Social Networking Part I

Court Clerk

“Announcing the first case 25th October 2004. Petition filed by one Rezma against her mother Sazna on account of barring virtual freedom. Will the petitioner and the defendant please rise?”

Feet shuffled, and four people emerged from the audience and stepped forward. “Kindly take your place in front of the High chair.” The clerk intoned, “All rise for the Honorable justice Nomadh.” Now every pair of feet shuffled as everyone got up in respect of the Justice. A few gasps were heard as they realized that the justice was a midget, and a woman, and the clerk suppressed a smile. This would surely anger her, and this case was going to get very very interesting. Eleanor Nomadh was known to be a conservative person, and a daughter suing her mother would be blasphemous enough for her to draft her judgement the right way.

 

Sazna

Sazna breathed shallowly and looked back at Suzanne, who was texting away furiously. When the ladies gossip group heard of this, and if she had any guesses as to whom Suzanne was messaging, they already did; she would hear no end of it. She would be the wuss who allowed her daughter to drag her to court. They wouldn’t understand why she had done it. Accepted to meet Rezma in court. This was a better way of dealing with those teenage hormones than to fight her outright. This way atleast she would have her daughter’s respect. But no, they would not get it. They all thought daughters must be held on leashes. Bloody blimpish ultra conservative cows!

 

Annan

Sazna seemed nervous, and all Annan could do was smile. This midget, was a person of old traditional values, and that as much as put the case in his pocket. He turned to her and smiled reassuringly. He leaned in and whispered, “Don’t worry, the case is as good as won.” She just smiled, and Annan straightened himself again. Now, his only problem would be the opposing counsel, a man known for his manipulative nature: Nicholas Green. He had faced the man only thrice before, and was yet to win a case against him. In terms of a courtroom lifetime, that was a significant loss. Still, he hadn’t had the advantage he had today. Today, he would win. An added benefit would obviously be the added media attention to this case. If he won here; no, when he won here; he would be put on the map, as one of the best lawyers in town – one of the only to beat the great Nicholas Green.

 

Nicholas

Nick studied the papers in front of him, and tried not to look at the girl beside him. Rezma was 16 only, so that meant that he had to win this case. No one knew why he took up the case without payment, and he wasn’t going to tell them that either. But if he lost, Norah would lose her mind, and start digging. The fact of the matter was he was offered payment, and he took it. Just not in cash. He looked behind, and smiled at his wife. She smiled back, and he felt gratified. He immediately turned back, and the smile turned into a grimace. Gratified! That Lawrence case had all but changed his life. He’d lost his dominance, his power over Norah, and now he’d have to win this case so he could get away with Rezma’s service. When was the last time he actually HAD to win a case before? When? He shook his head, and started poring back into the papers in front of him. Life was all topsy turvy now.

Rezma

The judge was shorter than her! Rezma couldn’t believe it. This would make quite a story everywhere, no matter what the outcome of the case. But still, media was involved, and she had put on the best make up possible with her limited resources of stolen products from Mom’s drawer. She had received a lot of letters wishing her the best in her present endeavor by girls and cute guys from all around the country. She was going to be their savior. If she won. Which she would no doubt, what with the best lawyer in court representing her. And a little head-to was all it took to convince him to fight her case for free. She didn’t mind it. He was kinda hot anyway. She’d give him another if he won. Which he would ofcourse. The alternative couldn’t happen. Wouldn’t happen. This was her day. It was the day she won for herself, and for millions of other teens all over the country.

* * *

Courtroom reporter

Judge Nomadh(JN): Will the prosecution present its case?

Advocate Nicholas(N): Your honor our case is simple. This girl, Rezma is 16 years old, studying in a High School of decent repute, and plays guitar to spend her time. She has quite many friends, as one might imagine, and they all are part of what is now termed as the wiki generation. Social networking via the internet is an important part of their day-to-day life as Disco dancing was to mine or height gaining lessons were to yours. In this case ---

*let it be noted that here the judge started sputtering and grew red in fury, and a section of the audience sniggered*

JN: Order in the chamber! Counsel, must I warn you to keep your vile sense of humor outside the pristine hallways of the Chamber of Truth?

