Net Worth

What happens when a group of youngsters get together online? They chat. Right. “But the chatter is not idle,limited to frivolous issues alone. We also brainstorm and come up with interesting ideas,” says Ankur Kapoor,a member of Frameboxx who has directed a science fiction movie Parallax. “It started in 2009 as a tiny,online scifi aficionado’s club with about five members. We would pick a science fiction topic every week and brainstorm it into a plot. After experimenting with a couple of ideas,we would come up with a plot outline involving multidimensional events,across space and time. This gave us a boost to start writing a feature length story. During the story phase,we decided to test the plot by executing a shorter version of the story,in-house. That’s how it all began,” he explains. The movie that he fashioned with his team mates — Inder Sagoo,Saahil Kapoor,Atul Kashyap,Parvinder Singh,Lalit Kapoor and Vaibhav Dang— chronicles the journey of a young astrophysicist who is thrown across the boundaries of space and time in an accident during a major scientific endeavor. What follows is an adventure across multiple locations and imaginary worlds. The film is expected to release by the end of the year.

Anjul Hans,a fourth year student of computer science,has meanwhile,created a blog http://www.cse0610.blogspot.com for his college,Chandigarh Engineering College,Landran,with the help of his friend Ashish Singh. “Through this,students get direct access to the latest academic and placement updates,college news and study notes,” he says,adding that there are daily updates. “The blog happened one night when we friends were online,confused about the next days schedule for the classes,” he says. The blog is linked to Google SMS Channel,Google group,Twitter,Orkut community and Facebook.

Uday Chandok,a student of St John’s High School,has also been inspired by online activities. He is busy preparing a photo album which he plans to use to put up a photo exhibition later in life. “The online photo contests inspired and motivated me and my virtual friends guided me,” Chandok says. While his regular activities keep him busy during the day,it is at night that he can indulge in his passion and turn it into a profession.

“Earlier,the scope of learning and discussion of an idea was limited to only the people around us. Now we can check the feasibility of any project through an online survey and also bring in fresh ideas from them,” says Arjun Goyal,who’s completed his engineering from Chitkara Engineering College. “I plan to start a brochure design business on a large scale. I have friends from Canada and Australia,who will assist me and one from USA who is expected to bring business,” he points out. Elsewhere,Dr Gaurav Chhabra,founder director,Humlog,uses the net to reach out to people and discuss and implement social issues. “We design our actions keeping in mind the suggestions we get online. Besides,online volunteers design our pamphlets and give us free advice on legal issues,” he says. Humlog’s next event August Kranti is also designed with online help.