Meet the strange stranger

In the world of random video chat, some will do anything to impress

I often find myself staring at people of unique beauty in buses and the Delhi Metro. But I just stare, and seldom move a lip. All of a sudden, you feel, communication has come to a standstill.

But, if you are a compulsive talker, the kind who will blurt out to a complete stranger, hope's nearby. Websites Chatroulette and Omegle propose to break the ice and let the agitated stream of consciousness bottled up in you run off. And yeah, forget all the laws of propriety as you experience the thrills and spills of surfing a random, fathomless succession of strangers from across the globe. You see them, they see you. You talk to them, they talk to you - or not. It's like speed-dating tens of thousands of people.
 
Omegle was developed in March 2008 by Leif K-Brooks, then an 18-year-old high-school student in Vermont, US. It aims to bring together people based on common interests. Chatroulette was created in November 2009 by a Russian named Andrey Ternovskiy (then 17 years old); it pulls you into a game of roulette - the site connects webcams on a random basis.

In the age of Facebook, where etiquette and accountability threaten to squeeze the fun out of the web, Omegle and Chatroulette promise to bring the wild, wild web back. Both let you see a live video of a person on the other end. Flip and you are confronted with another. And the queue to your living room stretches across the globe. So, an endless stream of people keeps parachuting into your life (and you into theirs). The thrill of who, or what, will drop by next is sure to grip you.

Before these sites, there were consequences for uploading your antics to the web: nasty comments, legal and image issues. But now you have the opportunity to act like a nut online and remain anonymous. Just go on to the next webcam when done entertaining (or staring at) your current buddy, and, behold, there is a new person to amuse.

Nothing can really prepare you for the next encounter here. Even as your finest sensibilities are tested, burnt and needled by often crude and always rare sexual behaviour, such is the draw that you keep coming back for more. Once I saw a gaggle of girls get uncontrollable giggles on Omegle. My every request for the cause or reason got drowned in their squeals of laughter. I blushed red through the episode. Sexual affronts, too, are a known hazard. Once I met a gentleman on Omegle who introduced himself as a painter from Germany. He said he was looking for his muse and wanted me in a state of undress. I rebelled against the idea. Taking my reaction as an affront, he requested to leave the video-chat session.

This was gentlemanly compared to the rawness I had been subjected to before. I met a blue-eyed boy from Sweden who had filled his room with riot and confusion, and danced about it making strange gestures, all the while peeling down to his underwear. Turning against the webcam, he asked me to sing in praise of his bottom. This caused me serious pain.

Omegle unites people of shared interests. If you type India as an interest, all you get are semi-naked males. (Only the diehard will do that in this winter.) So, I typed that, kept a sharp lookout and, lo, was rewarded by that rarest of sightings for which every 'bird watcher' converges here: a female. "I come here because my boyfriend dumped me. People give me compliments on my looks. This is a confidence booster." She twirled her hair round her finger before resuming, "I am generally feeling insecure and my self-esteem is low." In the fast-paced world of video-chatting, you only pause on the pretty. And after the pause, the game goes on.

With so many lurking around, what exactly are they looking for? "It's not such a difficult question. Under the spandex and fetish gear, we're all pretty much the same, all pretty banal," says a man wearing an iron mask on Chatroulette. A woman who is a high-school teacher in the US seems to have no soft spot for perverts: "The website is overrun by screwballs."

I met a UK teenager who longed for romance. "I use Chatroulette regularly, since, well, I am a bit of a loser. So, one time, after having skipped a bucket of losers, I actually get a woman. To my surprise, she is good-looking. So, I just stare at her. However, I start getting suspicious. I notice she hasn't moved or blinked." There is fraud here, too. A picture or a pre-recorded video of an attractive woman could fool the majority into thinking the feed is live. "I lose hope and shut the browser window. My hopes are like a dream deferred, a rum raisin in the sun, slowly melting away from me."

Many describe random video chatting as addictive. I wish to be over it, and pass the torch (anyone interested?). Till then I will keep clicking the play button again and again and again.