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!

Lots of pics coming up! Click on the pictures to enlarge!

3 pics I took & really like – this one, of Peepu & Shiju – guess who’s who (hint: Peepu loves Pink) and two more (one of Akshay with a cherry & the other of Kaushal taking pics!) which are both on Saks’ blog.

Here are some ‘biggies’! L-R: Sumant, Rishi (of quizzing & ‘Cthulhu’ fame), Amit Varma & Prem.

Amit, in great form as usual, muttered something about there being “4 women and 918 men” at the meet. Or was that 1048? I can’t remem… hmmm.

Had asked these four gyus below to pose, telling them that lots of women read my blog – Preshit chose to look away (shy?!), Eklavya made lovey eyes, Shiju chose to ignore me (which is what he usually does) while Martin tried his best “I’m a hero, call me” look!

Posed for tons of pics in between as well. Here’s me with Roshan (left) and Piyush (who I’m trying to convince to take part in the upcoming Grasim Mr. India / Gladrags model hunt contests, he’s really looking that fabulous!)

On the left of the pic below is Avantika, who was obviously not getting the attention she deserves when seated next to those two happy and gay men. Missing from the pics here is Avantika’s hubby Kanishka (who made his presence very felt at the meet!)

Meanwhile Peepu seems to be saying: “Last blog meet you exposed my nipple, this time I’ll cup your…” erm, wine?

Round Table Discussion? Perhaps Eklavya was telling them how he made Rs. 65000/- in ten days off his blog! Clockwise from left below: Exlavya, Preshit, Ram, Sudarshan & Martin (who’s not into flash pornography, just fyi)

Akshay turned “legitimate” (!) on that day & Saks thoughtfully bought him a cake in advance. One of four he cut that day, we’re informed. We’re impressed.

Random group shot. L-R: Preshit, Abhishek (who’s a riot!), Saks, me and Pooja (a pretty non blogger who’s planning on starting her own blog post this meet!)

And the pic you’ve all been waiting for. Yes, the brunch was delicious, we were told

L-R: Querida, Chronicus Skepticus (no, neither is their real names, really!) Pooja, me & Saks.

At the meet, but not in pics above was Pankaj (non blogger, excellent at 4 word toasts!), <a href=”http://puneetworld.indiablogs.org/”target=”_blank”>Puneet</a> (who’s just returned to India from Toulouse, France & kept correcting Saks when she said Paris), <a href=”http://www.twistedindifference.com/”target=”_blank”>Sumit</a> (who came from Pune – see how far people come for Mumbai blog meets!), <a href=”http://www.mokshjuneja.blogspot.com/”target=”_blank”>Moksh</a> (who share’s his surname with the main lady), <a href=”http://nautankitv.blogspot.com/”target=”_blank”>Ashish</a> (came along with Ram), Dhram & Vinayak (non bloggers who came along with Querida, “only to meet new & hopefully interesting people”) <a href=”http://livingfornothingnow.wordpress.com/”target=”_blank”>Jayanta</a> (who for the life of me, I CANNOT figure out which one he was, any wise ones?!) and Hardik (who came in last and caused great fluster because of his name).

More pics at Saks’ place.

If you’ve written something about the blog brunch & would like me to link to you, drop me a line [melodysvoice(at)gmail.com]! Until then, thank you all, had a very fun afternoon!

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”……

Some pointers from last night’s event –

Mumbai Bloggers are freaking Time Guards.

Strangers became friends (and some friends behaved like total strangers – ya we had those kinds too).

Mumbai Boys are really gentlemen-like. And Mumbai women are hot.

Blog Party Thumb Rule – Never discuss blogs.

This man asked, “Are you known in the Blog circle? Never heard about you?” – Hell Ya, I am known….gosh what else do I need to do to spread my celebritiness.

And Finally……

Never have Long Island(s) on an empty stomach.

Link – Love : Bloggers/Non-Bloggers who made their presence felt…..

Melody, Piyush Jha, Aditya, Bombay Addict, Saurabh Nanda, Shiju Thomas, n, eM, Amit Varma, Sumit, Vivek, Kaushal Kharkanis, Kapil, Roshan, Kanishka, Avantika, Pensive Lawyer, Querida, Chronicus Skepticus, Akshay Mahajan, Gaurav, Davendra Gera, Piyush Bedi, Pankaj, The Calumnist and Ergo. (Few names missing here….kindly accept my apology but its bloody 8 in the morning and I really need to get a life some sleep).

