Gifting trouble? How about a website, a customised book...

Enterprising youngsters are dumping cliche` and creating unusual gifts for friends, family

Humaira Ansari

When the clock struck midnight, birthday girl Diksha Raghani was flummoxed as her friends broke into a unique chorus, singing "happybirthdaydiksha.com". It was only after the group plonked a laptop before Raghani, did she realise what the suffix in the song stood for. "My friends gifted me a website on my birthday," said Raghani, who turned 23. The website's homepage, a bright red, featured a crowned image of Raghani and included separate sections for birthday wishes, photo gallery, guest book and a poll gallery, guestbook and poll inviting family and friends to vote for the birthday girl's best facial feature.

Life in the dotcom age has its own manifestations. And, Mumbai's youth are making complete use of the e-world to surprise loved ones with quirky gifts. It could be a dedicated website, a photo film with music and subtitles, printed rip-offs of family and friends as write-ups, or a hard-bound book printed with photos and text. The list of innovative personalised gifts is quite the " in thing", said Raghani.

However, unlike the easily accessible e-greeting cards, personalised gifts are not just a mouse click away. They require some out-of the box thinking. "There are a lot of website offering free software that can be easily downloaded. It's easy to buy a domain name from web portals like Weebley and Webnode.com at a minimal price for a Particular duration," said Sandeep Sachdeva, who worked on Raghani's website with two other friends. They bought the domain name happy birthdaydiksha.com for a period of one year at Rs600.

The effort is also to incorporate such elements in the gift, which are an extension of the receiver's personality Harsha Jawhrani, a budding photographer, went through countless brain-racking days to come up with a gift idea for her best friend Supriya's birthday.

"it's cliched to even say that I didn't want to gift her perfume and chocolates," said Jawhrani. "Supriya has this knack of dissecting and analysing daily newspaper. So, I thought why not gift her one on her birthday."

The idea was followed by a week-long data collecting session from Supriya's friends. Quirky comments, shared memories, embarrassing moments and funny pictures, all were compiled into a serious newspaper format. "After I got all the information, I finished the layout in a day and gave it for printing," said Jawhrani, who also emailed a soft copy of the newspaper to Supriya.

Supriya was surprised and ecstatic to receive the whacky gift. "I love my Mad Day (the newspaper's name). Anything I feel nostalgic, I go online and just click open my newspaper read my friends' comments and feel better," Supriya said.

For bookworms like 18-years-old Raima Pujari, the best possible gift is the latest bestseller. But, Pujari got a bestseller of a different kind on her birthday last month. "My brother got me this hardbound printed book, titled Sister Cool. It had a preface written by my parents," said Pujari. The 100-Page book included 18 chapters, each one on an importance event in the teenager's life. "It was like an encapsulated version of my 18 years of being." Pujari added.

Search for self: 71% youth track their reputation online

Users aged 18 to 29 most likely to change privacy settings on profiles to limit what they share with others

What's that? A young college grad lecturing her elders about online privacy?

It might go against conventional wisdom, but a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project is adding fuel to the argument that young people are fast becoming the gurus of online reputation management, especially when it comes to social networking sites.

Among other things, the study found that they are most likely to limit personal information online - and the least likely to trust free online services ranging from Facebook to LinkedIn and MySpace.

Marlene McManus,21, is among those young adults. On the Job hunt since graduating from Clark University in Massachusetts, she's been "scouring" her Facebook page, removing photos that contain beer cups and any other signs of college exploits. She's also dropped twitter altogether. " I have to present a public face that doesn't have the potential to hurt my image ," McManus says.

Adults over the age of 30 might do well to listen. The Pew study and a mounting body of new research is showing that the very generation accused of sharing too much information online is actually leading the pack in online privacy.

The Pew study found, for instance , that social networkers ages 18 to 29 were the most likely to change the privacy settings on their profiles to limit what they share with others online. The percentage who did so was 71%, compared with just 55% of the 50-to 64-year-old bracket. Meanwhile, about two-thirds of all social networkers who were surveyed said they've tightened security settings.

About half of young people in that 18-29 bracket have deleted comments that others have made on their profile, compared with just 29% of those ages 30 to 49 and 26% of 50-to 64-year-olds.

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Managing your Web image

Snooping has, unsurprisingly, continued to grow in popularity. But actively combating that surreptitious monitoring has also significantly escalated

Additional surveys estimate that 70% of potential employers research their applicants online, and frequently reject them because of what they find

52% of adults dangerously over-share on social networks, the oblivious oldtimers would do well to learn from the youngsters

41% have removed their names from photos of them posted by other compared to 18% of those 50 to 64

Beware of your boyfriends, women's panel tells teens

Bhubaneswar

"Youths allegedly capture nude images of their girlfriends on CDS, after winning their trust."
- Jyoti Panigrahi, chairperson, Orissa women's Commission

State-wide campaign to caution young girls in Orissa

Cases of girls becoming victims of their boyfriends' malicious deeds are on the rise in Orissa. Youths first befriend girls, win their trust, get intimate with them and then secretly record their intimate moments on CDs. To earn quick buck, these youths then sell the CDs in the market.

The state women's commission has come to the rescue of these vulnerable victims. It has, through a statewide
campaign, asked all college students to be "very careful" about their "exploitative" boyfriends.

"This is a serious matter and a recent trend in Orissa. We will sensitise girls through a state-wide campaign during
which we will caution them not to cross their limits even though the boy may be sober and polite," Jyoti Panigrahi,
the chairperson of the state women's commission, told reporters.

This relatively recent trend came to light after a 22-year-old girl committed suicide last year in Cuttack when she
found her nude images in a CD allegedly made by her boyfriend. The youth was later arrested.

But this 22-year-old girl's case was not the only one. In Dhenkanal district, three more girls became victims of the
porn CD scam last month. "In these three cases, the youths allegedly captured nude images of their girlfriends' on
CDs secretly, after winning their trust," Panigrahi said.

A girl from Dhenkanal district recently attempted suicide after she found her nude images in a CD available in the
local market, Panigrahi added.

Similar cases have also been reported in Bolangir district, she said.

Panigrahi feels parents can play an important role in preventing their daughters from falling prey to youths. She has
advised them to be friendly with their daughters so that their daughters will share information and openly discuss
their relationships with acquaintances and friends. Parents of growing girls, particularly of those studying in college should be aware of what their daughters were doing and with whom they are making friends," she said.

The state women's commission has also sought help from the police to curb the menace.