Indiblogger : When I met friends just like my journey had started a year back

फिर से पब ?? गये काम से . घूम फिर के वापस वहीँ आ गये जहां से शुरू हुआ था यह सब ...

The exact thoughts going in my mind when I saw the location of this Indi meet at the B bar , Saket. Exactly when one year back when I started my journey with Indiblogger, my first meet was at the Bluefrog ( the pub) for the Microsoft meet. Little did I know that destiny would play somewhat a exact rewind of that. All things aside- I was a little afraid as pubs are not exactly my favourite places. The atmosphere feels a bit suffocating and also the fact that I dont drink. यानी की पब में पक्का भूखे और प्यासे मरेंगे .

Just 2 days back I had attended an awesome movie screening by Indi and knew that this kotak meet would be nowhere close to the fun aspect , just went anyways. Plus you cant keep me away from the Indi events, can you? For a change , no excuses needed as it was a Sunday. The only issue- calling up friends and asking for the nearest metro station- Malviya Nagar or Saket. The former looked much closer on the map but there was no harm in asking for it. So on Sunday boarded the metro and headed to the destination. In between called up a few to know whether they were coming or not? Simardeep, Jatin, Shilpi and Nimi were confirmed. Rest I`ll see when I arrived. Got down at Malviya nagar metro station and got lost . Simply because the I hate you relationship between google navigation and gps on my phone was still going on. The Gps was unable to lock onto the destination just as the last time. I had 25 minutes untill time and was in no mood to take an auto. My gut instinct told me that I must be close but with no aid, I was nearly blind.

All was not lost nonetheless. Simardeep had already told me that the bar was at select city walk. The challenge was to find it. Dialled up Nimi and she told me that it was damn near where I was, 15 mins. max walking. I concluded it to be 10 by my standard. So I asked a shopkeeper near the station and he told me the way- go straight. While I was walking, rain started to fall and jatin called up asking me where I was. Hearing where I was he told me to keep walking as it was near and talked –

Jatin: पैदल आ रहा है  ?

Me: हाँ, बारिश भी हो रही है 

Jatin: अब तो तेरा blog और भी बड़ा हो जायेगा 

Me: मतलब ?

Jatin: बारिश हो रही है ,अब तू इसके बारे में भी blog पर लिखेगा ही.. हो गया blog बड़ा .

Cant blame him though. All these close friends I have developed from the Indi circle know my writing and narration style and know the way I`ll communicate the happenings. After some more direction confirmations, headed for select city and made a basic mistake then.

Instead of heading into the parking for the entrance to the bar, headed to the main mall entrance and got lost. There was no 4th floor visible (pub`s location) physically but the directions pointed to it. The guards too confused me, “ यहाँ से वो left, वहाँ से left”. भेजा out कर दिया . On the 2nd floor decided to take a lift. Now pressed a button and no lift came, then my eyes went to the notice which said that lifts only stopped at 1st and 3rd floors. So in order to go to the bar, I`ll have to go one more story up. Finally at the 3rd floor when I entered the lift, I saw the location of the b bar displayed at the 4th button. Pressed it and cursed it too under my breath. बार न हुआ, nuclear arsenal हो गया, सबसे ख़ुफ़िया तौर पर छुपा कर रखा है . At the bar the man at the reception told me, “For the blogger meet sir take a left” and in my mind I was wondering, “ Are there roads and intersections in the bar?”. The bar was big but the actual area available to Indi was a कबूतरखाना ( u.p. language for a pigeon hole). Less light, virtually no light at all with chairs and sofas making it a bit cramped.

After registration moved forward to meet Nihal and Karthik. Spotted Nimi and an empty seat. Right infront of me was Simardeep and Manjulika. Further ahead spotted Aditya, Priyank, Rahul, Jatin, Shaivi and the most surprising face Priyanka Dey. Shilpi too joined in then. So a lot more people were there whom I knew. Good. After a few minutes it was time for get things rolling a bit to get people to do things other than just drink. Nihal asked to get selfies done with people “ Whom you did not walk in”. I was neutral, I had come alone. So the shooting spree just started. We friends hooked up with some new people and got the pics clicked. It was nice to break the ice this way but there was just not ENOUGH LIGHT. What looked ok to us by naked eyes was complete darkness to the camera lens. The innovation which started once carried forward to all. Now each selfie had atleast 2 camera phones- one was shooting the selfie and the other was providing light on the faces. We cramped as many friends we could at one go. The highest we got was I think 9 by Aditya bhasin`s phone. This madness just continued. People were using whatever light they could get to click the pics.

