I was at a loss initially. Meeting all these new people for the first time was kind of uneasy for me, being sort of introvert n all. But gradually, I was at ease. We started by introducing ourselves to the gathering. Well, that didn't go well. There was lotsa noise and we can't hear what he / she was saying. So, didn't quite get the names of all. When it was my turn, my voice kind of got husky [ 'phate bans jaisa' as they say in Hindi ] in my attempt to make it loud. And when I said I have some 5 blogs, I guess it sounded unbelievable [ 'fek raha hai' ] or funny [ 'blog maniac' ]. Thank god I didn't say that apart from the 5 blogspot blogs, I have some 3 other blogs in LiveSpace, Vox and LiveJournal. That would've sounded like a total freak.

Anyway, people were still trickling in, which was good to see. The more the merrier. Poor Sanjukta. She was again n again asking if we are done with the intro, "Let's discuss the agenda". But, it's difficult to manage 40+ people, specially when they are avid blogger youth. Even waiters were having a tough time taking their orders. Either all were saying what they want at the same time, or weren't responding to him at all. I guess he must've thought that we are doing it deliberately. Poor waiter - he's surely gonna take a sick-leave next time any Bloggers' meet is held there.

Anyways, once the intro was done, Sanju took center stage, named 'Blogspot'. "Decide agenda for the main event - BarCamp", to be held 28 - 29 July. That's what we all are waiting for. Well, lotsa ideas came forth. MicroBlogging, Copyright Issues, blogging tools n platform etc. I suggested 'Security of images in web'. Huh .. finally. That's one topic I was hell bent on sharing with others but wasn't getting any way to do it. Now I have a platform. That's what this meet was all about - sharing n enrichment.

Then there was this discussion about setting up an web NGO [ not National Geographic Online, as quipped by someone ]. The points that Hari put forward really holds water. We, the youth of India, just go on complaining about things but never try to take action on things. This is high time that we voice our opinion and also spread the awareness among people. We can't always depend on Govt. to do things. It's our duty to take care of our society. Let's do it, buddy.

Then there were Himansu and Ashwin. They talked about 'Wings' and 'Nisarga India', their plans to give strength to physically challenged people, taking them on adventure outings etc. That was really heart-warming.

After all were done with their Coffee and drinks, it was time to wrap it up for this weekend. I was like - "What....!! It's over ...!!!". Looked at my watch which was showing 2 PM. Didn't feel like, though. Sridhar became the B'day bakra, received some B'day bumps. One o one, we left for home.


That was a great great weekend after a pretty long time. I'm generally not comfortable with meting new people. But there, everybody seemed familiar. Not just hypothetically. There was this weird feeling that I've been here before, have met all these people; U know like those ESP moments, when U have this strong feeling that U've lived through this exact same circumstance before. But if I would've told this to anyone, like say Preity seating next to me, she would've thought I'm hitting on her. Anyways, my point is, it felt like I'm with my long lost friends. I guess, that's the essence of Blogger Community. Looking forward to BarCamp for two additional reasons. Firstly, I've never been to any IIM or IIT or IISc and second, I'll impart some knowledge on Image security.

In the meantime, here are some people who attended the meet. As I said, I didn't get the name of them all, Guys, do leave your names, whome I've missed here, please.


Image courtesy :

• Arun Ramarathnam
• Jerry
• Jayanth

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