E-mail is incredible. It’s a superb balance of personal and non-personal communication. One doesn't feel awkward about e-mailing long-lost friends, relatives and acquaintances. (I once had my friend, who is in the US now, mail me the number of a tailor in Chennai. (It was easier that looking him up in the directory; besides, I didn't have his name.) Plus, any English will do - no caps, punctuation or grammar to worry about. Drop a line and you won't be judged by it.

The first thing I do when I come in to work is check my Hotmail account. And the first mail I open is my Astromantra. I know in advance if I should expect to get grief from the boss or if the co-workers are scheming to get me, if I'm going to receive blessings from a saintly person, whether I should spend time with the beloved. Armed with such knowledge I can face my day.

Like anybody else I like jokes, exe.files and Powerpoint slides in my inbox. I always keep in mind the preferences of the inmates of my address box when forwarding anything. Sardarji jokes to this lot, off-colour jokes to another, philosophical stuff to yet another, etc.

Then there are those chain letters. These come in three varieties: the first is the "forward this to save the rainforests," the second is the "forward to 10 people and your fondest wish will come true in the next 20 seconds" (generally the chain-mail will specify the directly proportional relationship between the number of people forwarded and the speed with which your wish will come true), and the third variety is "forward or live to suffer unimaginably horrible consequences."

The first variety I forward to everyone on my address list. It's for the good of the planet. We should all patronize such causes. I confess that I forward the second and third variety of chain letters too. Yeah, I'm a coward. But I always mention the type of chain letter in the subject so that people have a choice not to open it. For e.g, "Chain letter - open at your own risk." This thoughtful warning from me will save some unsuspecting soul from being threatened. And I forward the latter varieties only to those who will think kindly of me even after receiving these threats.

Ok, I have nothing to write about. So this little observation on the contents of my inbox.