Selfies

With a fast wifi provided, things got a bit easier to tweet pics. With a bit of normalcy restored Nihal came up to us for a chit chat with some light discussion on music. Again I was in the firing line with him insisting that I dance and an announcement would be made in this regard. Told him that this surely was not my cup of tea. Was trying to get my eyes adjusted to this pub lighting and body to the environment. Things started with Nihal trying to get people to speak German and then asked for volunteers to do some head banging. I would have stayed in my seat but that was one thing I was comfortable with. This is was the 3rd time i was going to do it and was not ready to miss it. It was my comfort zone. From HP Music to Ambipur to now this meet, life surely was going into full rewind mode. So alongwith Akash, Aditya, Simar I joined them in the front.

Simar joking said that atlast he got me to dance. Banging head to the word “Ich will” displayed on the tv screens behind us, we got our acts together with me and aditya even going impromptu for the moment.

Time to go head banging to Ich Will

Intro session came later on with a few first timers getting their chance, it was another thing that Nimi snatched hers ( she`s a known face by the way). All good thing seemed to last only till then. It was time to get the main thing started and with this being a multicity event, we watched the live “broadcast” of the things happening in Mumbai with Anoop being the charge there. Nothing of Bangalore.

Mumbai streaming

Reminded me of tellytubbies where they say hi to the children from different parts of the world. ( दीवार कहाँ है ? सर मारने का मन कर रहा था . इस video streaming के लिए बुलाया था ?). Then came in Chetan bhagat (mumbai of course) and started with the sponsor part of telling about the Jifi account from Kotak which enabled super fast account opening with the usual points benefit. A new account gets in 1000 points which each referral getting extra points. It can be done by logging through the social media credentials. Currently only available to the individuals.

Already I was getting the feeling of a book launch and on top of that Chetan bhagat.uffff.. Interesting to note that there was no one here from kotak uptill then ( karthik was co-ordinating as fast he could). So basically we were no more than mere spectators who were glued to the streaming from Mumbai. The wifi went off and protests here got louder. I was having better luck with my data pack providing a steady connection in comparison to the others. Right then somebody in the audience in Mumbai asked something good regarding jifi and chetan was speechless. Just like Aamir asks Boman irani the question in 3 idiots in the first day of college. बोलती बंद . “Thats a good question” all chetan could say. Then some official from Kotak came and saved him from more direct firing questions. On a off day banking was too much for people, so much that in the start the people who were standing gradually shifted to the back of the bar counter to get more drunk. The effect of chetan bhagat on me was this-

The side effects of Chetan Bhagat

Both me and shilpi looked towards each other and the only question running in our minds was, “How the hell do we stop this?”. With wifi playing pranks we decided to hit the bar once again to refill juice. Firstly the barman excused us saying that it was coming, then told us flatly, “The management has requested that you watch this first ( the video).”. We both looked towards each other ( Me and shilpi) and shrugged. Looks like the bar was afraid that we all might run up their beverage bill much higher than what they were getting for hosting this meet. To get people more interested, it was announced that the first one to open a jifi account online and get 1000 points would get a flipkart voucher. Tweets के लिए नेट चल रहा नहीं था , online account खोलने के लिए अभी चलेगा . The first timers and the enthusiatic ones got down to business. I didnt care. This carrot and stick policy rarely worked with me. We surely had some winners. One person even on his laptop all the while. Then there was a prize for JBL bluetooth speakers for the one accumulating the maximum points at the end of the meet. Then it was time for the main activity. It didnt serve its original purpose but it really made my purpose ok. All people were divided into 6 teams with approx. 20 members each. We were then asked to contact our counterparts in Mumbai and bangalore and tweet what does social banking mean to us. Mine was team no. 2 named as #kpl2. The twitterboard was going damn slow so we couldnt get a lock on our team members.

Owing to the increasing number of members we decided to ditch the activity and instead focus on going to know each other instead. It was not sensible to forget the ones standing with you and rather be interested in people from other cities. This was our jackpot. I knew only Prachi and Shilpi from what people where there in the group. We started with our names.