The Missing Links :

Roshan, Rajan, Jigal, Arjun, Rishi, Lavanya & Deepak, Moksh, Mohit and Ravi.

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.

Let me start at the beginning though. It all started fairly decently. Saket won the “I was there first” award twice in a row – he and Bombay Addict were already there when I arrived early to welcome everyone. Saks soon joined us.

Most things went haywire after that. Everyone turned up almost all together – my kudos to all the Mumbai Bloggers, whatever else, at least we’re punctual!

We did do a sort of introductory thingie at first – you know – My name is blah & I blog at blah.blogspot.com (yawn) but more and more people kept coming all the time.

Soon all the three tables we had reserved soon were overflowing with people and the volume of conversation just kept louder and louder.

Yes, Saks & I also got “warnings” from the Manager of the place that they would “throw us out”!!! Do they have ANY IDEA what negative flack they would get on the Indian blogosphere if they had???!

However to be fair to them, it’s not only that we were a huge lot – 28 of us to be exact – but also we were terribly undisciplined. Just short of food flying across the tables. And perhaps that happened too one of the million times I was out of the restaurant directing someone to the place.

After several (failed) attempts to sort out the scene, Saks & I decided to move the party to the outter section of the restaurant (we were earlier in the AC section).

That worked well – at least we didn’t have to “SHUUUSH” anyone anymore. People were generally moving around and talking to different people in groups, so I guess everyone’s versions of the party will be as different as the blind men’s version of the elephant. I definitely look forward to reading all accounts.

I also look forward to seeing all the million photographs we posed for on everyone’s cameras. (If anyone wants to, you may mail me -melodysvoice(at)gmail.com)

One kind soul – non-blogger Jan – sent me this group pic (as well as the terrible pic of Saks & me above) – Keep in mind though this group pic has only about half the lot who were there. More pics as and when anyone send them to me (and as is the done thing, I will link to everyone’s posts too).

(click to enlarge)

I will now give you the round up of who all came – I’m the only one with the “Attendance Sheet” and I know everyone’s waiting for this bit. Will add my two-paise comments on everyone, as I see fit.

PS: If your name is below, please don’t let anything I’ve said about you stop you from saying extremely nice things about me in your posts.

(Listed in the order it was written)

Sakshi Juneja – My friend, co-conspirer and fellow hostess. Came in with a headache. Think it got worse during, but overall she was all-smiles as ever throughout.

Melody – what can I say about myself that I haven’t already at this blog? Then again, I do not have my about page up yet. Darn, will move on quickly.

Saket – Volupturo in the flesh – and who, despite not being fed by his mommie in a month, looked quite, erm, healthy and had a very long and interesting conversation with Nandan, Peeyush & me about what women look for when choosing the men they marry. It was particularly interesting to me, the only woman, to hear what these men thought we want. And no, I didn’t agree with most of it. Then again, it was a rather silly, general discussion – not worth so many lines here.

Sumit – who took a long time to explain why he named his blog ‘Twisted Indifference’ so. Hmmm.

Vivek – Non Blogger, Sumit’s friend – but who does have his own Flickr Account.

Neha – was a Non Blogger too. “Damn these non-bloggers who are so prominent” said Saks of Neha, who was in the center of every picture despite her attempts to the contrary. Neha, for the record, is known to most of us & Saks wasn’t really damning the non-bloggers. I could point out other things here too, but I’m true to my word & won’t.

Amit – whose long locks tied in pony tail have given way to “ill-fitting toupee” and “bad wig” causing him to hear for the 1000th time that he is now India Cut. Ha Ha, said he each time, all the while snickering in his mind (I know these things) “SO original indeed”.

Bombay Addict – Hey, any addict of my beloved Bombay is a friend of mine.

Puneet Bhambhani – who’s a girl fyi – (ridiculously) quiet and a self-confessed “baby blogger”. Incidentally, when I checked (because I’m a good blogger) this link seems to be wrong, but it’s exactly what she wrote. So there. Edit 7th Feb – She did give me wrong url (these baby bloggers, sigh) but managed to get the right one & now the link works fine.

