Crunch, Munch, Lunch with a Lovely Bunch

So the big day was here - the day of the Mid-Year Blogger Meet. After so much planning by the organisers and so many questions, answers and counter questions, threats of only 15 seats available, etc., the day - Sunday, August 19 was here.

As I live in the 'back of beyond' - Tiruvallur 42 kilometres away from Chennai Central it was again a long train-ride. The days leading up to Sunday was suspenseful in a way - who all would be coming - Gitanjali, Dr. Ganesh, Susan, Sowmya, Bhushavalli, Chris Robin, Ashwini, these were the few bloggers with whom I interacted. Plus I would be meeting my former colleague Karen Xavier after a long time.

First I came to know that Karen had a family emergency and could not make it :( that was sad as was really keen to meet her. Then there was a long Q at Beach Station and I had to stand in silence staring at the back of a bald-headed Gujarati guy talking about dhanda kaharab hai on his mobile non-stop.

Got the ticket and boarded the MRTS train and revisited the Vivekananda College route; went into nostalgia as I looked at the beloved Beach - the renovated Chepauk stadium through the train-windows.

Life has changed or has it really? I am still single, still carry a back-pack with a water-bottle and a book to read and wear a cap and sun-glasses. Perhaps this is what LIFE has in store for me.

Got down at the Lighthouse station and walked to Al-Arab where my dear team-mate the good Dr. Ganesh was in deep conversation with a lovely lady (Sinduja) and a gent (Anand) who suspiciously looked like a Telugu movie-star.

Slowly other bloggers came -in Ashwini, Karpagam, Sandhya who had to be given directions to reach Al-Arab from Citi-Centre - practically bang opposite :)! A mild confusion about a young girl who was looking lost and we thought she was a blogger as well. Followed By Gitanjali, Kalyan the photographer and then finally Nirmal Anand who came in after the lunch started.

Food was decent but over-priced! Lunch dragged for about two hours and 15 minutes and then Karpagam and Gitanjali decided to go to their respective homes - at this juncture DRUPAL expert Jothivel Murthy came in and the rest of us proceeded to the beach.

There was an aha-galatta moment as Dr Ganesh changed from Clark Kent to Superman at the traffic signal and Sandhya had the shock of her life when she stared at our car from Anand's and the whole group cracked up at the traffic-signal with raucous laughter and the other bikers got scared :).

At the beach we sat in a huge circle and there was conversation about what we do what we blog and other random stuff and pulling of legs and healthy jibber-jabber.

Then the highlight of the evening Quizzing with the Dr on his love-stories with celebrities!

It was real fun! The Doctor was the real life and soul of the whole group providing us with entertainment both intentional and unintentional.

Sinduja left as she wanted to catch a movie - How was the movie? Review please!

As the sun-light dimmed and the evening set in we decided to call it a day and left with the hope of a bigger bash next time and having made new friends.

Let this beautiful little group grow, let there be no ego-clashes or tantrums or misunderstandings within this group. Let the Chennai Bloggers Club become something more than a bunch of motley friends - let there be concrete steps to do something for a social cause - it could be as simple as providing your old clothes to an old-age home, sponsoring a child's education, adopting a stray pup or kitten, planting a tree, etc..

With the seeds of the genesis of a collaborative project sown-in - I can foresee exciting times ahead!

The woods are lovely dark and deep, we as bloggers have many promises to keep :)


Keep blogging, keep smiling - God bless!