I met Mr. Gurpreet Singh Tikku and his wife who has been blogging for quite long now. Then there were Rahul, Arsh, Dr. Manoj who is an extensive traveller and the awesomely sweet Heena, the girl who blogs about cricket (impressive). There are times when you meet people and click off instantly. That was probably the moment for the 6-7 of us. We moved to lunch because we had decided that due to technical problems we couldn’t have done the activity. A few of our team had already moved to other groups with their friends and we 6 bonded quite well. Due to the small walking space, the line for lunch looked similar to the one to a mandir darshan. Realising that it would take time for food we quickly filled our plates when we got our turn with the thing clearly in mind that we might not get a 2nd chance later on due to the rush. Back we chatted like long lost pals. Food over, dessert over and juice glasses in hand we wanted pics now and virtually no light where we were sitting, headed outside in the main area and got virtually crazy. Got Meraj to click 2 beautiful pics with all. With a glass of juice in hand, I got down to crazy antics in the pics. 

                            

Enough of standing looked around to sit for light. The table we selected had a reserved placard and the waiter requested us not to sit there. We were a bunch of mischevious kids then (yep kids). We got hold of another sofa, hid the reserved placard of that behind a cushion and got clicking. Another waiter came to request us but seeing no card couldn’t say anything. By the time he brought another card, our work was done. अब क्या फायदा जब हमने चिड़िया से चुगवा दिया खेत ;) . .

Hiding the Reserved placard under the cushions somewhere ;)

Headed inside and it was time to wrap up things for Nihal and Karthik. The prize for the most points collected on the jifi account was given to one having 6000 points and the team activity was taken by Priyank`s team #3. His team didn’t have even lunch for that. Bravo dost. एक बार जो तुमने commitment कर दिया तो फिर तो तुम पेट की भी नहीं सुनते . After their victory pic it was time to wrap it up with a group pic and head home. Saying goodbye to my pals, headed out while seeing some girl bloggers there getting quite drunk. (Their voices stated the obvious alongwith the few who had so much that they couldn’t even walk properly). Headed out the mall the way I came. Didn`t wanted to get lost coming out now.

This meet made my Indi journey come a full circle when it started a year back. The similarities go a long way –

First meet at a pub – Bluefrog. After a year a pub again – B bar

Nervous the first time too and this time also.

Bluefrog- Went in with zero expectations and came out with a start of a wonderful journey and awesome friends.

B bar- the journey continues and this time too met some really treasured new friends, each one crazy yet special nonetheless.

Its the people who make the memories and moments last for long. Although the sponsor part was nothing much to enjoy this time but the little moments here and there and the absolute craziness we made from those fun filled moments would be something to be treasured for the lifetime. I thank all my friends – new and old for being there and making those hours bearable and special.

Awesome friends

Things dont get better than this...

Captivating: The hero who feeds the ones who have no one

Narayanan Krishnan is an award-winning chef who left his job (and a prospective lucrative job in Switzerland) to follow his heart. For the last 12 years, this 34-year-old man has served over 1.5 million meals to homeless people, who are either mentally challenged or abandoned by their families and too old to take care of themselves. This man is truly a HERO.

Watch this video to know how it started :

I came to know about him 3 years while surfing the net and today I thought that Captivating needs a story on him. What he did and does is just a superhuman effort. I salute him. He already has various awards from various places for what he does.

If you wish to do your bit in helping him, head to http://www.akshayatrust.org/. Believe me, it gives one hell of a joy to help.

Indiblogger : A movie screening much better than a cricket match #SunsilkRealFM

ओये Indi check कर , किसी sunsilk मूवी की screening है .

.... हैं ?? मूवी ?? देखता हूँ ...

More than an information it was more of a command to me coming right to me from Pune. Dipali had gone there and she had accessed her mail to get information about the screening while I had no such mail. My mail account experiencing some trouble receiving announcement mails from indi. Logged into indiblogger to see a movie screening being held in delhi and mumbai the next day, Friday.. registered and then came the thought मारे गए .. Friday और छुट्टी ? बेटा चलो बहानों का पिटारा खोलो . People cook up excuses to meet their girlfriends, I make excuses to attend Indi. बड़ी नाइंसाफी है .. As usual pulled up the details from the website and posted them on facebook and tagged those friends whom I knew would curse me if I didnt let me know. वैसे भी कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता .. गाली तो वैसे भी खाता हूँ ,न बताऊँ तो गाली देते हैं , tag कर दूँ तो tag करने की सुननी पड़ती है ( भले ही information देख कर खुश हो जायें)...

