Victoria’s secret 4


Now that I have got your attention completely, let me tell you that the secrets mentioned here are Twilight’s and not Victoria’s. And they are not even about lingerie. Since I have got the page hits and the relevant clickable ads, and what with most people already having made a hasty exit from this page, I can peacefully share my secrets with a handful of people, and with lesser questions asked.

I was tagged by Amit for letting out 5 secrets out of the bag. Ritu had also tagged me long time back with something abt 7 things people don’t know about you or some such. Forgetful Patrix ruefully admits that he forgot to tag me for this tag. So here we are with some things (I think) a lot of bloggers wouldn’t know about me.

1. I wear specs/contact lenses. Yes. Specs started from grade 6th. And I happen to be from that generation of females who perfectly agree to “men don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses”. So very aptly, I switched over to contact lenses when I joined college. Though it was strange that I had almost an entire batch of girls doing that along with me! Are we a country of myopic girls or what? I do wear specs on/off (here I must mention that I have state of the art rimless glasses) but I feel more comfortable wearing lenses. It’s only now that the likes of Preity Zinta and Sania Mirza have brought wearing spectacles into fashion. Still, complete field of view is something spectacles can’t quite give. I haven’t quite thought about a Lasik Laser yet, but some of my friends are pretty ga-ga over the results. Before I move to the next secret, I must mention that the IT industry (the advent of computers in general) has by and large benefitted the opthalmic industry. Almost every single person I know (with or without hereditary myopia), needs to start wearing specs after a year or two in front of the PC.

2. I have learnt how to play the piano (when I was studying in one of the many schools I did study in and this one happened to be a convent). I have also learnt the Sitar (in yet another school). Have also shed a lot of tears when my sitar broke in transit. Though my sitar’s poignant pumpkin-bash-death never made headlines like Ravi shankar’s did :|. In college since I had no other instrument readily available, I picked up the flute. Many an evening were spent playing soulful music using the acoustics of the main hall to maximum advantage. When I started working I revisited piano lessons for a while and then took some guitar lessons too. My guitar wistfully stares at me whilst I write this. The flute can’t since it’s in the cupboard somewhere along with other forgotten memories. Am not too rich to have a piano stare at me in the same fashion while it plays “showpiece” in the drawing room. In the poor days (read student days) I used whistling as the best option to create some music. Somehow my passion for music and its importance in my life (which is a whole lot), has never made it to this blog. Which is strange. But then this blog isnt abt me. It’s more about my observations.

3. This one usually comes as a surprise to people who know me as a person. I was a very shy, quiet, obedient, introverted kid. No hulla, no prancing about breaking things or generally being a PITA (pain in the a$$ for the uninitiated). A lot of adults fawned over me as a result. Hell, some even tried bribing my parents for adopting me. Most people would classify me as a studious, serious, simple girl with no “zabaan” to speak of or speak with. Did I mention cute as well?. Only the first bit of being studious is correct. “Cute” was probably one of those words that fits in anywhere and one can conveniently use when one doesn’t know much about a person. Of course most of the above are have-beens now. Including cute.

4. I have *rather* long hair. Though this isn’t much of a secret especially with people I have met, and what with Yogu making it an open secret; I mention it because it gives me a lot of interesting anecdotes to speak of. For example how this strange lady in Paris just caught my plait in her hand and uttered something in Spanish whilst I stood absolutely shocked, how the aunty who was assessing me as a daughter-in-law commented on the length of my hair with such glee that I could see that valuation-of-property look in her eyes, how the hair dresser refuses to commit the “crime” of cutting my hair, how I once lent my plait to this guy who wanted to get in the house from the terrace. Ok ok. I got rapunzelesque there. I have been asked a lot of times “how I feel” about having long hair (duh) and of course about how I maintain it and related yada yada. Well. It’s hair today, gone tomorrow! I have been planning to write a couple of hair-raising tails .. err tales about this bit in my life, out here. Would do so soon.

