S. Bhattacharya, a retired government officer, was first introduced to the Internet days before his only daughter left for California. ?Initially, I would go to the neighbouring cyber cafe and ask the man behind the counter to check the email account my daughter had opened for me. It was a while before I actually dared to write back. Now, I regularly exchange mails with my daughter, and other friends living abroad,? he laughs.

Bhattacharya is among a growing number of senior citizens in Calcutta caught in the Net. But that number is still no match for Mumbai or Delhi, confirms an all-India research, conducted in December 2005 by the Internet & Mobile Association of India, with Crosstab Marketing Services.

If the top nine cities account for more than 77 per cent of our Senior Netizens, Delhi leads the list of most frequent users with 23 per cent, followed by Mumbai with 22 per cent and Chennai with 12 per cent. Calcutta and Hyderabad share fourth place with four per cent. Calcutta can take heart from the fact that Bangalore oldies are even less Net savvy, at three per cent.

City seniors may be slower on the draw than their Mumbai or Delhi counterparts, but their usage pattern fits in fine with the rest of the metros when it comes to the reason to click and connect.

Email to keep in touch topped the usage charts, followed by surfing and searching, reading news, chatting, banking and stock trading. Checking out matrimonial sites, presumably for their grandchildren, also figured as a cause to click.

?Senior Netizens above the age of 61 are a fast growing group online. With India?s Internet population poised to reach 100 million by 2007-08, from the current 38.5 million, the absolute number of Senior Netizens is expected to rise to three million by 2007-08,? states the Internet & Mobile Association of India report.

Self-taught Senior Netizens are often as enthusiastic and regular about logging on as the youth brigade.

Take theatre veteran Rudraprasad Sengupta, who now uses the Net every day.

?Like most people, I picked it up through random trials and now I find it very useful not only to reach out to friends but also for various kinds of research... Nandikar is into collaborations with theatre groups of Sweden. We also participate in international theatre festivals, so I have to keep in touch constantly through Internet,? Sengupta explains.

The Internet & Mobile Association of India found the greatest number of senior Net-users to be retired persons (54 per cent), followed by self-employed professionals, senior executives and mid-level executives. There was distinct gender divide, with 87 per cent users being men.

?The results of the survey have been encouraging, as they have given us a directional view on what to expect in the near future,? adds the report.

What one can expect is more senior citizens joining the ranks of Partha De Sarkar, ex-Wing Commander, Indian Air Force.

?My son bought me a computer in 1999. I had already retired by then, so I took a course at NIIT and began to use the Net regularly. I use it extensively, as I send articles on travel and defence to various publications around the world,? says he.

The survey also found these Senior Netizens to be regular users of plastic, with 80 per cent using an ATM card and 65 per cent a credit and debit card.

The link between Net and plastic lies in the fact that 31 per cent use credit cards online, 16 per cent use debit cards online and nine per cent use both.