जाऊँ कहाँ बता ऐ दिल , दुनिया बड़ी है संदिल...

In the night called up a few friends to see if they could make it. Shilpi was coming, Talreja was usual was busy, Simardeep had a 60-40 chance, Nimi was coming, Jatin was busy with India pakistan match the next day. He placed importance on the match , I did that for the movie screening. मैच हार गये तो हार्ट अटैक का खतरा कौन ले, मूवी स्क्रीनिंग भी miss हो जायेगी . Being a F1 follower, cricket matters little to me. The sponsor being Sunsilk raised some doubts in me about this being an all girls event but Renie`s answer told that it was for all. I was excited because this was the first time I was attending a movie screening, have done enough meets. The next day after the confirmation to Nandita from indiblogger made the excuse to go and left. Got down at Chattarpur metro station and thought to take a walk to the place considering I was well before time. This time Google navigation ditched me at the last minute, the GPS unable to lock on the destination. The feeling same as your bride not turning up for the wedding. Called up shilpi and get told me the directions advicing me to take an auto as the place was far.

Luck was somewhat on my side as I hailed an auto and told him where I wanted to go. When I told him Tivoli, he enquired, “ कहाँ जाना है आपको? यहाँ दो हैं ...garden और daffodils”. The second one was my destination. Even Justdial had sent me the info about the first. When I saw the place, I thought that the fare of 50/- was really justified and there was no way I could have walked the whole distance. Headed inside and there was Nihal and Karthik. A quick hi to Nihal and he seemed amused and happy to see people turning up for this despite it being a Friday evening. After registration, it was time to collect our tickets.

A proper ticket counter for tickets and Karthik acting as a ticket checker with a red carpet type of setting for the event.

Ticket checker- Karthik

Jockingly they proposed an idea for push ups for people coming but I knew they wont do it. Its all about having fun. So there was a popcorn booth, a photo bhooth made to look just like a dj station. There was a photographer there who would click our pics and give us the hard copies too there. Selfies are quite common now but the joy of hard print is something else.

Popcorn stall

Dj

Met Gautam, Rahul, Nimi, Shilpi, Prachi there and we got a bit chatty. Just then Nihal came up and then dont know who pulled out the topic of me holding a Indiblogger meet in Lucknow. That really got him interested. He put the attendee no. at 50 but I know that it would get atleast 100 people there if and when it happned. Good thing was that he didnt make the announcement J . Getting things started by the old format of pick the number and win something. From 1000 bucks to cookies, teabags, t shirt, shoppers stop voucher there were things up for grabs. Simardeep and me were literally shouting for our chance. At the last number left, criteria was decided- shoes with laces, no round t shirts, no black cloth, people with glasses and so on. We both were eliminated and what did the winner got.. a hug from Nihal. “ All this drama for a hug” as karthik said. First timers too got some prizes. It was time to get the movie screening started and we loaded ourselves with popcorns and got down to watch the movie. 

                           

Indi without twitter is nothing so it came down to tweeting again related to the movie. Tweet what you like, opinion and the best tweet wins something. The real fun started now. Manjulika had no clue what she was upto sitting besides Simardeep. Only I knew what would happen.

The lights go dim, the movie starts and the story unfolds. Benjamin Gilani owns a radio station by the name of RealFM and the staff threaten to quit just a day before an important meeting before 15th aug. unless they are paid hiked wages. He goes into depression, smoking ciggarettes and ultimately ending up in the hospital. His daughter takes the help of 2 of her pals and they run the radio station the whole day focussing on playing live music by people of various states to celebrate indipendence day instead of playing recorded music. Some scenes and dialogues were damn hilarious. अब दिल्ली वाले हों और मस्ती न हो? No way. So we had hooting, whistling all going on on the top of our voices. Manjulika had to bear the brunt of Simar`s shouts. I have been a witness very closely that how he does it and was glad that unlike the previous time I was sitting behind him for a change. Although it was a short movie but it really did have music and the best part came from the romantic track from Punjab and the peppy number from Chattisgarh. The last track from Uttaranchal was good as well. The usual setting of “What do you really want to do in the country”? was the filler. The movie ended with applause, whistles and the hooting again. Nice to see Veterans like Benjamin Gilani and Shubha khote on screen after so long. When the tweets were read after the movie, I had no chances but my tweet was picked up for a flipkart voucher. After sooo long I finally won something. With Shilpi sitting besides me and Gautam , I guess lady luck worked.

