The LinkedIn Proposal

On Friday June 7, 2013 I suddenly decided to pay a visit to my LinkedIn account after almost one and a half year. I'm a really lazy person. So when I got into a comfort zone (read Job), I decided to stick there (so far). Then one day, out of sheer instinct and boredom, I decided to update my profile and accept the 200+ connection requests that had been lying pending. Let me describe what followed via a timeline. So here goes - 

8:28 AM: I boarded my usual Thane starting local onward to CST and started accepting the connection requests. Most were from people from reputed organization – some known, some unknown. But as it was LinkedIn where the purpose is to make professional connection, I never gave a ‘careful’ thought as we give before accepting friend requests on other social networking sites. 

(In a way, it’s a lot like Indiblogger where you hardly know anyone personally, still there is a mutual trust based on professionalism and the common passion for writing.)

8:58 AM: The train reached Dadar and by that time I had finished accepting all the connections.

9:06 AM: Right after passing Byculla, I got this mail from a guy from a reputed IT firm of Pune (Since I have nothing against the Company, I prefer not to reveal its name) –

My eyebrows started rising as I passed from the 2^nd to the 3^rd line, and by the time I had finished reading the small yet insolent proposal, I was fuming. Had it been on Facebook or the once-upon-a-time Orkut, I would have just ignored it. On LinkedIn – I just couldn’t. It had been just 8-10 minutes since I had accepted his connection and there he was proposing to me, quite probably because we shared the same surname.

9:12 AM: I reached CST with a determination to get back at this unwanted and unprofessional Ashiq. How dare he misuse a professional network??!!

My attention span to my regular work at office was highly disrupted that day.  As Facebook-worms we are, the screenshot of the mail was uploaded on FB before midday. Friends reacted - some found this hilariously ‘epic’, whereas others felt outraged.

5:00 PM: I finally replied to him. Again, since it was LinkedIn, I tried to be as much polite to him as possible. This is a screenshot of the FB post -

10:00 PM: I got a reply from this guy saying "Expression can be done anywhere if felt from heart". Ignoring his poor usage of English, I thought of asking him if his heartfelt expressions are automatically generated by just seeing a girl's profile pic; or by knowing that the girl has the same surname. If that be the case, you can easily assume how many Bengali/Nandi girls he would have tried his luck on, before me. Man! He is an insult to my Nandi clan and I feel so damn ashamed of him.

But this time I decided to ignore the message as I wasn't interested in a conversation with him; or rather I was afraid I will lose my sarcastic demeanor and start abusing him. So I removed him from my connection and decided to forget the issue.

Sunday, June 9, 2013, Post Midnight: The comments were flooding by now and some friends even shared the post, determined to find this guy.

2:00 AM: I was contacted by a friend of mine saying he found this guy on FB. Bingo!  My friend had messaged this guy on FB asking if he had proposed someone on LinkedIn (Ouch! Wrong Move). And he told him - If that was him, he wouldn't be surprised if the rejection to his proposal lands up on his wall within few days. Now, I don't know if there was anything more in their conversation, but shortly afterwards, Mr. Now-Infamous-Nandi deleted/deactivated his FB profile. Quite simultaneously he sent me another mail on LinkedIn saying "It was mistake to add u in my friend list. Try to give value to person".

1. First and foremost it reminded me of a good old saying - "Ulta Chor Kotwal ko daatein"...Who does not have the basic values - was it me or him?
2. No one gets such 'Free ka Publicity' for such an Ill-English-Proposal. Show some gratitude Dude! :P
3. LinkedIn - as I have been repeating throughout - is a professional network. It does not have 'friend list'. If anyone thinks they are making 'friends' by adding LinkedIn connections, they are hugely mistaken. And even if you consider them 'friends', do maintain the professionalism.
4. Well, sometimes we got to tell such coward guys - "Wrong Girl this time..."

P.S. No, I haven't abused him back yet.