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Skewed ratios According to a 2006 survey, for every three active male users online in India, there is only one woman.

only 12 lakh working women and seven lakh non-working ones have home internet access I can’t recall when exactly I “went” online.

I was 16; the Internet seemed vast and full of promise.

I regularly logged on to a chat programme, which is no longer available.

It was called PowWow, and I suspect that at the time there weren’t too many Indians online.

I routinely bumped into strangers asking me if my father was a snake charmer.

I suppose times have changed.

While you are no longer asked if elephants carry you to school, strangers still ask you questions.

Perhaps the sheer act of being online, of not physically being present, makes our boundaries more permeable.

For instance, if you are a woman and you sign up for Orkut, you probably do so to get in touch with old classmates, or to shoot the breeze with your friends.

Instead, you’ll be swamped with what are called “scraps” — small notes from complete strangers which are basically variations of the line, “Hi, your pic is sooo saaxy/ beautifool.

Wanna make friendship with me?

” I give up.

How exactly ...

Ugly things too.

And yet, I found myself trusting myself as I began trusting people I met through this medium.

There is a fine line between the public, private and secret self, and the boundaries blur sometimes.

At others there is a conscious effort to keep them apart.

In a physical world, our lives are compartmentalised, you have different sets of friends for different needs, and meet in different physical spaces as a result.

My blog is one space where I connect with friends, potential clients, strangers, acquaintances, even spammers and trolls.

It is entirely up to me what I want to share of me and when, at my blog.

And, I have found, the more I share, the more others do.

It’s just an extension of basic human needs for connection and community.

For me, the online world is simply a part of my world.

It is not discreet from my ‘real life’, it is not an underground life, it is part of my everyday existence.

I started using social networking sites and blogs in 2003 when I got broadband and discovered the immense benefits of the sociality that the Internet offers.

The most fulfiling change it has brought into my life is that now, I control my own environment.

My blog has become my social network today.

Through the simple act of voicing opinions and thoughts, I feel liberated to speak out loud and discover voice...