The winning tweet

Next what happened was nowhere what people had thought because it was not in the agenda in the mail. It was dinner. The moment this announcement was made, people took to the phone to call home and inform about not waiting for dinner. A group photo ( where I was visible after so long) , t shirts and Sunsilk gift hampers and then dinner. Nihal said to me, “ You must be having a closet full of Indi t shirts now”. The photographer now was fuming refusing to click any more pics saying that he was told 125 clicks but he had done 150+ already. He didnt knew that this was how Indi was. The videographer looked to me like the one specialising in wedding shoots, concentrating on our food plates rather than people. During dinner Nimi gave me a challenge and I had to strike a Kashmir ki kali pose with the hamper basket. Later on we headed out and off to our homes enjoying those few funfilled hours which surpassed even the India Pakistan cricket match.

The kashmir ki kali pose

Those who missed that day, missed out a lot and those who were there got a lot of awesome memories also because of the fact that it was not crowded by any means. The light crowd which I like. Really loved the different setting of Indi this time.. and furthermore Delhi rocked as my friends in Mumbai told me that the screening there was not that happening.

Nokia X : My first impressions

So after the Auto expo it was my turn to go to another event which was a launch in itself – The Android phone from Nokia. With my same friends as the last time in the autoexpo, this time I headed to the Taj Mansingh. Technology rarely excites me until its gaming, but a launch is a launch and that too at the Taj. Braving the rain and the traffic jams of delhi, we reached the venue just a few minutes after the scheduled time communicated to us of 12.30 . After a quick cup of coffee and the usual hi hellos , we headed to the hall having the launch. This launch was happening simultaneously in the other cities too and I saw 2 people whom I had seen earlier in the Indiblogger Nokia meet.

Screen

So Balaji, started his presentation with the usual history about the presentation and the history of the company whereas the other person Pranav was handling the phone. What all I am about to write now is based on the things told by those 3 executives from Nokia and also my trial usage of the phone at the meet for a few minutes- its not been used and reviewed extensively. These are my first impressions -

By the time you read this, the sales have already started of Nokia X – yep thats the name that has been given to it. The retail sales had started from that day onwards. Its priced at a best buy price of 8600 /- . 

1. The phone bears a striking resemblance to I Phone from the sides and the shape is also somewhat like that.

2. The phone is the first in the X series – the other two which would be launched within a period of 2 months would be Nokia X + and Nokia XL.

The range

3. Its not exactly a android phone. Its a normal phone which can run android apps too. Its main software is the Nokia X software platform.

4. Dual core processor with dual sim. The Micro sim slots are placed side by side unlike other phones which are one top of the other. The Micro sd card space is in between these 2.

5. Its available in a range of colours- white, blue, red, yellow, black and green. The standalone colour is green but its a tag too lighter. Yuck !

Few colours

6. The ram and battery both disappoint. RAM is only 512 mb, battery only at 1500 mah and although it states that there is 4 gb memory, only 2.5 gb is available to the user.

7. The phone handed to us didn’t have a sim so couldn’t check how the battery performs when the whole phone is used- network, calls, apps, streaming. This all would have put the battery to the real test. It was simple device loaded with the minimal of apps.

96% remaining in just 4 hours uasage..mind you there is no sim so dont know
how it would last in calls and everything

8. Nokia mix radio- the streaming music service. It analyses your music preference and suggests music accordingly.

9. HERE maps- google`s maps equivalent with a 3 d and a revolving view. Need to download the maps.

10. Skype and One drive integrated in the phone. Only god knows how it would be useful with just 512 mb ram and no front facing camera on the phone. One drive offers 7 gb of space and another 3 gb with mix radio. Total 10 gb.

