From the media

Are looks important? Should a woman be smoking? Who did Mani Shanker Aiyar spike in his latest column? These are some questions doing the rounds of Delhi's cyberspace.

Fourteen-odd bulletin board services (BBSes) in the capital have got computer buffs chatting in silence. From exchanging software and computer games to home recipes and music trivia, BBSes have opened up a whole new world for surfers in cyberspace.

Manu Kaushik, 17-year-old, started BBSing after he was gifted a modem on his birthday. He now runs Twilight Zone, a popular BBS in Delhi. With the help of a personal computer, a modem and a telephone, Manu's subscriber can dial his number. If the line is free, the user is logged on to the network and can automatically access it. They can browse through files, download or copy them down and pass on information to others.

The system operator (sysop) - in this case Manu - acts as the moderator, as it were, while host of callers log on to interact with one another. "The best part is that all this comes for the price of a telephone call," says an user.

Raj Mathur, a senior executive has been BBSing for the last year and a half and now his seven-year-old son has also joined the fray. And as one speaks to Prashanto Roy at PCQ-Online, two requests come in for an `account'. In fact, eight to nine people register with his BBS everyday, Roy says. And most users have accounts with more than two BBSes.

Delhi's BBSers, are a growing tribe and a very close-knit one at that. Twelve BBSes have come up in the last one year and the subscriber population here accounts for nearly 50 percent of the country's (almost 4000), according to PC Quest magazine estimate. Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Ahmedabad and Pune have one each compared to Delhi's 14 even tough CIX, Bangalore's only BBS happens to be the first one in India.

For the initiated, BBSing is fast emerging as a new sub-culture. For many BBS users, calling in is like getting a fix, much like going to the club, watching TV or playing chess is a compulsive need for some people.

Most are young professionals who rush back home everyday to be in front of their computer terminal. For many, watching TV, socialising or any other form of relaxation at the end of a hard day's work is unthinkable.

Instead, they unwind browsing through the day's E-mail, getting hold of the latest monster game or chatting with their best friend (who they may not ever have met) over Delhinet.

Manu says chatters on his BBS talk about just anything - their existential crises, their love life or how to repair a microwave oven. They play games like food-fight (a game where people throw food at one another) and car-racing on-line for hours.

The activity gains momentum as the night ticks by and many are at it till the early hours of the morning. "I sleep barely for two or three hours a day," says Roy of PC Quest. Aman Anand, the 16-year-old owner of Wondernet (he is the youngest BBS provider) slips in a couple of hours even before examinations.

Some BBSes are popular for particular areas of interest. Status, for instance, specialises in service oriented areas. It offers on-line shopping services, medical advice and Internet mail services, while Twilight Zone specialises in entertainment. ECTC-net reviews restaurants, offers travel options and a food and beverage forum where recipes are exchanged.

Bombay's Live Wire! which puts out the latest share prices, understandably has the highest number of phone lines - 14. Headnet, a Delhi-based BBS, picks up Live Wire!'s information and provides it to Delhi users. Live Wire! also provides India's only erotic forum. "But a bikini shot of Madonna may be the most exciting visual," says Prashanto Roy of PCQ Online.

Some even offer incentives, Twilight Zone offers CDs to callers who keep in touch most often.