N: With all due respect, your honor, the purity of this chamber was lost the day you were given a job here as one of its founding justices.

*snigger in crowd. Justice goes purple*

JN: How dare you, Counsel! I can hold you in contempt of court!

N: I fear you may have misinterpreted my meaning, your honor. I only meant that the day we had morally wrong people walking the chambers to fight cases, the chastity of the hallway was lost. Wouldn’t you agree?

JN: Just get back to the case at hand, counsel.

*Nicholas and Rezma smile simultaneously at the ‘matter at hand’ reference. Sazna frowns at Nicholas*

N: Ofcourse your honor. As I was, social networking and internet based activities are today part of every teen’s life. It is very wrong to deny a person right to join this world. My client has had to face social stigma and been looked upon as an outcast in her peer group for failing to join in on the internet activities. The reason behind this trauma is that my client’s mother refuses to let her be part of anything related to the internet, and has a personal fear that the world wide web is evil. By the end of this trial, we will have established that Rezma’s mother is simply paranoid, and there is no reason to obstruct my client’s right of freedom of expression. The internet is here to stay, and my client has every right to join the crowd she wants to.

JN: Will the defense rise and present its case?

*Advocate Nicholas takes his seat and client and counsel start whispering. Meanwhile Advocate Annan takes the stand*

Annan(A): Your honor, the internet is a new circle in the lives of all people. It has hardly been around for more than a couple of decades at most. The youth of today have latched on to it, and now its kind of a lifeline to them. It is also a fact that the internet has been targeted by the latest frauds and conmen in order to rip off people. The pornography industry has been given a boost by the same media. This media is far from protected, and hence anyone part of it is very vulnerable in every way. This parent is hence not at fault to worry about her daughter’s safety, and absolutely within her rights to condition her daughter to the dangers of the media. With the help of a few witnesses and evidence, we will show that as parent, my client is absolutely right to forbid her daughter from walking into a trap.

*Annan sits down to applause from a section of the crowd. His client holds his hand and whispers something to him. He looks surprised, and then looks at opposing counsel, who are busy studying papers*

JN: The prosecution will now open its case to the court.

*nicholas stands up, and buttons his coat*

N: The concept of a network was conceptualized in the late 1950s and many local networks came up over the 70s and 80s. It was in the mid 1980s that the internet was truly born from the merging of all these networks. But since back then most of the networks were owned by the army and military forces, the internet was not available to the common man. This was possible in the early 90s, even then it was much of just a search engine, and not much could be done with it. But the exponential boost that was building momentum burst, and internet became the norm of life. When encyclopedias were replaced by Google. Today, the internet is the fastest way of passing information, and also of connecting with close ones from far away. As human psychology dictates, when there’s a shorter way,why not use it? Because some bad people use it?

I ask by the same logic, is it fair to say do not climb into trains because terrorists bomb it? Not to travel in flights as they get hijacked? Life is never rosy green, and if we live in the worry of something bad to happen, we can not enjoy the benefits of anything. To prove my point, I would like to call Dr. Habbernathy to the witness stand.

Court Clerk(CC): The court summons Dr. Habbernathy to rise and take stand under oaths of *insertsaidreligioustext*

*A gray haired balding man with thick glasses and a paunch takes the stand, and takes the oaths*

N: Dr. Habbernathy, you are a psychologist with the National mindfreak organisation?

DH: Yes I am.

N: The phenomenon I just mentioned, does it have a psychological definition?

DH: Yes, it does. Its called Paranoia.

N: Would you classify Paranoia as a disorder, or as something completely natural?

A: Objection, your honor, this line of questioning has no relevance to the case at hand.