The features. Its all Microsoft with Nokia

11. The camera is 3 MP. No front camera in the phone. The front and back cameras would be launched in the higher end Nokia XL. The picture quality is just ok with an absolute still hand needed to take a descent picture. Otherwise the quality is a bit grainy. Not that good.

12. The apps can be downloaded from Nokia store and the best part is this- you can download the apps not there in the nokia store from other places. If you are searching for say Subway surfer and its not there in the nokia store, it would automatically show you which app market has that app and you can click on that to be redirected to that place and can download the app from there. So you dont miss out on any app you love which is not there in the store.

13. Another feature which is revolutionary. The paid apps. Normally till now the payment is by Google wallet which is based on credit card system. Here Nokia “Indianises” this system. Whether you are a prepaid customer or a postpaid one , you can purchase an app. Just click on the purchase icon of any app, conidering that you are using 2 sims, the phone will ask that which sim you want to use to purchase the app, you select it and the app purchase is done. 

For postpaid users- The payment would reflect in your operator bill

For prepaid users- The amount would be instantly deducted from your main balance.

So now you can go ahead and purchase all the apps without being apprehensive about using your cards for making the purchase.

The payment options

14. Youtube is not an inbuilt app. You`ll have to download that app. Nearly all downloaded apps can be moved to sd card ( not the ones preloaded by Nokia).

15. Fastlane- A log showing the list of all the recent used features used. Just swipe the screen to see the log for quick access and use it.

16. It uses the single button effectively. In the phone there is a single button (similar to the home button on other android devices). Suppose you are surfing the net and need to make a call. Normally, you would press the back button, exit the app and make the call and then relaunch the app from start.

Here`s where the single button comes into play. You press the button while sufing the net, the net goes into the background ( still running) and you are shown the home screen from where you make the call and after the call can swipe the screen to access the fastlane from where you can launch the net ( its still at that point from where you had left it). Just like maximising and resuming a window on a computer.

17. You can control the number of notifications you can see in the Fastlane. The phone lags a bit in swiping to the fastlane.

                                 

18. The company provided screen guard is 3rd grade. You can easily see Fingerprints on the screen. Rest dont know how it would handle the scratches.

     

    

Focus on the fingerprints visible in the light..thats too much

19. Its a sturdy build, throw it and it wont break.. ( I have seen with my own eyes)

With only 512 Mb of ram in the Nokia X I seriously doubt its ability to handle a fully loaded phone with apps, streaming videos, a much small capacity battery (even though nokia standard) but apps can suck the life of any phone in virtually no time. Although people might say that what do you expect in 8600 bucks but consider the fact the Nokia XL which would be launched with front and rear cameras and might be priced somewhere around 11000/- would be having only 768 mb RAM.

9000 bucks for a phone that has a Nokia name but doesnt have the hardware powerful enough..think before you decide to buy it. Even though the Nokia guys were there to launch the X, they kept talking about the Lumia, lumia. I was thinking that if all you have to talk is just lumia then whats the use of this launch? They had clearly said that all future innovations would be done for the lumia, this X series was just a gap filler in this price segment. 

So here is my first impression of the X , keeping in the mind that I haven`t got the device yet to test it but looking after the specs and things, I have no hopes from this phone as there are much powerful phones from Indian companies in this price segment. Lets see whether I get the X to use and review or not? 

As for the Taj Mansingh, it was fabulous and the food tasty, hospitality world class.

कुछ.....

