I started my session saying I want this session to be interactive. And, all the tricks that I'm gonna discuss here are breakable. Nothing can secure an online image 100%." I guess people heard just the 1st part of it but not the 2nd half. 'Coz the session was really interactive, almost every person in the room voiced his / her opinion on it; so much so that I myself didn't get much time. Before I could explain how one particular security can be bypassed, someone or the other would start exclaiming "Man, this is also breakable ..." so and so. In short, the session didn't go as I'd planned. I just wrapped it up. Anyways, I've wrote in detail about all this trick in my tech blog iWizard Prevent Image Theft : Total Guide.

Next there was a session on Mobile-Blogging by Arun. First he showcased his Photo-Blog and then introduced us to the on-the-go approach to blogging. As he stated, we can simply click a pic and post it on our blog - just in a blink. He also showed some other famous photo blogs. I must say, this did ignite a passion for mo-blogging in me. I already do have a Photo-Blog Leonardo. Posting on it from my mobile would be great.

After lunch was done with, BarCamp TShirts were being given away at the temporary reception counter. 'course there was a huge line for it. Afterall, that's gonna be the momento of this event. Got my 'M' sized TShirt [ which turned out to be a little short for me ] and headed back to the L12. Post lunch, most of the people were just idly waiting for the sessions to start. Some were having a discussion @ open spaces. That really felt like a picnic. L12 restarted with a session on 'Monetizing your blog' i.e., how to earn money using your blog. Some people did take a lot of interest in that. But gradually some people were getting bored. Some seemed extremely drowzy. Even I was on the verge of collapsing in sleep at a time. But then recovered. :D

The highlight of the day was the following discussion on "What does a blogger does better than a news paper report". This was brought about by Subbu of IndiaTogether. Several people woke-up, took notice and participated actively. They raised several issues of curbed freedom of a reporter and as such. At the end, there was this suggestion that bloggers must get a chance to have their posts published in the print medium to reach a wider audience. This was appreciated by one and all.

Slowly, the End of Day crept in and we all headed for the auditorium for the closing speech. It was already crowded as usual and Arun was giving the closing speech. Chennai Bloggers were making their presence felt being cheering on every possible context. And then, Arun announced that now on BarCamp will be held quarterly every year. My instant reaction was 'Yaayyyy...!!!' but then I quite didn't like the idea. If World Cup is held every year, then there won't be any charm in it. Same goes here. But anyway, as I've missed many a things in this edition, am eager to join the next one asap.

I was on a clicking spree then. Final shoots of BCB4. BCB4 was the 1st event where I fully utilized my newly acquired Cam-Phone. Took almost 150 snaps in these two days. And they are not as bad as I'd thought they would be. In fact, the output is quite good. After the final shoots, I headed back home. again, was too tired.
On the left is the news clip from Bangalore Mirror.

Catch all the action of BCB4 - both days at my PhotoBlog's Post B'lore BarCamp 4.

When 28th finally came, it was the 1st saturday ever when I woke up before 9 AM. Didn't quite know about the location of IIM except for that it's on Banerghatta Road. After reaching Koramangala Signal by bus, I didn't want to take a chance with it any further. So, boarded an auto instead and reached IIM comfortably. But once @ the registration counter, I was kinda lost. I was totally alone there. Every other person I saw there was with someone. Only exception being me, who was just wandering here and there. I could see Hari, Sreedhar, Ashwin, Himansu and Arun there. But they were already busy in their own schedule. Sanjukta --- where is she....??? She's kinda our team lead. :) I suddenly felt like a little boy lost in a fair, searching frantically for his parents or elder siblings. Well, being introvert has its own deficiency U know.

Anyways, after the registration, I was inside the Auditorium which was already packed. "I'm in auditorium of IIM"- this very feeling was overwhelming - complemented by the existance of hundreds of fellow bloggers under the same roof. Once the intro was over and all were out of the audi, I was again at a loss. Where do I go? The whole concept of BarCamp was a bit unclear to me. There wasn't any centralized discussion or something. The whole event consisted of 'Collectives' - different sets of related topics and participants can attend any talk that interests them. It wasn't just any other conference, but an Unconference - a space where every participant is a speaker. But can I attend anything I like, or was I supposed to be with our 'Bloggers Collective', as I still didn't know the schedule of the session I was supposed to take.

Anyways, I joined our 'Bloggers Collective' which started with the topic of 'Podcasting' by Sreedhar, followed by 'Blogging Platforms' by AJ. He covered all major platforms but eventualy was vying for Wordpress. What he forgot to consider is that when a newbee enters the bloging world, he's generally reluctant to spend any money on it. In such a case, a self-hosted Wordpress blog is never an option for him. Anyways, his session was followed by an interesting session on 'Widgets' by Krishna. His presentation is available in PDF form here.

Much time of this morning session got spoilt due to the prevailing chaos caused by people trickling in slowly. It was kinda difficult to trace what's going on in which room due to the last minute schedule and room changes. Then almost everyone had a problem getting the WiFi connection to work on their laptops. AJ walked around the room helping them setup their connection. Once the systems were up, several people started blogging live. How I wished I had a laptop too.

There I met Jerry, one of the Mutineers. A couple of days prior to that I had received an invitation to join Mutiny tech team but I just wanted to join Mutiny as a blogger. So, I discussed this with him. He said he absolutely loved my blog's UI which ofcourse delighted me. And later he introduced me to Sandil, another mutineer, which again felt great as I had never been introduced to anyone by anyone apart from my dad doing so on social ocassions and Munish [my team manager] introducing me to my team mates the day I joined Ness. But the embarrasing thing was I didn't interact with Sandy well as I was engulfed by a totally different thought at that time. I might've appeared to him as a total idiot.

