SMS Flirtation

I just read this article on texting in India today. It talks about how young people in India flirt with each other via text message nowadays because social and cultural constraints prevent them from flirting with each other the way western youths are able to. The article was written almost a year and half ago, but it really made me laugh because last summer, when I was in Chennai, I gave my phone number to a group of guys that we had hung out with a few times, some friends of a friend. About two days later, one of the guys sent me a really cheesy poem by text message. I kind of wish I had saved that poem because it was so cheesy that it was hilarious. The basic jist was that he was my “true friend” and so he thought of me at all hours of the day. And then it ended with “Good noon!” Being the oblivious person that I am, I was pretty puzzled by the poem and just assumed that he had sent it to all of his friends, but that wasn’t actually the case. Anyway, I definitely didn’t read into it, but I did think it was a funny poem to send out. Too bad I nytimes.com wasn’t my home page back then to clue me in.