N: It does, counsel, I am trying to define the phenomenon, so I can later associate it to someone.

JN: Objection sustained. Counsel, you will stick to the case in hand.

N:*grimacing* Alright. Let me rephrase. Doctor, would you say that such paranoia is rightfounded?

DH: Actually this is a quite common human phenomenon. One event or one opportunity has both plus and minus. One looks at both, weighs them against each other, and then decides whether to go forward with it.

N:*satisfied, turns to opposing counsel* Your witness.

A: Dr. Habbernathy, would you agree that it is absolutely natural for a person to decide whether an event has more pluses or minuses on his own?

DH: Yes, but then every person’s point of view would differ and ---

A: Ah, so you are saying that one should decide according to common social point of view instead of listening to his own heart?

DH; No that is not what I meant. I mean that paranoia is defined by the social common outflux to a certain event and hence ---

A: Doctor, I am so sorry to interrupt, but would you dumb that down for the audience?

DH: Well, a person is said to be paranoid if he fears something more than the common man would.

A: So it has no bearing to do with whether or not that person’s fear is well founded or not. If the society doesn’t worry as much as you, you are declared paranoid. Is that right, Dr. Habbernathy?

DH:*hesitating* Yes. I suppose you are right.

A: No more questions your honor.

*Sazna claps, and Rezma bites her tongue. Nicholas gets up once more, furrows buried into each other in concentration*

N: Your honor, next I would like to call forward Elizabeth Nomadh.

JN: You want to call forward WHO!?!

N: you heard me, judge.

JN: Why are you pulling her into this? What does this have anything to do with her?

N: It doesn’t have anything to do with her. That is why I am calling your daughter onto the stand.

CC:The court summons Elizabeth Nomadh to rise and take stand under oaths of *insertsaidreligioustext*

JN: I will hold you in contempt if you try anything funny, boy.

N:*grins and turns to the witness* Elizabeth, can you tell the court your age?

EN: 14.

N: Do you use the internet often? If so, for what all?

EN: Yes, I do. Erm, for Homework, projects, social networking and music.

N: Do you put your true details and pictures up in any of these sites?

EN: Yes I do. I have even put my home phone number on my blog.

JN: You did WHAT? You… I will deal with you once we’re home tonight.

EN: *frightened* HEY! you promised me she wouldn’t get angry.

N: She won’t sweetcheeks, she’s just not thinking straight right now. Let us finish this, and we will deal with mommy okay?

JN: You will deal with me counsel? *crazy eyed, shouting*

N: Honestly woman, shut up. Let me present my case! I should be holding you in contempt for obstructing the proceedings of the courtroom!

JN: *purses lips, takes deep breaths to calm down* Proceed, counsel.

EN: Wow, how’d you do that?

N:*winks* moving on. Have you heard that people steal your details and misuse them?

EN: Yes, my mother calls it Identity theft.

N: And yet you do this… networking business?

EN: I accept that it happens in places, but it is a very small minority, you know. Stopping my work and pleasure because of something such a small percent of public does will be like a popstar stop singing because of the stalkers.

N: Well said. But Don’t you worry that someone might use your phone number to prank call your home?

EN: Actually there are privacy filters available, so only people I want to show my number to will see it. The others won’t. Similarly these details are also not compulsory. One gives them of his/her free will.

N: So you are saying that I could all that networking shit without giving any details of mine, or maybe even fake details?

EN: Ofcourse! Even toddlers know that!

N: Yes, but there are some adults who are dumber than toddlers, so… Anyway, thank you Elizabeth. *turns to opposing counsel* Your witness Annan.

A: No questions your honor.

CC: The witness may step down.

N: Well, atleast we now know, that all those things Sazna fears may happen constitute a minority which even your own daughter overlooks. We also know that we can make our details private and also that we can surf under no details, or even under false details, making internet networking completely fool proof.

However, I would like to present the following papers as evidence on my part.

