Arti R

The Name:
Shehnaz Treasurywala

Claim to fame:
MTV VJ

On a scale of 1 to 10, how Net savvy are you?
I would rate myself an 8. I use the Net a lot for work, pleasure and to travel a lot!

How often do you get online?
I wake up in the morning and get online. It's almost like brushing my teeth. I log on everyday for about 30-45 minutes to chat with friends all over the world, my including my friends in Hong Kong, my best friend in New York and my cousin in Australia. I check email and then visit sites for my interests of travel, movies and trivia.

What sites do you use?
I use google.com to get anywhere, even for daily routine stuff. Like for instance, I ate a packet of peanuts today and I wanted to know how many calories it contains. Then, I wanted to go see the new Bond movie, so I got online to check when it's playing at Regal cinema in Mumbai.

What do you like and hate most about the Internet?
I can find anything online. Information on movies to even out-of-the-box questions like 'Is anger a genetic phenomenon?' What I also like on the Net is when people find me, especially old friends or acquaintances who I have met while travelling around the world. That is quite cool.

What I hate about the Net is when it is slow! Currently, my laptop is on the blink, so I have to beg my sister to lend me her PC and we fight a lot about it. She is a complete Net junkie and is online 24/7. I actually have to trade off with her saying "I'll give you my favourite blue shirt, if you let me get online on your machine!"

Also, I really hate junk mail. I wish I could get out of my hotmail id. But since everybody has that email id, I have to check it everyday. It's a vicious cycle.

What do you download?
I have never gotten around to downloading music. Though I would like to!

Do you use the Net for work?
Sometimes. Especially when I am doing shows abroad. But the first contact is usually via the telephone and then the follow-ups happen via the Net because it is easier. But I do feel that the Net may not always be the best place to judge people to work with.

Your idea of a perfect site?
My site would have lots of information, pictures and ask people to write in about my shows or movies. I also like to write and would love to do that online.

Have you ever been ego-surfing?
My sister does that quite often. I have also tried it and I think it's quite cool. But in today's day and age, everybody has a lot of information on themselves online. So it's not really a big deal.

Any strange experiences?
I've had an embarrassing one!  I used to know a half Indian, half American guy five years ago. Sometime back, I saw his pictures for some modelling assignment that he had done and I was keen to know what he was doing as we had lost in touch.

So I did a Web search and found some sites that had a mention of him along with his pictures. I logged off thinking no more of the matter. Two days later, when I logged in, I got an email from him. It said, 'Hi How are you. I believe you were doing some web searches on me'. I almost died in sheer embarrassment.

Any surprising incident that happened online?
I was backpacking through Australia and I met a Dutch guy and his girlfriend who I travelled with. Two years later, just before I was leaving from Amsterdam, I got an email from him. I was stunned because we had lost touch and he found me online despite me not having told him anything about my work at MTV.

The best part was that they even came to pick me up at the Amsterdam airport and drove me all over Holland! So I quite like friends finding me online.

Have you ever bought anything online?
I do my ticket and hotel bookings online. Most of the time, I do not like the hotels I booked into, but I usually book it for the first night I travel to a new place. Then, I scout for a new place the next day.

What did you recently use the Net for?
I used the Net to research and found a tiny, unknown but beautiful place in France. It's called the Loire Valley and has 28 chateaus. I actually found everything about this place temperature, weather, where to stay before I visited it. It was great to travel to an offbeat destination and only the Net allows you to do that.

One Web based gadget you would like to own?
A scanner, because I would like to scan and put all my pictures online. I would also love to own a Web cam and a CD burner!

A celebrity you would like to chat with?
As a prelude to meeting them in person — Robbie Williams, John Malkovich and Anthony Hopkins!

If the Net didn't exist…
Life would be so boring and inconvenient.