Yet, somewhere in the flurry of life between an early wedding and motherhood, many modern women in urban India become housebound. Until a few years ago there was little escape from this forced loneliness. And then came the Internet.

Sana Grover was married soon after she finished college. A baby was born a few months later and Sana lost touch with all friends. Bound within the four walls of her house, Sana discovered wings online: "The Internet convinced me, that I was not just a wife, not just a mother… but also plain old Sana. The same girl who could have talked about the latest film in town and giggled with friends. My instant messengers are my best friends now… I cannot live without logging in to check mail everyday. In fact, I have now started working from home because of email, Instant messengers and the Internet!" Sana is 28, housewife and mother. And thanks to the Internet, now, a journalist.

Cut away from the fast changing world, Monideepa Sahu used the Internet to rediscover her relationship with her son! "I wanted to check what he surfed… And I ended up finding a completely different world online. I called on two young software engineers who were my neighbours to help me with email and troubleshoot PC problems. Initially Ranjit sent test messages to check if I could email and helped me if I goofed while sending attachments. Then, there were emails just to say 'hi'. So though we were living in opposite flats, we usually met face-to-face only once a week. But because of the little messages that went to and fro, my elusive neighbour and I became pals. Even though he left the place two years ago and is currently in the US, we still chat and email. It's been a three-year-old friendship now… There are times when we fight online because I am chattering away like a train and I get only monosyllabic replies from him. At other times, he wonders how I deal with my teenage son and even gives me advice as to how he thinks I should deal with him because he thinks I am too soft!"

For Monideepa, her exchanges help her break the convention of making friends within her age group. "I don't think youngsters, or those I have met online, are frivolous. They come across as very articulate, intelligent and not all of them are troublemakers, like one thinks! I find that online, I am able to talk about anything and everything and sometimes even confide more than I could in person. I've even received a lot of gifts from my online friends." Monideepa feels younger as she makes rare friends with people "half my age and the ability to write humour because of my exchanges. That's what surfing the Net has done for me!"

So, what do wired women really want? Community. Information. Connection.

Agrees Dr Sunita Garudi, who has retired after years of work at Bombay Hospital. Sunita has her own blog and uses the Internet to reach out to her son who is living the US. She says, "Learning how to blog has helped me keep in touch with the latest technology. Now, that I look back, having retired from my job to take on care-giving for my 86-year-old mother has isolated me somewhat from other people, blogging keeps me feeling more connected to actual people - not just anonymous sites. I believe that we, seniors, have a certain amount of wisdom to share. Just by telling our stories, we remind ourselves of how we got where we are and why we are who we are, and we discover what we still might want for ourselves in the years we have left.

For Sunita, getting to know other people of her son's generation through blogging has given her a better understanding of his struggles to find a place for himself in a world that's so incredibly different from the one she grew up in. "When my daughter presents me with a grandson this summer, I will be that much closer to being able to understand the world that he's going to grow up in. I hope that I will feel as connected to that one."

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 -- Men and women use the Net differently
 -- Ten sites for anything a woman could want