This is a very famous paper which recommended usage of social networking sites for the growth of business. Any social networking site carries so much potential for advertisement, that it is almost as secure a means as posting it on Sachin Tendulkar’s bat.

For students who have passed out and want to stay in touch with their peers and also with their teachers, the social networking sites are a boon. E-alumnis are very famous all around the world.
Social networking is also perhaps not the only fear Sazna has, I suppose. I believe her paranoia includes the entire internet, and I would like to present all these essays written by many an expert on the benefits of the internet.

Screw all of that. I agree with you, Sazna, there are bad guys. But there are bad guys everywhere. *Sazna grimaces, and looks away from the counsel. Annan pats her back* Your honor, I would like to call Rezma onto the stand.

CC:The court summons Rezma to rise and take stand under oaths of *insertsaidreligioustext*

N: Rezma, I can only present your case to a certain degree. But you are the one with the issue, You are my star witness. Present your case so the entire world can hear.

R: I am Rezma. I am 16 years old, and I am in my final year of high school. Right now my peers are enjoying life, in touch with each other even when they cannot see each other. Everyone has a peer group. I wish to have one too. But its very hard when I cannot relate to them in half the things they say. I am forbidden to use the internet, so the only way I can keep abreast of developments in their lives is in school. Which kinda makes me always the last one to know things, and left out. Today current affairs develop so fast that even internet reporting seems slow. And in such a scenario, would you believe that I am forbidden to use my computer even though it has an internet connection just because my mother fears I might start networking? I agree with her. she is right to fear, because I do want to be part of these sites and be up to date with life like my friends. But my mother’s paranoia doesn’t let me even browse the internet for my homework and assignments.

N: Rezma, your school must surely have a computer lab. Have you ever gone online from there?

R: Yes I have. I was so fed up with my mother’s paranoia that I went online from the computer lab. I even have a social networking account on Facebook.

N: So fed up you went against your mom’s wishes?

R: Yes. I love her, but there is only so much that I can put up with paranoia.

N: Thank you, Rezma. Your witness Annan.

A: Rezma, tell me something. Do you believe that you are the only person to have this sort of a problem?

R: I used to believe so, but then once I dragged mom to court, and people found out, I received mail from so many other teens like me who faced the same problem with their parents.

A: How many, to be exact?

R:*confused* 127 letters. Why do you ask?

A: Did you receive a letter from a certain Elizabeth Nomadh too?

R: Yes, I did.

*Gasps in the audience, and a single one from the high chair*

A: So you agree with me that Elizabeth, and all those people also made their social networking debuts behind their parents’ back, not unlike you?

R:*hesitating* yes, but…

A: And you agree with me, that if so many people’s parents’ beliefs mirror your mother’s then either they are all paranoid, including our honorable justice, or they have reason to worry?

N: Objection your honor, hypothetical ---

JN: Objection overruled. I want to hear the witness answer.

A: Tell me, Rezma, Is our judge and 126 other sets of parents paranoid?

R: *sweating* Umm… I don’t know. Maybe not?

A: No more questions your Honor.

CC: The witness may step down from the stand.

* a shivering Rezma holds tightly to a stunned Nicholas, as Sazna jumps and hugs Annan*

JN: Counsel?

N:*shakes himself lucid* The prosecution rests your honor.

JN: The court shall take a recess. We shall regroup here after three hours to hear the defense’s case.

*The judge leaves, as does the audience, and the counsels and the clients go out opposite exits.*

 

Norah

“What. Just. Happened?” The girl asked Nick, as they rounded a turn to go to the cafeteria. She seemed to be in shock. She needed some decaf. well maybe more than some. It wasn’t easy to recover from a barrelage like the one Annan had just thrown her way. Norah blushed, thinking of how she had almost wet herself in excitement. Annan was good, very good.

“You just lost the case” She replied curtly, and turned to Nick. He just looked forward and walked without saying a word. They silently took up the corner table at the cafeteria, and three cappuccinos were ordered.

