How did you get hooked online?
I got hooked online because of a negative phase after the Miss India Contest. I had lost and all my efforts had come to nil. So, after I ran out of books to read and channels to surf and still couldn't sleep, I turned to the Net. It gave me an outlet to talk to anyone and helped me alleviate the loneliness at two in the morning.

It was a place where I could just talk... The first time I entered a chat room, I did so as a guy. Nobody spoke to me :) Then I surfed for some information on Ricky Martin, and then, after my GRE, for universities abroad. I was hooked.

Looking back at the last four years that I've been online almost every night, I realise that the Net has given me my best friend whom I've never met. He's somebody I write an email to every time I'm in distress and sure enough, there is a mail in return. He's almost like my daily diary. And we share a fantastic rapport, connecting on a completely different level. It's nothing remotely like a girl-boy affair. In fact, he's seen my pictures and I haven't seen his. Initially, I wanted to meet him. But now we are so comfortable with each other that I couldn't care whether he had buckteeth or was short, fat and ugly. He's not even in the same country. This power to connect via the Internet fascinates me!

How often do you surf?
Earlier, I was hooked all the time. Now, I surf for an hour or so every night. I'm a Net junkie and I do everything possible online: I enjoy mailing; I use the Internet to find information about free courses at universities; I'm a major chatter and chat with more than seven to ten windows open at one time.

I even play games like checkers with anyone online and I download tons of music. Besides, I check out medical information for my grandparents, whenever they need to recheck anything. Another good way of spending time is reading reviews, plots of old English classic films or artist profiles, which are fascinating.

Which are your favourite sites?
I regularly check sites like rediff.com, msn.com and indiatimes.com, which get updated all the time. Msn.com is my homepage and I frequently use it to search for information. Though, if I need detailed information in a hurry, I use google.com. I also surf beauty and fashion pages, tarot card sites like tarot.com and astrology sections.

What about chatting?
I love to talk. I can make conversation even in a shopping center. That's why I enjoy chat rooms. Of course, there are always the usual sidey comments like 'do you want to chat in private'. I used to chat on MSN, but now their rooms are full of crappy talk. I'm not being pro-West, but I find foreign chat sites have more intelligent conversation than our regular Indian ones.

What I find fascinating is how a nickname can determine how many chatters you get. When I'm Cleopatra, I get beeped for private conversations all the time. But when I'm Gauri, it drops by half. Oh, and when I'm a guy, no one wants to talk to me... But with a name like hottie16 or spice something, I'm flooded with messages!

Have you had any strange experiences online?
After chatting with a '24-year-old' man for about eight months, we decided to meet. Can you imagine my shock when I found that he was actually 47? It completely freaked me out. When I asked him why he didn't reveal his true age in the past eight months, he said, "Nobody likes to talk to older men, especially past 40. Besides, I thought even you would be lying about your age!" That's when all the pieces fell into place... He always sounded mature, suave, opinionated and different from the other 24-year-old guys I had chatted with. But I think he was hiding behind the Internet. Because this man who was always chatting so much online, couldn't mutter more than a few words in person.

After this incident, I stopped talking to this man completely, despite the fact that he was always an absolute gentleman in our chats and even when I met him in person. But I just couldn't trust him anymore. And ever since, I don't want to know a person's age or his location. I usually just say, "We are online, so lets just talk. No specifics!" But I can generally make out a few things... Most teens talk utter nonsense and get straight to the point: "Do you wanna have sex with me!" The 24-year-olds talk about contemporary music, football, hip-hop and like to sound cool, whereas the 35 pluses talk more about the world. They talk politics and have strong opinions.

Have you ever been ego surfing?
Very often, and I quite enjoy it. I've found 26 pages about me so far :)

It might freak out a lot of people to find so many things about themselves. I, on the other hand, would be quite perturbed if my film or my acting in it was not being discussed. That would scare me, because I'm in a profession that calls for my work to be in the limelight. If people were not talking about it, positively or negatively, it would be quite scary!

What do you like or hate most about the Internet?
I like the easy access to anyone, anywhere. I've also seen firsthand how the Net can save lives. A virus that caused a protein breakdown infected my 12-year-old niece. She had a leg pain one day, and then a thigh pain. Next day she was dead because her heart muscles had stopped functioning!

However, two more children affected in this outbreak were saved because their doctors used the Internet to find the cause of the disease and how it should be treated, unlike my sister's doctor. My niece could have been saved too, if the doctor had known how to put the Net to good use.

The negative angle is that the Net is addictive. It's so easy to get hooked.

Is there a Web-based gadget you would like to own?
It would have to be an MP3 player because I download a lot of music. In fact, I haven't bought a CD ever since I realised I could download MP3s online. I believe the music of my film (Sur) is also being downloaded a lot. And that thrills me to no end.

Also Read:
-- Aarti Chabbria: The Web works for this young actress
-- Jimmy Shergill on fast cars and slow connections
-- Dipanita Sharma is dumbstruck by the Big B
-- Richa Pallod enjoys ego surfing
-- Aamir Khan likes to play chess online
-- Madhu Sapre logs on to check the party scene
-- Sameera Reddy is a Net junkie
-- More in Celebrity Surfing