My dad was a government official, he had a rubber stamp, with his name and designation. For a long time I did not know how valuable it was, until the secondary exams when my dad had to attest all the mark sheet copies of little boys and girls in our area. For once I was proud; the strength of the rubber stamp was proved. I thought I have to be somebody worthwhile and to be valuable I need a rubber stamp.

Some twist in tale, the status of rubber stamp was lost when I started working in the IT sector. For two years it was alright for not being somebody. Then came a day when I realised that there is this status symbol of visiting cards in the southern part of India. It so happened that I had to accompany one of my colleagues to visit his fiancée and her family (the so called great south Indian arranged marriage). I couldn't defy the logic of being "Nobody" since I didn't carry a visiting card. So here it goes - "goodbye rubber stamp" it was the age of visiting cards. And I was sure it did contain my email id, which gave me an extra edge.

The idea of being valuable with visiting cards was short-lived. While on an interview for information architect, a certain HR of a well known IT firm thrashed me again "Can I see your blog?" whoa so that's it, e-mail was gone, blogs were in. Actually I had a personal blog, but I do mind showing it to some HR! "Is it necessary to have a website or a blog?" the answer was prompt "Sure you do? Don't you know even Barney, George Bush's dog has a web page". I skipped that job. I was not yet valuable.

So I started blogging regularly. I researched and wrote articles, published them regularly at ezines and online magazines. Why does everyone need to be somebody? I was astonished to find that even I was a victim of this fever of being "somebody". When my next door neighbor boasts that his son is in a bigger MNC company I feel "Does that have to do something in being somebody?" maybe...

My niece is 12 years old, all of a sudden I got her notion in being somebody "Uncle! Do you know about second life"? I didn't, she has a second life, and I don't. I am not somebody. So I stopped this zeal one day. Just like my college days I play Pacman on my PC and say to myself "Hell with second life, I have two lives more!!"