“Rezma, this is my wonderfully supportive wife, at her supportive best.” Nick said venomously, “And Norah, this is Rezma, my client.”

“From whom you are not charging a single buck.” Norah said, returning back all the venom he gave her, “I wonder why that is?” She asked suspiciously. Nick had class, he wouldn’t be cheating on her with that… girl. Would he? The girl started studying the coffee and for a second she was sure something was going on. But really? This girl? No. Her husband had to have more class.

“I told you, I am all about the service. There I said it. Every word of that is true.” Nick said, and the girl squirted milk from her nose. It might be true, but there was something which she had missed and the girl hadn’t. Maybe the girl had the hots for him. Maybe that was it. After all, lawyers at their best turned her on too… She stopped thinking about Annan, and turned her focus back to the morose duo.

“What in the name of bejesus were you thinking Nick? Provoking the judge? Calling her own daughter as a witness? You know the midget has a fury to match Uvan’s. And going in with a case of clinical instability – why paranoia I do not know, but I hope you had a reason, why would you ever want to bring in her daughter? You just handed over the case to them on a golden platter!”

“So he established that its not a clinical instability. Big deal! we’ve got more avenues to go through.”

“On such short a notice?” Norah barked a laugh at the optimism.

“So I made a few errors. He will make them too. And I will pounce onto them. And we still have the closing. The closing is ours, no matter what they say”

“I want you so bad when you are stubborn!” Norah said, and then blinked. Why had that just come out? In public that too. Norah and Nick blinked at one another for a couple of more seconds and then all burst into action. Nick ordered a couple of burgers, and told Rezma to eat it and meet him in the study. Norah and Nick then ran all the way to the study. She just hoped she wouldn’t take the wrong name doing it.

 

Sazna

She sat across the Teak tea table and watched Annan talk to the witnesses. He was so tall, dark and handsome. He was everyone’s dream come true. Oooh and the way he had handled her daughter! She knew thins was nor the time nor the place to be fantasizing about a man, but… It had been 13 years. Surely her husband wouldn’t mind her… moving on?

Annan came and joined her at the tea table. She poured him a cup of lemon tea. The engravings on the cup seemed to spell his name.

“The case is almost ours, ma’am.” he said politely. Politely! When all she wanted to do was get rough! Men could be so dumb sometimes. If she wanted to get anywhere with him, it would have to be now. She got up, walked over to the door and locked it. He raised a single eyebrow questioningly. She came back and sat on his lap. She took out her napkin and pressed it on his forehead. “You seem so stressed out. Relax Annan. Like you said, the case is almost ours.”

Annan’s face was almost buried in her bosom but he kept shying away from it. She sighed, and took his hand and placed it on her left breast. “Won’t kill you to touch it, Annan”

His eyes snapped up at her in shock. So he hadn’t figured out that she was playing him yet? What did he think it was, providence?

She harrumphed angrily at what he did next, lifting her up like she was a doll, and placing her away from him.

“I am… sorry Sazna. I really like you, but… I love someone else.” He said, looking down. She lifted his head up by his chin and looked him in the eye, “Well, what she doesn’t know couldn’t hurt her, now could it?” He simply shook his head and said, “You misunderstand. She doesn’t know it yet. I’m not saying no because I can’t. I am saying no because I don’t want to.”

Sazna sighed, “You know, you remind me too much of my husband.” He was a good man, blast him, she thought. Wouldn’t give her an opportunity or a reason to cheat on him. it was that behavior of his, that unconditional love that still made her think twice before approaching any man for 13 years now.

They both stood there for a couple of minutes, silently. Then he asked her, “How is Rezma paying her lawyer?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged, “I think he’s representing her for free.”

He muttered something to himself, which sounded very close to : But he doesn’t do anything for free. Maybe she misheard. Maybe. But it was a valid question. How was her daughter supporting her lawsuit? She would have to check her locker once they returned home. But first, there was a case to be won.

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