5. The final secret. I have been a member of that ubiquitous site – shaadi.com since some time. The experiences I have had through this site would even put the script writer of “Mr. Yogi” to shame. Those who are unaware, it would do them good to know that “Mr. Yogi” was a TV serial many many TV serials back where he sets out looking for a suitable bride. He meets all and sundry but eventually never finds anyone suitable. I think the serial was based on the life of our own Mr. Yogi here. Yogu, please to be suing them for looking into the future and making such an exact replica of what would be your life! Coming back to my search – I have met such namoonas of manhood through this site (no perverted puns intended) that I can write a best seller based on the experiences. No details about those here yet though they make for very interesting discussion and gyaan which I love emanating.

I guess this post more than makes up for the lack of an ‘about me’ on my blog.


Qutub Naama


26th January is a fine day. Where earlier every year on this day, I would wear a Khadi kurta and roam around photographing the naked streets of Lutyens Delhi which are otherwise blanketed by traffic; past two years have seen me exploring the ‘older’ Delhi’s. This year though I wanted to go to the ‘Rang De Basanti‘ fort, in the outskirts of Jaipur, I was heavily discouraged by Lazylump for its supposedly filthy reality. Eventually we decided that we would explore the history in our own backyard. The Qutub Minar made for an interesting subject. It was almost a new thing for me since I hadn’t been to this monument since 20 years or more! Talk about “ghar kee murgi daal barabar“. Not only did I not have any recollection of the monument/visit except the fact that I had wrapped my arms around the Iron pillar, I also never bothered about history then. History was just a boring subject which was overcome by trying to remember some pathetic dates (as if formulae/tables in maths weren’t enough mind exercise). I had thought that the visit to Qutub Minar would be overwhelming and exciting what with the associated history and my newly found interest in history after all these years. If nothing it would at least be nostalgic, since it might get back fond memories of the previous visit. And last but not the least, the extensive sunlit photography that I had plans for, would make sure that the visit would be a memorable one. But as we would see, lady luck had other plans.

Lazylump and I met in Gurgaon on 26th. Republic day and we dont check out the heavy discounts? Impossible! Unfortunately the heavy discounts had some heavy rates to precede them, so they didn’t entice us. After some mall dekko, we had a quick bite after which I duly showed him my place. It was so hot that day that we incidentally had to use the AC in the car! The visit home provided a welcome respite. But we forgot that summers were actually not here, but were only giving a trailer. The sun *had* to set at the same time and would – as and when in winters. We rushed out soon, since I had elaborate plans of catching Qutub Minar with the sun’s rays providing a good photo-op. But eventually we reached there when instead of sunlit photography only sunkissed photography could have happened. But who’s complaining! I had never thought that the sunset at Qutub Minar could look so spectacular!
Sunset at Qutub
We quickly bought tickets and rushed in (after being halted by the guard interrogating where I was from – a quick hindi sentence sufficed to prove that I wasn’t a foreigner!). We could see the sun setting fast and I was practically running in order to get the last few rays of the sun brightening up my pics. In the meantime, the sunset had accelerated and the sun had gained that momentum which just meant that it would sink faster now.

Sunset in the ruinsSunset in the ruins

I really remember nothing of that time except that there was this tower and there was the sun and I had the camera. I rushed around, clicking pictures feverishly, trying to gauge for spots which would be a little higher and might be the recipient of some last dying rays of the sun. I took some quick shots of the 72.5 m high towering minaret – the tallest brick minaret in the world. Though it didnt appear intimidating due to its height (See Eiffel tower to know what’s intimidating), it appeared quite fascinating to see that the laborious endeavours spread over three generations of a dynasty and two decades indeed bore magnificent fruit! I clicked some of its nakkashi and some of its stories on high zoom, which was quite difficult without a tripod due to handshake (inevitable on high zoom). The first three storeys (from bottom) are each laid on a different plan, the lowest with alternate angular and circular flutings, the second with round ones and the third with angular ones only, with the same alignment of flutings, however, being carried through them all.

