These testimonials remind me of those speeches made in honor of a person. The guy writing a testimonial would be hell bent on stating all the good things and would end up exaggerating them to a considerably large extent. I find the way these testimonials are written, really amusing. When I read such a testimonial, I feel that the person for whom the testimonial has been written is a saint in the guise of a mortal.

What shapes up all these testimonials is a long list of adjectives used to describe a particular guy. Words, such as “sincere”, “caring”, “loving”, “beautiful” and “crazy” rank high in the vocabulary of testimonial writers. Along with these words a few “kiddings”, “lols” and “hehes” end up being in the brackets. If the testimonial becomes too sugar coated then a few witticisms are added to make it look somewhat funny. The way these testimonials are ended is really predictable and clichéd. Addition of sentimental dialogues like “lucky to have you as a friend”, “loveeeee youuuuu”, “he/she will reach great heights” etc. makes it all the more amusing. I did write quite a few testimonials with all the ingredients stated above

Not that I haven’t written any testimonials or received any (which eventually made me write this and also gave me a good half an hour of laugh) but, I do feel that most of the time people just go overboard in praising their friends, which apparently is not required. The sheer feeling that more the number of testimonials present in a profile the more important it looks must be the reason for people to go crazy. Writing a testimonial is not a measurement of how good a friend a person is. Even though sometimes someone who may not be close writes these testimonials, they are still accepted out of courtesy. Apparently that testimonial does not really have any great importance when compared to other testimonials written by close friends.

These testimonials are filled with words like “good” or “best” which appear before each and every attribute of that person, e.g. “he is the best guy ever” or “she is a very good friend of mine” etc. If we take Orkut alone, there are 120 million accounts (Till March 2008) and if every guy and girl is best or good then probably, (after taking into consideration the other social networking sites like My Space and Facebook) all the computer users in the world must be the best people to be with. Haven’t you guys heard that the anti-social elements, who people generally call terrorists, also use computers and social networking sites???

Testimonials can be classified into a few categories:

1. Sentimental and over the board.
2. Funny and made up, with good usage of English.
3. Written in their mother tongue to show their closeness.
4. Written for the heck of it.
5. Written all because the other person is a girl.
6. Filled with all sorts of poetry and sometimes pictures.
7. Written by relatives to show their unity.
8. Written with genuine interest.

So with all this giving and receiving of testimonials, I am tempted to write a testimonial for someone at this particular moment and since I could find no one I would rather write it for my site itself. So here it goes:

“It has been great to know you and it has been a great journey with you. Life always seems great when you are around. The world looks like a cozy and secure place. For all those who do not know this site, it doesn’t just focus on one topic even though it majorly talks about simple things in life. It is beautiful in its maintenance, simple in language but equally complex in thought and special in its own way. One thing I like about this site is, it is very cool even though it isn’t really looked upon by many as one of the best ones in the field. It doesn’t care about the whole fame thing and presents to the world what it likes to.

It has helped me in presenting my thoughts to people round the world. It has been one of those sources, which helped me to show to my friends how much I love them and it gave all of us a chance to showcase our talent. It is a legally existing entity with perpetual existence. We hope it makes it to the Hall of Fame.”

Yours Always,