By the time lunch was over, it had started raining. But as most of the campus was covered, or atleast the area which we needed to use, the rain didn't dampen our spirits. Within 3 PM, all were back in action. By this time, I had come to know that Sanjukta is from WB and my session is on 29th. So, I just headed for the Audi, where jayanth and someone [sorry I forgot his name] was taking a 'guitar' class. He explained the nitty-gritty of Guitar playing with utmost care to everybody. The way he was discussing it, it made me think that even I can play it like magic. After that was done, I was kinda tired. So, headed for home. Overall rating for the day - disappointed. My non-interaction with others contributing a great deal in it.

Read about the 2nd day of BarCamp in my next post.


The flash slideshow above is just a glimpse of the huge no. of pics clicked during the BCB4. Check all the snaps @ my PhotoBlog Leonardo.

And ya, the pic on the left is the news-bite BCB4 got in Bangalore Mirror. Mid Day has also featured it but I don't have a clip of it.

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

Check what other Bloggers are saying at this wikipage.

Pheeew. Now I am feeling a bit relaxed. Whole of last week, I was juggling with lotsa request from visitors for the spoiler, the overwhelming response to the poll, the notice from google, my site crashing under the immense load, 1000+ visitors on a single day. Readers from world over tried every possible means to reach me to get their hands on the spoiler. They left comments, dropped me a mail and directly chatted with me. I couldn't help but reply to all of 'em. It's really been a very VERY busy week, filled with anxiety. So much so that eventhough I had the full spoiler with me and was talking 'bout it with my readers, I myself couldn't read even a single page of it. So, I guess my wait isn't spoilt ...!! Think I'm "evil cunning monster"...?? Ohhhh, please don't fret. I wasn't waiting for the release with all eagerness. If someone else told me the ending, it doesn't matter to me. I don't eat n drink n sleep HP. But, ya. I do like this series and adore it.

I guess this is the last post of my blog's Harry Potter series. As U prepare yourself to dive into the ocean of HP's adventure - lemme take U through the happenings in his life - right from the very 1st time. Read the quick recap here.

That would be all for now. I know nothing comes close to the excitement of tonight. So, won't bother U much. Grab the book ASAP and do let me know how did u like it. Meanwhile, have a look at some pix from the latest Harry Potter movie #5.

I just couldn't believe my ears. Again all my past experiences surfaced. Rising from the rubble, getting a 2nd chance - trying hard and again failing at last round. So, I feared it's gonna be again like that. Anyways, I had to prepare no matter what. Next few days, I was sent back & forth; the interview always getting postponed. The feeling that "It's not gonna work out" - begun to sink in. There was this gap of 3-4 days when we had no contact from Ness or LuminUs. So, in a way, I almost accepted that it's over. But again there was this call for HR interview. And this time I made it.

1st day @ work didn't go as I've always dreamt. All day - we new joinies had to wonder around - waiting. And when it was time to leave - we were given a lot of paper work to fill in. At d end of d day - I returned home with a giant backache. Things improved only when I got my "Access card". Now I can enter my cubical straight away. The feeling of being a part of this place begun to sink in. Then some days back I got my ID Card - with the Ness logo and Emp. Id. No. That was a high in its own context. So, 1st week went by simply with some high.

There's been no good interaction with team-mates till now. There's been a b'day party last Friday. But not much interaction took place that day. Hope we can break the ice quickly. There's a fresher party tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

I'd have loved to upload some pix of my team-members. But I'm not having those at present. Have asked Deepti to send me some. Will upload when I get those. Till then, just wait...

Anyways, lemme cut short to the events of the fest. Wen I reached the event spot, some of the events were already over. So I missed a great chunk of the fun (And I really mean FUN). Nxt was a dance prog by our juniors. That went pretty good - honestly. But the better one was by Pavitra. She set the stage on fire. NXT - the much awaited fashion show. The first model to walk the Ramp - Pallavi C Kamath, nickname - Mammoth. Do I need to say more. (Hope she's not reading this. Else she'll stomp me) That was the traditional round, where Rani was also a part of. All other stalkers were drooling. (even though she has put on some additional 5 or 10K weight.well, that's the level of frustration in our college). The show saver was the hip hop round where our class representative Niroop appeared. Then there was this group song by all the final yr students of ISE. That may seem emotional to some, but we can surely see a virtual wall between the Northies & southies - a wall that is never gonna break.

U know what, I m not here to tell you fest events actually. Actually It's 'bout events there after. At the dinner - there she was under the tree. Can't bear her sight these days. So, just moved away from there. Cut to Raghu's shop outside campus. there we friends sat in a line & wished every outgoing bus "good night". That was really kool. Then back to hostel - some chit chat at the stairs - some photo shoot - back to room.

Back in room, I found out that Rani has given her Mobile No. to my room mate & asked him to ask me to call her whenever I want to. And from the time I've seen that number - it's running through my mind all the time. I am almost resiting that number like a mantra. I don't think that I'm gonna give her a call , ever. Still the no. is hovering in my head.

OK, 4get that. Some more news. Most of the girls who dined here that day - are admitted to city hospital @ present due to food poisoning. That's the magic of local curd rice. The +ve thing 'bout this is that our classes were suspended 2day for that.
I am getting bored yaar. Been in this cafe for past 3 hrs. we'll write later. Stay tuned.