The top most storyLooks almost etherealExquisite nakkashi in brick.


Unfortunately the sun was in a bigger rush than I was and eventually said a quick ta ta. That was it. I didn’t know that the timings of Qutub Minar are ‘from sunrise till sunset’. The guards came around like ululating bats. One just ducks and tries to make ones way through.

I went further away to view Qutub Minar from a distance – whatever little was possible in that limited area right next to the tower, since all other patches had anyway been evacuated. I clicked some typical shots of Qutub with some natural framing and then rushed over to click some intricate carvings of some of the gateways.

The cliched shotQutub Minar as seen from a gateway

The red sandstone appeared so fresh, certainly not centuries old. I tried the sepia effect on one and it sure looks like a past era now.
Rich sandstone coloursCarvingsAn era gone by

The sun already set, twilight was fast approaching, giving everything a strange fascinating hue. In a rush, I didn’t even register where or what I was clicking. Whatever caught my fancy, came into my camera’s focus. The bit about getting overwhelmed with the fascinating history of the place never happened. It was only later that I realised that the captivating pillars that I had clicked and which looked very “hindu architecture” unlike the rest of whatever little I had been able to cognize, were indeed from that era. The columns had been rebuilt using the ruins of a temple built by Prithvi raj chauhan and they were part of a hall which now housed a mosque.

Pillars galoreAlmost wooden lookingAgainst the moon.

Unfortnately, I did not even glance at the Iron pillar which stands in the courtyard of the Quwwatu’l-Islam mosque, since so many uncountable centuries. It supposedly bears a Sanskrit inscription in Gupta script, palaeographically assignable to the 4th century. The inscription states that the pillar was set up as a standard or dhvaja of Lord Vishnu on the hill known as ‘Vishnupada’, in the memory of a mighty king, named ‘Chandra’ (Chandragupta II (375-413) of the imperial Gupta dynasty). A deep hole on the top of the pillar indicates that an additional member, perhaps an image of ‘Garuda’, was fitted into it to answer to its description as a standard of Vishnu. The pillar has been brought here from somewhere, else, as no other relics of the 4th century are present in the same complex. The pillar manages to attract the amazement of metallurgists all over the world as it’s still going strong after 1600 years with no or little signs of deterioration.

I really wanted to click a picture of the moon with the Qutub. Unfortunately with the guards rushing us about, I barely had the time to think about angles or unique framing so as to make an alluring capture. But eventually I was quite pleased with the results. They were probably just what I wanted. A silhouette of our desi leaning tower along with a bright moon (albeit not full – which I would cover some other day with ample time on hand). I clicked another twilight shot from the “hinduesque” mosque. Lots of smugness followed.
Qutub at nightFraming the Qutub at twilightQutub at Twilight

The guards informed us that we really better be getting out now since the “night time” entry was starting soon. Voila! instant change of plans. We would go out, come in again and do some night time photography of the Qutub now, which was something I always wanted to do. The night time entry started right after the sunset and at double the rate. On the way out I managed to click the ceiling of one of the structures leading out and then some pillars in the promenade.

Colour in an otherwise sepia historyWalkway

Before that we decided to grab a quick bite somewhere. That’s when I landed across the Bhool bhulaiya which we also discovered ‘bhoole bhatke‘ to be situated right next to Mehrauli terminal. It’s an old dilapidated monument receiving absolutely no attention compared to its neighbour in the proximity. After some time we realised that it was night and the Qutub Minar was still not lit up. Inspection revealed that one of the phases from the power was out. That ended the Qutub photo session right there.

There’s a lot more in the Qutub complex than what met the eye. The Alai minar, the Alai darwaza, a couple of notable tombs and of course the Iron pillar, all have a lot of interesting trivia associated with them and all shall be seen in a subsequent visit with more time and lots of sun on hand.