कुछ तुम हो, कुछ मैं हूँ ..कुछ तुम्हारा ख्याल सा है 

कुछ यह रात की ख़ामोशी, कुछ अपनी तन्हाई है 

कुछ यह सर्द रात और कुछ तुम्हारे पास होने का एहसास सा है 

कुछ यह आज का वक़्त और कुछ पुरानी यादें हैं 

कुछ यह मेरे दिल के कहे अल्फाज़ हैं , कुछ यह अनकहे जज़्बात हैं 

कुछ यह मेरे इर्द गिर्द लोगों की भीड़ सी है , कुछ फिर भी खाली सा है 

कुछ यह तुमसे दूर होने का दर्द सा है, कुछ यह मेरा इश्क़ सा है 

कुछ यह जानी पहचानी सी गलियाँ और रास्ते हैं , कुछ यह उनमे अकेले चलने का डर सा है

कुछ यह घड़ी की टिक टिक सी है , कुछ भागता समय सा है 

आईने के सामने खड़ा हूँ मैं , मगर कुछ अक्स आज भी तुम्हारा दिखता है 

कुछ नशा मुझे मेरी दीवानगी का है , कुछ तुमसे इश्क़ होने का है 

कुछ यह मेरे दिल की धड़कन है , कुछ तुमको पुकारती आवाज़ है 

कुछ यह मैं अधूरा सा हूँ ..हाँ अधूरा ही तो हूँ तुम्हारे बगैर 

अधूरा.. खाली पन्ने पे कुछ चंद लिखे ख्यालों की तरह 

अधूरा ... बस अधूरा ..

कुछ तुमको खोने का दर्द सा है ....हाँ , तुमको खोने का दर्द तो है ..

कुछ ...

400 : The Indiblogger baraat and the skyscanner honeymoon

400 लोग ? इतने सारे ? भीड़ कितनी है .. no , it was not any wedding invitees you are expecting on reading this. But it was more or less of a baraat as I was referring to this indiblogger meet. In my 7 meets with indi I have never seen so many people and the previous 2 night meets with 300 people seemed to be a bit cramped and the same location of oberoi became a bit tedious.

I saw a lot of my friends backing out looking at 400 people and I too voiced my apprehensions in that regard on the forum although I was eagerly awating it as it was a Saturday day meet which suits me so well...a bunk from the office and I can be as crazy as I want to be. On the day itself, it was the short walk from the central secretariat metro station to the Le meridian. Was waiting for my friend Anupriya to come and join me at indi. My school mate and it was the first indi meet for her..I?? I am a veteran now and just like all times jatin calls me up an asks , “ कहाँ है तू , कितनी देर में पहुँच रहा है ”. He knows I`ll be there in delhi meets. Like the previous times, this time too I was before time. Just when I was contemplating whom to call and ask, I saw aditya jha and his gang of friends turn up just outside the hotel. After the formal intros we went inside. A security checkin and we proceeded forward. It was kind of deserted at that moment. Saw Anoop , Vineet, Renie and it was the usual hi hellos. It was still time and things were being setup. Untill then, it was time to meet the old buddies- gautam, meraj and a few others too. 

                            

After some time the registrations started and we ventured inside. The hall was huge and I liked the ambience. Grabbing the front table we settled down with a few first timers too. Then the lot of my best buddies came in – Jatin, Murtaza, Talreja. It was the usual laughter as we started towards lunch, in any baraat food is the first thing on the agenda...here too it was the same.

Rabri on the tweet

After an awesome meal headed back and I started finishing off the toffees in the bowl on the table. In a few minutes only the wrappers were left in it. 

All finished by me...

The meet started with the usual anchoring by Anoop and congratulating everyone for making this the biggest gathering, I was in the firing line from the start. Anoop told that I (me) had apprehensions about the chaos of 400 people and its time to show them the chaos as Indi is known just for this thing.. Haan haan ultra मशहूर कर दो .. पहले से ही बहुत नाम है :p . The Indiblogger ghost makes his appearance once again...while anoop was busy with the mike, firstly the ghost was operating the laptop and next he was playing pranks with a paper plane to the amusement of a few kids present there. The ghost seems quite tech savy.

The ghost pops in at every meet...he is tech savy to operate a laptop

After that it was time for the sponsor presentation. It was undoubtedly the shortest presentation I have ever seen on indi meets. Ms. Kavitha from Skyscanner outlined the features of the site and the advantages it offered in comparison to the other sites. The classic format is back so how can the way of giving away the goodies be behind? Out of this huge baraat, people were made to stand whomsoever was wearing red colour, with a jacket, having an analogue watch and finally the ones left were gifted skyscanner goodies.grrrr... I missed out. As per the huge protests, Anoop himself admitted that Indi can be unfair sometimes. 

The pendrive

The last time I won something was way back in the HP music meet. My bad luck just continues. Just wished that I hadnt worn a watch that day. Next was the most fun activity. We were asked to click selfies and upload them on twitter. Selfies with friends, as many as we liked and as many people.