Pragni Sanghvi- who though not, was also termed “baby blogger” by association since she huddled with Puneet the whole time they were there. Pragni also kept asking me to repeat everything everyone said.

Abhishek Chhabra – who was very interesting because he was not one of those in-your-face kinda guys but he was very naughty behind his seeming quiet façade.

Nandan – who thinks women want to marry for money (see para near Saket’s name for more details) and who seemed very upset that the rest of us wanted to chat rather than eat dinner.

Shiju – the saintly footballer who was wrong about one thing – there were lap-dances (one anyway) at this meet and (luckily?) Gaurav wasn’t giving them.

Unnamed friend of Shiju – who didn’t make too much noise, so we shall continue,

Vinu – who has a cloud of his own.

Vijay – the very talkative (false), talented (so true) genius in pyjamas (I’m not even kiddding). Yes, he does that for the same reason a superhero wears his underwear outside his pants.

Smita – Vijay’s very pretty non blogger friend who sometime later in the night demanded we all clap for her. Can’t (rather won’t) elaborate, but we all did readily oblige.

Ideasmith – who was looking fabulous as usual, was unusually loud (she was always demure from what I remember) and fluttering around like a pretty butterfly. She was also cracking jokes in languages I cannot understand, simple languages like Hindi and Gujarati – but in case any of you didn’t know, when it comes to language skills, I am Carol Gracious’ grandmother.

Peeyush. Ah, Peeyush. So much to say, so little time. He thinks women marry to “see the world”. He knows the price of every type of Porn CD – of course, he doesn’t buy them, it’s just in his job description to find out these things, you see. His ears popped up everytime the word “Lesbian” was mentioned (& it was mentioned a lot). He also shared years (and God only knows what else) with Shiju and Gaurav and is, in a nutshell, my Hero. awww.

Rishi - Have no idea who this guy is. Had his name here though, so am noting it down.
Edit 5th Feb: – Rishi is apparently Shiju’s friend (yes, another one!). Thx to Marielle Bigot-Quétard who mailed in to let me know!

K V Narayanan – friend of Peeyush’s. Took a long time to find the place. I know.

Jan (pronounced Yan) Stoklasa – Czechoslovakia origin, London staying, Bombay loving non-blogger, who as I previously mentioned reads my blog & sent the pics above.

Akshay Mahajan – The capital B for Brilliant photographer who didn’t say the lights were bad at my Christmas party (!) and who came along with,

Rohit, his non blogging friend in tow.

Pensive Lawyer also made it again. I unfortunately – again – did not get the chance to bond too much with him…

but did manage to make-out with his pretty girl friend (see gap between girl and friend) Hanisha – again – I am really beginning to think this may spoil my chances getting a good Catholic boy to marry me.

Tejus Caulagi (Pensive’s friend) was (is) the cute guy in the group pic on the extreme right. And Melody doesn’t go around calling men cute (ok fine she does) but she did tell this guy that he was.

Finally, would any Mumbai blog meet be complete without the “I am a used car salesman” Gaurav? Sure, he did turn up after everybody left – but he did get to chat with Jan, Peeyush, Ideasmith, Saks & I as we finished our din-dins & headed over to Amore Gelato. Jan got locked in there, but that’s another story.

I would be a very bad person indeed if I ended this post without thanking Amit and Saket for their ‘big daddy’ like instructions & help at a crucial moment of the meet. As I do Abhishek, Sumit & Vivek who chipped in to help clear the bill. And Peeyush, who paid for me din-dins. And my mother, who’s always an inspiration. And all of you, without whom I could not do this.

Heck, it was an honor just to be nominated.

.

AND WHAT THEY SAID (updated hourly, every hour. Or so):
Sakshi – Saturday Night Special : Blog Fry – With lotsa Pics!
Ideasmith – Highlights of the first 2007 bloggers meet
Abhishek – Soul Fry @ Bandra(Da-meet)
Pensive Lawyer – Melody zindabad!
Saket – First Mumbai Bloggers’ Meet In 2007 – With lotsa Pics!
Bombay Diaries – “Please blog, please please blog”
Pragni – The Fried Souls of bloggers
Peeyush – First timers’ impressions – Open Bloggers Meet
Amit Varmaji – “I want to be eaten now”

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.