Bombay Bloggers Meet - ekdum dhamaal

Driving into Infiniti Mall, Versova for my first bloggers meet, my mind was full of random thoughts. Will it be fun (beyond anything I’d thought), will there be pretty women (yes), will there be young nerds and geeks (yes), is Bipasha Basu really coming as our mystery guest (no), is food and daaru on the house (no).…and before I knew it I was staring at this big table in the middle of the place full of conversations, writing, yelling, laughing, talking. Fun. This had to be it. Bombay bloggers rock and how.

Mojitos, beer, cigarettes, abuses, flame-baits, flames, cameras, ice-cream, waffles, coffee.

And then the conversations.

Reservations, virginity, smoking, if-life-was-a-bad-word-what-would-it-be, The Times of India, IIPM, cooking, food, blogs, scum, low-lives, King Circle, Bombay, Kashmir, Pappu, ex-boyfriends, geeks, nerds, IIT, IIM, Himesh Reshammiya, Altaf Raja, Amherst, and much more. What else would you expect ?

I’ve heard of putting faces to names, but putting faces to words turned out to be a completely awesome experience.

So I’m in this corner that has Saket, Akshay, Divya, Evenstar and Vijayendra. Amit and Saakshi are at the centre, while the other side is occupied by Saket, Ideasmithy, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, John Nash (ok, ok that’s Gera, Parijat and Piyush), Selvin and Anthony. With that kind of a group, there are several threads of different conversations all happening at once. Immense fun.

We discuss reservations. Most are against it. I try to play the devil’s advocate, but Divya forces me out. Not good.

Next up – virginity. Woman bloggers Utd join me for a collective Boo! (I say "up yours" is still better) to all the men who demand virginity and consider it a personal matter of choice. And a vocal NO - demands for your prospective wife to be a virgin is not the same as demanding one of your same caste. (someone shouts flame!, flame !, flame!...I realized it was me).

Ideasmithy talks about how a blogger calling himself peskybuthonest is randomly going after women bloggers. It's good he didn't make it to the meet.

When I light up, I actually hear a woman blogger say “You know I think smoking makes a man look good”. Yes, this was real, but said party admitted to old-boyfriend syndrome. Said party also said “I suck at smoking”. I thought that was the pun of the day….no month. But she’s brave enough to try a puff and comes close to asphyxiating.

I catch the word “IIPM” and stretch out to ask Amit how we can shut it down. He says, well boss, they’re not doing anything illegal. Simple answer. I grrr and gaaaahhh, but admit he's right. He talks about the Times of India selling editorial space. I let off a few abuses. Unfortunately he has to leave to cover the India-West Indies ODI. IIPM and the TOI will have to wait.

Bombay. Ah finally. Akshay talks of Dharavi and its self-sustaining economy. Rattling of statistics from the Economist on how this massive slum is an integral part of Bombay that can’t be ignored. Evenstar talks of her trips, her photos, and why they have the patra on the overhead bridges (so that no one can spit on the tracks). She’s also leaving for Amherst soon. Sniff, sniff, I’ll miss her lovely photo posts.

Snap poll by self to everyone present. Delhi, Bombay ? Bombay wins obviously. But I did catch someone whispering to me “Dude, you’re asking this in a Bombay bloggers meet being held in Bombay”. I ignore him. (Delhi-lovers, this does not qualify as flame baiting).

Our resident geek. Mr. Gera (no, no first name, he insists) walks over to our side flaunting his baldness. I notice later he is also open to people fondling his bald pate, but only in downward strokes, not upwards, it hurts. Yes – you missed this. Google-bashing follows and webaroo DVDs (?) are distributed to everyone with the promise that IBM laptops will follow. Someone disses this idea saying “do you think we’re IIPM students!”.

If its Bombay, it’s Heem-esss-bhai (note the Gujju pronunciation). Divya groans saying she can’t take it anymore. I tell her to give in. Believe me its easier. He actually sounds good. When you can’t fight it, can’t resist it, try giving in. It’s not that bad. I go “oooooooooo”, am booed instantly, but find support in the new Bajaj “Jhalak dikhlaaaaaaaja" ad. I almost launch of into “Hai, hai, dil ki baat sun le, yaad sataye teri” and “A-a-a-a-aashiqui teri, ja-ja-ja-jayegi jaan meri”, but something tells me it’s not a good idea.

With the TGIF round coming to an end, Saakshi suggests coffee and waffles. No brainer. We congregate in the food court. More conversations.

I chat up with Parijat – one of the IIT lads. He amazes me with his clarity on what he's going to do and what he wants in life. We have a brief discussion on IIT, IIM, investment banking, etc. Also turns out that he and Piyush are also school pals from Jaipur.

Anthony talks about his cooking blog and how it gets 700 page views per day. I couldn’t talk much to him, but I’m seriously considering taking up cooking classes to increase traffic on my blog.

I tell Saakshi I liked her post on the Akbarally employees. We lament their state and the indifference of the media in reporting their case. Sad and true.

Finally, and woefully, it’s time to leave. Given the crowd and the chaos and the fun, I missed out on further conversations with Saket, Saakshi, Anthony, Selvin, Vijay and Ideasmithy. I look forward to all of it and much more in our next meet.

Phew! For all the three hours that I was there, it was one fantastic event that has left me thirsting for more.

Bombay bloggers – you rock.

More posts on the event
Amit Varma
How many roads
Parijat
Saakshi (with photos of the meet)
Vijayendra (talk about silent waters running deep..)
Selvin
Anthony
Vulturo