Baldwa says, "We had taken pictures of Anushka's prize giving ceremony in prep school. And within half an hour they were emailed to family in Calcutta, Pune and Mumbai. It's amazing to be able to share the happiness within a few moments!"

Putting up pictures online has reached a level of near fanaticism. It has redefined what it means to take pictures and store and display them. Guilt no longer grips those who cannot send reprints to friends. With online photos, all you need to do is zap them across as an email attachment.

Archana Mathur, senior image executive at Perfect Relations, used a wedding album with templates at weddingsutra.com. Images of her engagement and wedding helped her reach the moments to her friends. "We didn't have a scanner at home. But it's worth all the trouble we went through. Pals whom I don't chat with or email to wrote back when I sent them a link. It helped my husband Rishi too, especially when all his friends who were abroad and in India could see what I looked like and see what the festivities were like in a matter of a few days!"

Cyber café owners are also doing brisk business. Says Alpesh Vora, the owner of Satyam Infoway, Mulund, a western suburb in Mumbai: "Almost 25 percent of my customers use my scanning facility and usually scan at least a minimum of two to five images. Usually the images scanned are of family functions or of themselves!"

"More chatters also result into more pictures," says Vora. "Most chatters love to scan pictures of themselves or view pictures from their chat friends as that is the only way they can actually see or known them for real. So pictures become an integral part in their relationship. In fact, we educate them about online albums like those on Yahoo! or Ofoto which they can use easily or even use messengers to transfer pictures rather than use email to send their snaps!"

Even the family photo albums are being eviscerated in the name of scanning and storing. Says 65-year old Ganesh Navkal, who has been steadily extracting years of family photo albums to scan. "It's a great way of dusting all those old pictures and having a lot of great pictures come back!"

Agrees V S Babu who has scanned all his old pictures of all his sojourns to different countries all over the world. "I've used my knowledge of XML and a PHP script to create a slideshow and uploaded it to my site. It keeps the memories alive for me…"

But contrary to popular opinion, film may still prove more durable than digital images. If stored properly, conventional color photographs printed from negatives can last as long as 75 years without fading. Photographs archived on a computer hard drive are not so easily preserved. Not only have computers been known to crash, permanently wiping out their contents, there are limits to the longevity of other large-capacity storage disks like CDs.

In addition, as hardware becomes obsolete, transferring files to a next-generation machine can be tricky. And storing photos with online services, whose continued existence is uncertain, does not necessarily guarantee longevity.

Such concerns are not uppermost in the minds of those smitten with this new way to take photos. Even those who cling to their film cameras concede there is something to be said for the immediate gratification that comes with digital photography.

Nikhil Goel, an amateur photo enthusiast and software programmer at Smart Bridges, says that he puts pictures online primarily to let his pals know that he's got a better camera and has managed better shots than them! Goel has a digital camera and hence finds emailing friends quite simple. However, he admits, "I would recommend people to use online photo album services as email space is premium these days!"

Even electronic albums, software programmes gussied up to look like the real thing, complete with a page-turning function, are beginning to catch on. But despite the hype, digital cameras and the Web aren't close to replacing old-fashioned snapshots and the family photo album. Especially because of the missing tactile experience. Says Archana and Rishi Mathur who have retained hardcover albums too, "There's something about flipping through an actual album with prints. You can remove them anytime unlike your online picture albums that one has to get connected to view."

Hotshot grandfather Rishabh Iyer The Manis live in a suburb of Bobmay. But they don't miss the joy of watching their triplet grandchildren grow up in San Diego, USA. K V S Mani is a 68-year-old grandfather. But his effort at becoming proficient with the use of the PC, the Internet, a Web camera and a scanner, has helped him keep up with his grandchildren. He fees technology has narrowed the distance between him and the triplets. "They send me pictures often via email or on messengers and I see them once a week. It is fun to see them play and grow up." Manis' mantra for maintaining a better relationship with his grandchildren is simple: Store more pictures, have more Net meetings and use the PC-to-phone service for voice chats. "My grandchildren are quite young and don't really know how to use the computer. But they are supervised when they come close to the computer." He now plans to buy a CD writer and copy all his pictures on to discs. He spoke with Rishabh Iyer to explain how online pictures have changed his world: How and when did you get introduced to computers? My son is working in America and his work is concerned with computers. Three years ago, computers were the talk on everyone's lips. So to keep up with the generations, I decided to become computer literate. I was 65 then. How did you go about learning to use it? When I got the computer I found that it was very complicated. So I decided to go in for a course to learn the basics. I enrolled in the NIIT Swift programme for 15 days and I learnt a lot. So much so that I decided to buy a computer. I was excited to see this new technology. I felt young talking about this to my relatives and friends. Why did you feel the need to use the computer and the Internet? Initially, the computer was used to store files and documents. This made life easier because storing files and finding them in the house is a difficult job. I wasn't taught about the Internet during the course. However, I would tinker with the PC and was eager to learn about it. On my own, within a few months, I found how to connect to a modem and get on to WWW. I got an ISP connection and started looking for major portals. How often do you use the Net? When? I use the Net daily. I eagerly look forward to chatting with my son and for new mail. I also make money by surfing new sites and perform few tasks on the site and they send me money through the new e-gold service. That's how I make my surfing time pay for me! What was the first thing you did after you got an Internet connection? I got my email Id. Then I browsed through the major portals and looked for various subjects that interested me on the Yahoo! search engine. When did you decide about buying a scanner and a Web camera? When my son came down to India, he got me a Web Camera. This would help us to see each other. When I went to America, I saw that he had pictures on his desktop. When I asked him, he told me about the scanner and showed me how I could store photos. Since I had a lot of pictures, I got a scanner from USA. Ever since I have been scanning and trying to organise my pictures on different sites. I have created different homepages for my son and my daughter and also for different relatives. I have also scanned a number of old pictures passed on by my ancestors. The pictures would get worn out in the photo album but on my hard disk they are safe. Or at least till there is a virus attack on my computer! Did you have any trouble with this gadgetry? How did you solve the problems? So far I have had no trouble. I keep these gadgets clean and use them carefully. I read the manual regularly and get these gadgets checked with the engineer once in a while. The camera is a lovely thing. And I use it very delicately and have never shaken them in rage! Initially, the scanner was slow and I would get irritated. But since in the US, we were allowed to exchange this, I got a brand new one. Even though being in India, one is used to things happening slowly, but I experience 'Net rage' everyday when my computer operates slowly or my Web page refuses to download. But I control my anger and don't get worked up with my computer by shaking it or hitting at it in frustration. If I do so, it is I who stands to lose. Do you chat with a lot with strangers? I chat with only family and friends. Though I do chat a lot, I don't like strangers. I feel that strangers should not be trusted. You never know when they could break into your computer or send you a virus. I never go to chat rooms and advice people to do the same. What do you think should improve on the Net? The crowd using the Internet is huge. The ISP services must do something to improve the speed. Their servers are down often. Also, I wish Internet sites are updated regularly. Once I went to a site to look for something and it showed me results from two years ago! Do you have an online photo album? Yes, I have an online photo album in MSN communities and Geocities. I also have a homepage. Nowadays no one knows about his or her religion. Therefore I have stored a few articles on Hinduism on this page.