Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2009: 1:30 PM
Anoop and I were at Yeshwantpur railway station and we boarded the Sampark Kranti Express 2629. We were off to the Delhi NCR IndiBlogger Meet 2009. Ah, only if life was so simple.
Unfortunately for us, only at the station did we know that we were still on the waiting list and our names weren’t on the confirmed list. Oops. Anwin’s list of unlucky escapades with trains continue. Earlier incidents here, here and here.
And, after a lit bit of deliberation and a lot of phone calls to and from Renie, and after consulting two contradictary TTEs, we boarded the train onto 3rd A/C with a computer printout for a ticket. All went well until after about an hour when the TTE comes and asks for the tickets. We somehow managed to elicit a bit of sympathy and understanding from the TTE (along with a couple of other passengers in the same compartment) and we were given berths. Ah, only if life was that simple again (sigh!). Unfortunately, the TTE could only give us berths until Pune after which we will be at the mercy of the next TTE. Damn!!!
Friday, April 3rd, 2009: 11:00 AM
The next day we all got a bit apprehensive and decided to consult the next TTE. And, believe it or not, we showed our faulty ticket to the ONE person we really shouldn’t. He he he he he. If you haven’t guessed it yet, it was the Head TTE. He was very nice to us and asked us to pay a reasonable amount which was the fine plus the ticket fare to Nizammuddin Station. Fair enough. Except, we have already learnt that life is not that simple. Right? So, as usual there was a slight problem to the solution. We could only get seats in 2nd class sleeper and no A/C. Ha ha ha ha ha. But, the upside was that it wasn’t too bad a journey at all. We slept well and reached Delhi and then our hotel peacefully. And Renie joined us at the hotel.
Saturday, April 4th, 2009: After 2:00 PM – The Delhi NCR IndiBlogger Meet
When we reached the Microsoft office at DLF, Gurgaon, we had a pleasant surprise. The meeting hall was quite roomy and had a very nice ambience. We could see the blogger meet unfolding before our eyes as we took in the room.
With all things setup we found bloggers strickling in one by one and in groups. There was this blogger called Ankit who had come quite early, in fact, he entered the hall with us. We did meet 4-5 bloggers from the previous Delhi meet, like Kinshuk from OSSCamp and Desperado. And the Delhi Bloggers Bloc was represented, including twilightfairy.
Pic – Anoop flagging off the meet
After a few tweaks we had the Delhi NCR IndiBlogger meet going. This was the first time that the IndiBlogger team had put up an IndiBlogger presentation to start the meet. Renie, for IndiBlogger.in, talked about our inspirations and how the open source community and the bloggers have been the most supportive of our endeavor.
Pic – Renie talking about IndiBlogger
The next was the ever popular ‘1 minute to fame’. Every blogger had time to talk about her blog and what they were passionate about and blog about. There were quite a few laughs. But the big prize for humor went to Mr. D Ravindran who had quite a few jokes and funny anecdotes to share with the Delhi blogging crowd. He had the whole hall of bloggers begging him to stop. Yes, he was that funny.
Pic- D Ravindran talking about his blog
And then we started the ‘Live and Let Comment’ thing where everyone had to hang a chart paper over their backs so that people can come and comment on the physical ‘blog’. This was also an IndiFirst for the IndiBlogger team. We wanted to try this novel way of getting the bloggers introduced between themselves, network, learn about other blogs, etc. And boy we enjoyed it. I speak here as a blogger rather than and IndiBlogger. I loved speaking to and commenting on the ‘blogs’. After which we gave away some T-Shirts as prizes. Mr. D. Ravindran got one for being the funniest blogger, and some others for quite a few incidental reasons like the person who could find the first spelling mistake in their blog posts.
And then the session on IE8 by MS started. This was a very refreshing session with a lot of feedback, criticizm, apprecation, skepticism and understanding. I now check that there even has been a couple of reviews on the meet and IE8 as well. Nice.
pic – Abhishek from MS
After the IE8 session, Twilight Fairy – a blogger from Delhi and a founding member of Delhi Bloggers Bloc, started the Social media & its copyright aspect session. This was an eye opener for a lot of bloggers at the meet. Twilightfairy and a few others were very vocal about the fact that not everything on the internet is free. The discussion went on to discuss what is legal in using other people’s views, pictures, videos and other material from the internet.
And then, we broke up for some pizzas and lots and lots of soft drinks and coffee. And the networking.
Pic – Kinshuk
To wind up Kinshuk from OSSCamp spearheaded a discussion on how ‘blogging and social media can be effectively used for internal communications and encouraging an open environment for all types of organizations – startups, hospitals, corporates, etc. This was another kickass session with all the bloggers joining in and discussion their views. Finally, it was concluded that blogging and other social media could be a very efficient channel for encouraging open communications within an organization.
Pic – The last photo at the meet
Find reviews on the meet at IndiBlogger
And then the IndiBlogger team met with the Delhi Bloggers Bloc at Cafe Moccha. Hmmm… nice place, especially since they had so many books lying around. I managed to read Asterix in Britain there.
Then we went back to our hotel where we kinda started another one of our ‘inspirational’ sessions that lasted until 5 in the morning. After which we left for the railway station. And we traveled another 40 hours to reach Bangalore. Damn, that train is a bit slow.
And, it was good to be back in Bangalore after 5 days of traveling and a Delhi Blogger Meet. Until next time, it is goodbye from Anwin.
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