Eventually I clicked a lot of pictures within the 30 minutes I was there. The plus point of the pics turned out to be the very fact that I thought would pose a difficulty. The particular time at which we landed in Qutub Minar, not only provided a good sunset, some sunny shots, but also some twilight shots and some silhouettes. The fast changing sky gave me a variety within such a quick time span. But as a downside, before I could realise that I had visited Qutub Minar, I found myself outside. No nostalgia, no history to overwhelm me, I couldn’t even see the complete complex. BUT photography smugness followed. Apart from a sunlit Qutub Minar photoshoot, I would try to get an aerial view sometime (till then here it is on google maps with an elongated shadow making it easy to figure out Qutub Minar). And I would surely get here on a moonlit night and click away at Qutub Minar, while imagining how the scene would have been set many many centuries ago.


Gmail/Gtalk bugs – me 5


Before my usage of gmail started, there was a long period of avoiding it because of the unusual “no frames” interface, also because gmail was in beta phase (will it ever get out?) and because I didnt need the space as I already had a 1 GB spymac account (which incidentally launched before gmail did and didnt even need a silly invite). Eventually I also created a gmail id to at least “occupy” the usual id’s that I have on every other domain. As expected, they were already taken on gmail. It took me a long time to actually start using gmail for important mails (I still don’t trust it completely). Gmail certainly has some good points. The main reason why it scores for me is the auto refresh feature in mail and now also, because of the chat embedded inside the mail. I have the “option” of having at least something available for instant written communication, where all other clients are blocked (at my workplace i.e.). Though I am a bigtime “keyboard shortcuts” person, I avoid gmails shortcuts because they tend to interfere with a lot of other shortcuts applicable on my machine. Apart from the “bells and whistles” there are a lot of glaring eye sores as well in gmail. Soon enough google launched gtalk and has practically taken over every successful website on the net making ur gmail sign-in a one stop dashboard for many things. But in the process have come out some glitches mentioned here. Of course a lot of the ones mentioned are independent to the “one sign in” feature.

1. Is gmail even giving the very basic of email services – which is “somewhat reliable delivery” of email? If an email is not delivered, one should at least get a mailer daemon saying so. Else it’s assumed to be delivered. But with gmail, the best part is that a LOT of times (yes substantial enough to not be ignored) mails do NOT get delivered and the sender does NOT receive any kind of error either. Basically the mail just “vanishes” into the quarries of the internet or maybe somewhere in gmail’s huge server space. No one knows where and no one knows why. It has happened with me a whole lot of times and right from when I started using gmail till now. One would think that this abominable glaring BUG would be rectified instantaneously but that hasn’t happened. I have actually had terrible misundertandings with friends because of the things that we take for granted in this technologically advanced world of today. A lot of times I have sent important mails which never made it to the recipient. A number of times I havent received responses I expected and later learnt that they had indeed been sent. Both situations have not been good for my personal relationships. And here I am talking about just the ones I cared about. I dont know how many mails actually get delivered.

2. Use gmail with gtalk and a plethora of bugs can be unearthed. There is *always* a mismatch between the number of users one would see online in gmail and the ones in gtalk. Understandably, those who logon to gmail and not gtalk should be shown in gmail and not gtalk. But this does NOT happen. There is always a random mix. And implicitly one needs to be logged into both to actually get an idea of who’s really online.

3. A lot of times, if a person is online in gmail/gtalk both, then the online status of that person would be different in both. I am not just talking about the availability status but also the status messages ppl set for themselves. A lot of times they refresh in just one of the two.

4. Every time I come online in gtalk, it shows my last set textual status message for a couple of seconds before coming down to “available”. That confuses ppl a lot of times. Understandably they can’t fathom why I am “on phone” or “At global voices summit” or some such thing for a few seconds, which possibly couldn’t be happening at that particular time.

