I’ve been bombarded with mails from tons of you asking me when the next blog meet was happening ~ and here it is; the very first Mumbai Blog Meet of 2008:
It’s this Saturday night, Feb 16th, (and it’s free!) so confirm asap with Gaurav here or here.
PS: Have closed comments here, if you have a question, pls check with G (link above).
First, a toast, to Sakshi Juneja, my “Online Better Half” - Together we’re “The Online Ram-Lakhan” (she’ll quickly point out that she’s Lakhan, the younger one), “The Mumbai Blog Mafia” (hahah!), “The BuHu girls” (BuHu, being copyrighted to the King) [anything else you wanna call us people??!]
If the blog brunch was a success (& going by the feedback we got, it’s fair to say it was!), it’s largely due to her. So then, “to you Saks, I raise my (e)glass! Cheers for being the rockstar that you are!”
Also, a special thanks going out to the (very very) nice people at 
who came through for Saks & me by helping us clear out our brunch debts. A lot of the people who had confirmed just did not show up, most without even informing us in any way (how rude!) and we had to pay for the numbers confirmed. If Saks & I do decide to plan another blog meet, we might have to start taking money in advance.
Now to the brunch! Since Saks was busy doing most of the important things, I enjoyed myself at the Blog Brunch meeting a new set of interesting people!
For more details click here.
Please, please confirm in advance!
(confirm by commenting here or dropping Sakshi / Melody a mail)
And yes, in case you didn’t read the title, SPREAD THE WORD!!
Firstly let me start by giving out the mandatory “thank you” speech. Melody….my partner in crime, you are a Rock Star, thanks for taking care of all the minor (and major) party issues while allowing me to sit back take all the lutf .
Would also like to thank the management of Sejos for allowing us to twist their arms to the max so that we bloggers could get the most viable deal out of them. And last but not the least, a BIG thank you to all those who turned up (and a boo-hoo to those who couldn’t make it)….I had one heck of a time and am sure our bash would put all those Bollywoodish…Page 3 parties to shame.
Without any further a due, here are some “Kodak Moments”……
Further to this, Saks & I spent a good part of the day yesterday at Seijo, having Long Islands, Cranberry Juice & great conversation - all in the name of planning the event in a better way for you guys, of course.
Unfortunately Seijo has no branding on the outside of the building it’s in, so I decided to make things simple for you guys who’ve decided to come. Presenting to you, ta-da!
The Dummies Guide to Finding Seijo
#1 Make your way to Bandra. Oh come on, use a @&*# Google map already or call a friend (wherein I am not the friend).
(click to enlarge)
#2 Find Waterfield Road. This is the same road that houses: Zenzi, Moti Mahal, China Gate etc & it leads upto Linking Road. The road has a new name (R.K Patkar Marg) which no one knows, but thought I’d mention since it’s on Google maps.
#3 Look for this building, it’s huge, it’s got mirror, metal & glass thingies on the outside and it’s got a huge branding for ICICI Bank which is on the ground floor.
#4 It’s bang opposite the “Daughter’s of St. Paul” Chapel & Bookstore.
#5 Yes, there is a valet service for your car.
#6 Enter, first left are some elevators. Go to the 2nd floor. To do this, you must press the number 2 in the elevator. If you’re not sure how to, ask the lift man.
#7 Enter Seijo. Party, party, party.
I spent a great deal of the last blog meet directing people to the place & I ain’t gonna do that this time (mainly because signals are not so happening in the club, plus the music tends to make one deafer than usual), so do heed this guide.
Word to the Wise: Do have your din-dins and come if you’re the very hungry type (prices could be described as being on the expensive side).
You raved about the last Blog meet we organized. All of you, including the Big-Wig said
“Melody and Sakshi can unquestionably be described as A-list hosts”
And You asked for more.
And so, without further ado, here it is… the biggest, the coolest blog party ever!
As the invite says, we need for you to confirm your attendance to us via email. You’re free to come if you’re a veteran blogger / a new blogger / a blog reader / a blog commentator / a blog stalker (though we will kill you) or just a friend of a blogger (though I know most of us have few of these). Entrance is @ Rs. 150/- per head and covers the entrées. For any additional information do mail me / comment here & I’ll try to answer you as best I can.
And yes, DO SPREAD THE WORD! Come June 9th, we are gonna Party on!
I can describe last night’s Mumbai Blog Meet is two simple words: Chaotic and yet Awesome. And I have to admit, it was probably by far the best night as compared to all the previous meets I have attended, till date.
Maybe it was Vulturo’s voluptuous physique or Melody’s Carol Gracious Act or IdeaSmith’s drama queen dialogues or the presence of a non-blogger from apna Dilli or Amit’s grand entrance in a new avatar or being called Rakhi Sawant of Bigg Blog house or having some South Mumbai bloggers gracing us, the suburban folks with their presence or meeting new bloggers (Thank God!) - Basically too many reasons and so much more.
So without any further a due, here are some priceless Kodak moments.
And now here are your precious attendance links.
Amit Varma, Vulturo, Bombay Addict, ST, Melody, IdeaSmith, Pragini, Vijay, Smita (refused to disclose her blog link), Neha (the popular non-blogger), Piyush , Abhishek, Sumit, Jan (sweet dude from Cheklaslovakia), Nandan, Puneet, Vivek, Pensive Lawyer, TJ, Querida, Akshay Mahajan, Vinu and Mr. Gaurav (the one who arrived once the ‘The End’ sign was up) .
Ps : For the freaking last time, I am NOT related to Sanjay Dutt.
(Cross posted from The Voice In My Head)
So you think that Mumbai bloggers are a bunch of loud, obnoxious, care-a-damn-whos-around-we-wanna-party lot?Well then you’re not far from wrong.
