Cant believe that I just attended two blog meets within a month! So, instead of writing each one separately, I thought I would combine the two and spare you of the torture!
The Chennai Blog Meet Nirenjan was the sooper organizer who had made it possible to organize the meet a stone’s throw away from my house. It was at this place called Java Green that has sprung up in one of the very first “malls” in chennai (after the great spencers). There were tonnes of new faces. The old ones have eloped away from the country. There were around eleven of us. Mostly it was a quiet gathering. But it was AWESOME meeting my junior at school (which is quite infamous for not being famous and is rather a joke at most gatherings) Sandhya. I had seen her as a sprightly young thing that calls “elders” like me “Akka” in school. And there was a time when I used to do the same! Sigh…what things did we do at school!
Then, there were several others all from several walks of life like Maverick, Vani (who I discovered to be my junior in NTU!), Vijay, Kribs, Nilu, Balaji (the crossword geek!), Murali, Mohanty, Ravi, Shekar, Mukunth, Arun, Ravages. The talk as usual veered around geeky things like videoblogging, podcasting and crossword puzzles (courtesy Balaji!).
I ordered Rum Colada (or was it a Rum Cocktail?) whatever, it was supposed to be a “non-alcoholic drink”. When did rum become non-alcoholic? Then I realised there was no RUM in it at all! Argh! The drinks at Java Green were not bad at all! Though I think their typography on the menus could be better!
In Pictures
The Singapore Bloggers Meet Drumrolls for the FIRST EVER India Bloggers Meet in Singapore! Organized by the efficient Kaps. The turn out was suprisingly strong! Most of the crown were freshies (ahem..like months into blogging) while there were quite a few of us old souls like Kishore, Preetam, Nithin, Me, Onkar, Himanshu, Ashwin, Sadagopan and Mitali.
There was a strong South Canara presence despite the stronger tamizh presence. And the South Canarites (for want of a better word) mused on freeing themselves from the poverty of Karnataka! Hehe, was hilarious!
The talk moved on to politics and the difference between India and China. Sadagopan and Preetam gave very insightful stories about how China is markedly different from India. From their experiences, I could gauge that China was more passionate about being a global country with a successful economy while in India there seems to be no unity on that point.
There were several of my friends there from NTU =D Onkar, Cypherpunk, Sayesha, Angelsera, and Ayekay with a surprise arrival of DVS who lives across the road and decided to join on the spur of the moment. Sherene was the lone entrant from NUS =D.
We yapped away to glory till around 6 and then while everyone dispersed, Ashwin, Preetam, Kaps and me decided to try out a Burmese food stall at Peninsula Plaza (it was preetam’s idea of course!). The food was delicious -almost like indian food except everything was made with tamrind! Some of the bamboo shoots were really stinky, but some of the other vegetables were awesome!
In Pictures