5. Gtalk lacks on space eventually! It’s buffer space that I am talking about here not server space. Gtalk has a buffer problem ~ 1025 lines or some such. The buffer would obviously be based on the number of characters and not lines. When it reaches that buffer, it just hangs and then one is left with no option but to kill it and restart it. Most of the times, a restart doesnt work. Switching over to gmail in the browser is the best bet. Also worth noting is the fact that if one is having a voice talk *along* with a text chat (same person) then this buffer problem somehow gets circumvented. Gtalk does hang but eventually snaps out of it on its own IFF a voice conversation is also happening. Don’t ask me how I got the chance to “test” that. And no, it’s not a problem with the RAM or the processor on my end. Both are pretty high end and all other apps work just fine.

6. I type quite fast but for gmail perhaps it’s a tad bit too much. There’s a lookahead problem in gmail’s buffer. In layman terms, when gmail is busy displaying output, the user can not go on giving more input by typing. When the user presses enter, gmail throws out the text in the chat window and clears the edit box. At times this action goes into slow motion throwing everything out of gear. One would expect that at least the app would keep taking in input but gmail clearly can’t multithread so much. Eventually what happens is that by the time gmail splashes the text in the chat window and clears the edit box, I am already done with typing another long sentence, which gmail clears out while clearing the edit box. A lot of times, to my dismay I realise that the text I typed in, is gone. This problem doesn’t seem to occur in gtalk though.

7. If you login into gmail with an id, then you will have to use orkut with that gmail id only, and vice versa. One can not have a different id logged in into gmail and a different one in orkut. If you try changing then you get logged out. Gtalk however is independent of this and remains online thankfully.

8. A lot of times gmail/gtalk shows the user as “entering text” or “typing”. Just how different is “typing” from “entering text”? Why keep two of them! Whenever any user types a character and then deletes it, the msg in the chatting window gets stuck at “is entering text”. Most of the times, this text is shown even when a user is actually not typing. Whenever the edit box gets empty, the message shd be reset.

9. Now this one is more of a lack of features rather than being bugs – Gmail/gtalk has no option of being invisible. At best, one can block/unblock a user. But that doesn’t let one be “invisible” in the true sense, since one can’t see the activity on the other side either. Through some means, it is also possible to know whether someone has blocked you or not. At least gtalk has now implemented sharing files, and offline msgs thankfully. Unfortunately it still does not allow any text/audio conferencing. Neither does it allow webcams.

10. Again – more of a customization issue – the size of gmail contacts appeared to be non-customizable – it never showed all people online apparently (which was due to the restriction in window size in gmail). This seemed to be a bug, but the number of visible contacts can be customised through settings, though it is still limited to 40 users in gmail. To top it all, even if it is restricted to a certain number of contacts, which happens to be lesser than the number of actual people online, gmail would still show you some offline/idle contacts and omit some available/busy ones! In gtalk, the number of visible contacts again seemed to be limited to the size of your screen (in other words your resolution)! But one can view a scroll bar for the same through settings made by the ‘view’ button on gtalk.

11. There is some WEIRD logic behind the various colours in the thumbnail of the contacts shown in gmail/gtalk (the ones who dont have a profile picture). Orange, blue, green and pink silhouettes are shown on the basis of something that I haven’t bothered googling so far at least. It also happens to be gender biased – no female silhouettes!

12. When gmail/gtalk displays online contacts, how does it sort the id’s? On a larger level it shows them in the order of – available, busy, idle and offline, but within them? The id’s are not sorted in alphabetical order. In fact there really is no order and a lot of times, this order is different within gmail and different for gtalk.

13. The search function in gmail doesn’t really work all the time. At times it doesn’t show up results with strings which are very much there in one’s mail database!

14. With Orkut, why can’t I see all the visitors to my profile? Google assumes that there would be only 4 people visiting me in a day? Anyway this has already been suggested as a feature, but considering that this kind of a thing is readily available in the market since many years, why did Google have to lag behind so much? Plus, why that inadvertent display of online status of gmail/gtalk through orkut, even when I don’t want to share it with my contacts? I haven’t made any settings to share my status and even then my online status is visible to my contacts all the time! There’s no way of “not displaying” it except by probably removing all my friends from my list.

