When the haze radiating off your desktop increasingly replaces the soft glow of candlelight dinners, and the music you’re playing is usually an MP3 download, honey you’ve arrived! It’s the new age and you’re not geeky any more, just getting jiggy with it!

Why Net Romance?
So, while wooing your man in a room full of people may sound more like exhibitionism than anything else, for the professional stuck to her computer all day, every day, romance via VSNL and through the chatroom is an increasingly tender mode of expression — wires, outlets, inputs et al.

And the best part is, unless your comp’s internal censor board (read virus check) walks across the screen and shuts down the proceedings, chances are you’ll keep burning the midnight oil in more ways than one.

Words on screen can be as powerful as the spoken thing. And what’s more, the added safety of being seemingly invisible to your partner, often lends you the courage to say what you otherwise might not. Too meek to ask a guy out? Couldn’t tell him how much you enjoyed last evening? Or want to share that erotic dream you had of him?

You don’t even need make-up or a snazzy outfit or to wait to pick a moment — when you’re online, just the excitement of finding your loved one logged on is turn-on enough!

The options available to you for chatting/logging on are ICQ, Freetel and Powwow. You could do worse, and opt for a messenger service, whether Yahoo or Hotmail, to find yourself clacking away all day — it’s cheaper than SMS, less tedious to make out the words, and far more exciting in terms of immediacy. You can add emoticons or just use them by themselves to brighten up that special someone’s day.

In Your Eye Lover!
Long-distance romances are now a thing of the past, with web cameras perched atop your monitor. The WebCam digital video PC camera DC2110 comes at a market price of Rs 4,500, though with some research, you will find a second-hand one for as little as Rs 1,500 at online auction sites.

Try sites like Baazee (http://www.baazee.com/static/Category107.html) and Indiatimes (www.auctions. indiatimes.com).

Which means you CAN now show off that new slimming dress you just bought and find out if he likes your hair like this!

For that sensually romantic evening (even across the seas), pretty yourself up, with heavy make-up, hair — the works! Light some candles, dim the lights, play some music, boost your sound cards and sit down at your desk (this works better on your home comp, of course) with a plate of luscious oysters and voila! Your evening out has now crossed all barriers of time and place. And hopefully, you’ll have him rushing to book his tickets to get back home to you!

Net Togethers