The first Open Bloggers Meet of the year held at Bandra’s “Soul Fry” (yes, hence the title of this post) turned out to be almost a bit more than hostesses Sakshi & Melody (moi!) could handle.
See this VERY terrible pic of us to tell how relaxed we were the entire party. It’s a shoo-in for Gaurav’s Post a Silly Photo contest:
We had chosen to have the meet at Soul Fry based on a recommendation from Satya at the last bloggy party. Satya of course, did not show up, but that’s a different story.
Saks & I had gone to the venue a week prior and had made necessary arrangements. Suffice to say, our arrangements weren’t enough.
Cross posted from The Voice In My Head
I blogged, they came, they went. And now I’ll blog some more.
It’s funny in a way… I started the year off with going to my very first blog meet not knowing what to expect and now, in some weird twist of fate, I’ve ended the year by actually throwing a blogger’s party. Is this what my life has become?? Blogging Online and meeting Bloggers Off??.. Scary thought that…. Yes, as the pretty Saks pointed out, there’s a big L in blogger 
Well that’s not really the way it went down, so I’ll start the more accurate version of the post here (disregard everything I’ve said before this).
So here goes:
It was a ‘Christmas’ Blog party. It seemed a natural theme for me to choose, given the fact that it was is the season of love & joy. I decided not to have a dress code since at the last meet, hardly anyone came in Halloween costumes (tsk tsk).
Ajay came nice and early to help me get everything in order (as a good brother should, pat pat on your back Aj). His very mouselicious girlfriend (who was the next to arrive) kinda did most of the work in the party (thank you guys, what would I do without you??) and left me only to stress a little about things (I’m like that sometimes).
It’s kinda hard for me to write about my own party (will leave it to the rest of you to say nice things - HINT HINT) so instead, I’ll just talk about the people -
Saket, imo, was looking much better than when I last saw him though there was some talk of him having put on weight or something of the sort.
Akshay, without the taliban beard he was sporting when we last met, looked his normal ridiculously-young-for-someone-so-talented 20something (or is it 20nothing?) age.
Shiju (who gave me a innovately wrapped gift - put gift in plastic bag, put plastic bag in Christmas hat! lovely, ty, ty!) was apparently the hit with some of the boys (!!)… towards the end of the night someone was asking for the “football dude”.
Mercifully (for him) the topics at this blog party didn’t center around him and a certain other person (though I did try to bring it up a couple of times… naughty naughty Mel).
Gaurav also looked tons better than when I last saw him. His long locks are gone & he had come in straight from work, so he was all suited and booted (ok, maybe not booted ) in work attire, very nice! Possibly the ‘come in from work’ thing also accounted him for being a tad quieter than he is on most occassions.
Sakshi looked like she wanted to kick some ass in her army pants matched with ‘The Thing’ T-shirt, but as usual she was sweet as sweet can be. She did discuss Bigg Boss & Rakhi Sawant (despite my express orders not to) but did so discreetly behind my back, so I’ll not hold it against her (this time anyway). Gaurav insisted we sing Happy birthday to Salman Khan and that Saks should cut the cake. Since it was his birthday & since I like Sallu too (despite everything), it was so decreed.
With Sakshi was Shirrin, Arzan Wadia’s beautiful wife. The picture here & the ones on Saks’ blog all are thanks to this charming lady who apparently was the only sensible one who thought of getting a camera. Well, in all honesty, I did think of it, but hey, there were tons of things for me to do & I forgot. Sue me.
Which somehow reminds me of Pensive Lawyer (aka Expensive Lawyer). I SO happy to meet up with him - I really wanted to have people who read my blog come to this party & it was a happy surprise that he turned up. I also managed to have another ‘kisscapade’ (last time was with Saks on the way back from G’s bday) with his pretty (also lawyer) friend Hamisha. I’m worried this is becoming a habit. The guys were highly pleased though.
IdeaSmith was kinda under the weather and was rather quiet (compartively to her usual bubbly self) but it meant so much more that she came despite it all. Sending get-well-soon-wishes your way girl!
Also part of the gang was non-blogger Vikram who’s an artist. We met (through Saks) one eventful night a while back (!!!). Though we’re now good friends, I think he’s closer to Gaurav than he is with both Saks & me. If you don’t believe me, Saks even has a pic of the two cozying it up on her blog…
I was also very pleased to have Sherriff come to the party - he’s also been around tvimh for a while & I like the way he writes. He’s rather a quite chap with a subtle sense of humour & I think it rather becomes him.
How can I end the round up of people present without mentioning the very very naughty-but-so-nice Satya?!!! He’s a (drum roll) food critic bloggger (hmmm). Mercifully he left the party without eating any of my food… he’s just so, well, finicky about tasting food. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t ask
The round up is over, but before ending the post, will quote Manish who mailed me the day after the party:
Sorry i couldn’t make it last night… funny story though… over the weekend i somehow got convinced your party was on tuesday and showed up that evening at nine. one watchman, two guard dogs and one nosy neighbor later i realized my mistake and was thankful nobody was at the door
… I somehow managed to copy down your address while ignoring the big WEDNESDAY on the invite. this takes a sophisticated technical mind! …
A for effort, F for execution?
And what they said:
Sakshi - Bigg Boss, Nude Photography, Womanhood, Hell ya!
Vulturo - Ze Bloggy Christmas Party
Ajay - Christmas Week
Shiju - Recipe for good time (though not the only one)
Pensive Lawyer - Ramblings
IdeaSmith - All good things come to an end
Related Posts:
Saltwater Blues - O.K. This makes me very jealous!
My earlier (non)post on the party - here.
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