15. If Gtalk crashes while you were listening to music and while displaying your music track, the next time you come online, your status would show the same song as the one you heard when it crashed, irrespective of whether you log into gmail or gtalk or whether you are actually listening to music or not.

Gtalk’s own blog isn’t updated that frequently and most discussions are about some very basic features. And lastly, Gmail “officially” doesn’t have support for other messengers. But here’s a way, one can make it work with MSN, YM, and AIM. Talk away, for that’s one thing where the quallity of service of gtalk outscores on several others.


Bondgiri 1


In this year of the 007, the new year party had just the right kind of adventure. The predominant flavour this year at the new years eve seemed to be clearly – foggy (oxymoron unintended). I had plans to meet up with college friends in Vasant Kunj. We almost gave up after seeing the fog but then somehow persevered. Delhi had been completely engulfed in a thick fog blanket in the past some days especially in the later hours of the night. I had a fair idea that it wasn’t going to be an easy drive but I have driven in swirling fog earlier too. Clutching the seat, staring out at the looming white walls of vapour, backseat driving, that is. I couldn’t have indulged in driving in such conditions with the old Maruti 800 but now that the “gentleman” is here, I was sure I could take on such self indulgences from time to time. I had the pleasure of driving in thick swirling fluffs earlier some weeks back when I came back from Elevate one of these weekends. The fog on 31st eve was all that and more. A trifle bit more.

The way till Vasant Kunj was foggy but still vehicles could move. The moment I reached Vasant Kunj, I almost felt as if I was walking head on into a white wall. But then braving such adversity had kind of rubbed in with the earlier misty meetings with the fog. It was practically zero visibility. One couldnt see the road, or a vehicle in front. One could only make out blurry outlines of car blinkers, that too at about 5 feet of a distance. A lot of vehicles were just parked on the road. Perhaps waiting for the fog to subside is what they had decided on. The fools didnt realise that it never subsides till the sun comes out or till there’s some heat in the environment. After reaching that block in Vasant Kunj which was a place I was just not familiar with, it became practically impossible to drive as I didn’t even know where to expect a turn or a bend in the road. Driving close to the pavement was impossible because of the vehicle line up. Driving close to the divider was what I had to do. Unfortunately that almost resulted in getting onto a flyover that I had to actually skip. Thankfully I managed to skip it without bumping into any of the vehicles which were parked over the flyover with their blinkers on! Some directions on phone later, I managed to reach the gate of the block I had to reach and then had to ask my friend to come physically to guide through the inner bylanes as dearth of landmarks within the block would have left me spending my new years watching the white ghosts swirling by.

After much ‘walking-into-white-walls-not-knowing-what-is-beyond’, I finally managed to park my car and get inside a warm house. I had so far restrained from consuming some of the refreshments I was carrying and celebrating my own solitary new year somewhere with spectres (car blinkers providing me the necessary ghoulish new year lighting). But getting to the venue did the final trick and soon the host and I (all others were still battling white daemons) indulged ourselves. With the arrival of our drink carrying knights, the party kicked off finally a little before 12 (“We are men and army men at that, we dont need directions“, they said). Everyone had the poison they wanted. We all clinked a lot of wine glasses to begin with and eventually at the stroke of the midnight hour, popped some bubbly. The guys (the other females turned out to be not so adventurous given the weather and never turned up) got high on harmless champagne. Juicy secrets from college times (who had a ridiculous fancy for whom and did what) were let out very much like the champagne flowing into the glasses. The “boys” eventually ended up trying to straighten a victimised fridge, whose only fault was standing alone in a corner. Luckily for us, the fridge obeyed their commands and straightened up – more than the boys themselves. That battle won, we all dug into some veg tikka and some chicken tikka. Lots of laughter, some dance, more champagne (read chum-pug-nee), some more dance, some rounds on the phone with some other college friends outside the country, laughter all along with frequent assessments of visibility from the balcony. I was ever grateful to the fog gods for having descended upon us. It gave me a chance to not hurry up with a deadline. Eventually we decided to set out at 3am. The visibility was barely a tad bit better. I had to get to my place alone, so two of my friends decided to tail my car in their car (that was just an excuse for them sissies what with a perfect fog assist like me).

