When I first joined MS sometime back in Jan 2003 , the 1st thing which put me to some amount of discomfort was writing the profile
The famous oath rang in my ears “ I shall speak the truth only the truth so help me God ’’
I also checked www, dictionary.com for the exact meaning of profile ( Excuse my ignorance ) and to my horror read the first few lines which were :
Pro-file (n)
a. A side view of an object or a structure especially of the human head.
b. A biographical essay presenting the subject’s most noteworthy characteristics and achievements.
Sohhh, this is what profile is all about !! I thought to myself. But I was most reluctant to go along with the 1st definition.
No way I would consider myself to be an inanimate object or a structure ( yuk ) & that too a side view of my head ???
I suffer from huge inferiority complex the moment someone mentions my head & the contents therein , as I had , very early in my life , realized there was absolute vacuum between my ears.
I decided to stick to the 2nd definition.
But then again the statement posed problems of a different nature !!
“ Noteworthy Characteristics & Achievements ’’ are words totally alien to me.
“ What is my claim to fame ? ’’ I asked myself.
Struggling for an answer , I wondered if my acting in a school play as a dead soldier or standing in the last row of the School choir squeaking away to glory “ We shall overcome one day “qualifies as a noteworthy achievement .
Convinced , that none of these achievements are worth writing home about , I desperately started reading profiles of other members .
( Hint : Not a bad way of learning how to write a decent profile if you are my types )
200 Member profiles later , I thought I had gained a fair bit of understanding of writing a profile on my own.
1.Member Since : I could do little in this column as I gather it is automatically generated.
2.Name : Here one has the option of either writing King Charles The Fifth / Tom Cruise or your own name. Good or bad , I was named by my parents & I decided to write the same name .
3.Gender : There was no reason for me to indicate that I am a Female when I am not !! ( My photograph with moustache & a beard is a dead give away )
4.Education : This is where I faced the biggest challenge. I initially wrote M.A & B.A, MSc & MBA & PGDBM & FRCP & FRCS & CA . I was convinced that it sounded rather convincing but at a later stage dropped all of them & eventually wrote what I actually feel within “ Not Sure if I am educated “
I am still groping in the dark
5.City: Since there was no point in lying about the city I reside in , I thought I might as well be done with it & I truthfully wrote “ Bangalore “. I have however seen one member ( Name withheld ) indicating City as Sydney & Country as Pakistan. I really felt sorry for this guy whose knowledge of Geography was poorer than mine ( Unless of course there actually exists a Sydney in Pakistan about which I have no idea )
6.Country: Well , as far as I am concerned Bangalore is only in India . PERIOD & I am proud to be an INDIAN
Well here ends the objective type entries & now the global & motherhood statements on :
1.INTERESTS
2.ABOUT ME
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1st : Interests : ummmmmmm errrrrrrr . ( Think …think ) I have little or no interest in any thing . Barring of course smashing the daylights out of a captive mosquito with the look of Connan the barbarian & the proud smile of a victor staring disdainfully at the vanquished ‘quito’ Hence the global & motherhood statement :
Any number of them ! You will get bored reading them ! Some very mundane & some fairly interesting ! Talk to me !! I will share !!
but I have a song in my heart ~Tra ~La~La~La.
I decided to leave it as vague as is possible & I feel quite proud when I read this part of my profile.
Note : Just throw in a few “ Favourites “ ( Things / Quotes ) Keep them as confusing & ambiguous as is possible.
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2nd : About Me : I have humbly admitted that I am one without any “Noteworthy Characteristics & Achievements ” therefore it was to my interest to write something abstract about myself .Things like “ I am a mysterious man , God has scripted me differently ‘ Thoda Hat ke ’ types will sustain the interest levels of some gullible members who would be extremely curious to know more about you. Or so I thought .
Till date , haven’t received a single M2M asking me anything about myself
( Sob..Sob ).
One option , in retrospect , I think is to write a few indicative lines about who you are & what you do !
Trust & Distrust List : I have no idea why these are here in the profile section. I have no idea why members trust or distrust me & if they do what happens to me .
Do I get a “ Padmashree ” if they trust me or do I get a life sentence if they don’t trust me ??
I too have my own trust list , more as a return gesture to those who opted to trust me . Frankly it means nothing to me. There are ways and more ways to show your appreciation for a particular member & the best way is , to read , rate & comment in a meaningful manner obviously without bias.
& LAST but not the least ..........
ØPicture : I feel this is absolutely optional.. The only good thing about this is that one can put a face to a name / MS id. But I am also of the opinion that its better not to put a pic than putting a photograph of someone else ! This is purely my point of view & as I often say ” No need to subscribe to this “