It was all about the clicking of snaps and the phones coming to use. With no front camera on my cell I knew i was in trouble. Help arrived unexpectedly. A new friend I made Gautam had a phone with a front camera and so we went around clicking pics with friends in ballastic mode. Dipali was leading the way and I was holding the phone and clicking the pic, looked just like the videographer at the wedding. What started with 2-3 people in one click soon turned into one massive one at one point of time with atleast 6 people in a single frame and my hands were outstretched to the limit. Ouch.. 

Overstretched.....sab gir pado ek dusre par

So there were various pics with my friends- Indu , Yogita, Gautam, Jatin, Murtaza, Harshit, Abhishek, Sakshi nanda all gracing the frame at some point of the time or the other. Gautam`s phone had 14 pics of us but only a few could be uploaded on twitter. We again lost out as someone who had clicked 18 selfies got a gift. It was a domestic ticket .

Next people were asked to tweet the destination they`ll like to visit and with whom...prizes for grabs here too. The main actitivity followed. Just like a treasure hunt, 14 places famous for a few things were listed and we had to plan a travel starting from the Vatican and using the Skyscanner app to calculate the perfect way to visit all tht places and be back. We were team no. 4. Armed with skyscanner app in 3 phones we decided the route to our journey and came to a total cost amounting 1.54 lakhs for 14 places around the world which included places as far as australia, middle east, europe and India. A team had posted 2 lakhs and we thought we had beaten them. 1.54 you`ll ask how?

The 14 places

We did a Zindagi na milegi dobara stunt and included road trips to 3 places. Cost- 0 . So here`s how we got to such a low cost. While we were planning this trip, the tweet results were announced and I dont know what happened but Aditya bhasin screamed and ran outside to collect his prize. The fun activity seeped the energy out of everyone as we headed to tea. Delicious savouries and again had a fill. It was a tongue smacking affair. After tea the 4 selfies were shortlisted for the prize. Going by the vote of the audience the winning pic got domestic tickets to a destination of their choice. 

The Shortlisted people

The winning pic....check the expressions

Results of the hunt were announced and due to some discrepancies in some travel or the other, the team winning had a total cost of 4.7 lakhs. Lo... here we are going economy travel and people are busy on फ़िज़ूल खर्ची . कहाँ 1.54 लाख और कहाँ 4.7 ? Self proclaimed winners (not the real ones) had already clicked the pics and now it was the turn of the real winners to have a group photo.

The travel hunt winning team

Next came in the introductory session with people reciting their travel experiences. So we had women going to middle east, some visiting korea and some people visiting 8 countries in 2 years. The most interesting tweet in this regard was something which said that First travel South delhi fully, then think of south korea.. so true.

It would have been great if it were just short descriptions but here people kept talking and talking so much that it felt like they were reading out their blogs. To the point is not everyone understands. The 8 year old girl from the previous meet wanted to go to Disneyland and I would say that the best travel tip came from Mr. Ravindra Sharma who is an Ex Indian Army. He simply said that first travel within the country and explore it and then go abroad. Its so true advice. I myself have discovered a few places in the country and I know that how much beautiful it is. With a group pic and the usual masti the meet ended. Not to forget Aditya Bhasin playing the humorist role by his tweets, you have got to read his tweets to see what he was upto that day.

400.. 

It was a day meet after such a long time , had over 400 baraatis and the honeymoon was probably made complete by skyscanner when it handed over domestic tickets to destination of the choice of the winners, the hashtag #skyscanning trended in Delhi on twitter..something which has never happned in any of the meets till now. And वैसे भी हम दिल्ली वाले हैं ...जिस भी चीज़ के बारे में tweet करेंगे वो तो trend करेगी ही . Indi needs to keep this format going. In comparison to the night meets, this one is a more relaxed format. When i look back at the activities, I see very few that day but dont know ehere did the time flew by.. probably in the company of friends it just vanished.. 5 hours just vanished. 

Us

It feels a bit odd to go 5 meets without winning anything.. No baraat is complete without friends and I wouldnt have enjoyed as much had it not been for my friends that day- Dipali, Gautam, Harry, Rahul, Priyank ( at least he made it to the correct day this time), Meraj, Indu, Sakshi, Yogita, Jatin, Murtaza, Abhishek, Harshit, Aditya (both of them), the blogger Khanduja family and the others too whom I saw but just couldnt meet. Its them and the indiblogger team which helps everyone be really crazy as they are.

Waiting for the next day meet and hopefully my next prize this time.