White phantoms, coming straight onto you while driving and dying on your car’s bonnet was neat. Soulful music at the hour was even neater. At some point since the visibility was absolutely zero and I was driving according to a map in my memory, I overshot a turn and landed on NH-8 at a point where a flyover was being constructed. The moment I realised I had taken a wrong turn and was about to turn around it dawned on me (literally) that a whole bevy of cars had been using me as their support in the thick white fog and had landed right behind me – all of us like sardines in a tin. Ever faced an expectant audience at the end of a performance? Well I have. I quickly courtesied to denote the end of it (pointed out the right direction for all to see) and sped away. I eventually reached home at 4am feeling all nice and accomplished for having done some bondgiri at the very onset of the year. Here’s for some bondgiri in your lives too! Wish you all a very funfilled, charming, spellbinding new year.


Global voices summit

Following the BBC meet, a lot of us bloggers had wondered and brainstormed about organising a large scale workshop where bloggers could discuss myriad topics. We were very sure that we didnt want to set any expectations by calling it a “blogcamp” or a “barcamp” or an “unconference meet” but still wanted a large scale formal “event”. We were also more or less sure of the topics that we didn’t want to hash out anymore like MSM vs blogosphere, how to earn money thru blogs etc. We had brainstormed over a couple of topics and come up with new insights. Interestingly some of the topics of discussion that we shortlisted mapped exactly – as we learnt later – onto the topics that Global voices had selected for its discussions. Moreover it was all that we wanted to organise and more. It was a large scale event spanning the entire world, not even just a city or a country. It also talked about reaching out to more and more people and enabling people to communicate through blogging which was exactly what we wanted to address. So it was with much merriment that I wanted to be a part of Global voices online summit 2006 when I learnt that not only was it happening in Delhi but also that it was addressing two of the things we had discussed – Blogging outreach and multilingual blogging.

The other thing that drew me to the GV summit 2006 was the fact that it was a chance to get to meet many bloggers, not virtually but in realtime. This includes other Indian bloggers as well. Though this meet couldn’t have been called a “global bloggers meet”, for all practical purposes it was that. I also wanted to be a part of something constructive to do with blogging, something that could constitute a “movement”, something that wanted to make a positive change, something where people were actually keen on thinking out of the box and “evolving”.

16th of Dec saw me wrapping up a couple of chores first before finally reaching the venue – India Habitat Centre. One just needed to enter the room to realise that it was blogging at its best. Most people were carrying laptops and were furiously typing away, either writing accounts or uploading pictures. Though I was carrying my laptop, I soon realised that it was practically futile since the wireless connection wasn’t too strong for some reason. The conference discussed the blogging outreach that had been referred to and a presentation was given by some people who had tried implementing outreach somehow. The discussion then proceeded to tools/technology for remaining anonymous on the net. There was a discussion on multilingual blogging and a means to translate things in a common language to things in an uncommon language and vice versa. There were some good ideas in all cases. After the conference everyone got a lovely Global Voices tee. There was some random brain storming on some topics which made interesting food for thought. In the end we all got a group snap taken. Some pics.

Apart from the wonderful lunch, a dinner by the pool side had also been organised for those interested. I got to meet a lot of other Indian bloggers like Neha, Aparna, Peter, Sakshi, Jace, Preetam (though he considers himself chinese), Dina, Parmesh (the “fresh lime soda” guy), Shyam and of course the usual delhi bloggers gang. After the conference I had the pleasure of witnessing a practice session going on for some performance which was being done to highlight the fast dying art of playing the snake charmer been in India (minus the snakes). The beautiful sound with a number of instruments, was very much like hearing bagpipes with a poignant and soulful tinge to them. All in all a day very well spent indeed. It was a pleasure to meet all you guys and a zillion thanks to the wonderful organisers!