The HP Indiblogger Meet in Bangalore

This was my third Indibloggers meet.  I have been on Indiblogger   from a long time but never attended an Indiblogger meet till the Surf Excel one. Enroute I picked up my friends Aram Bhusal and Praveen Kumar and we drew together to the venue. We reached early and went out to for a quick munch in the restaurant nearby. After completing the registration formalities, we sat in the same place.  After an awesome Guitar performance and a song, Anoop, the host for the event asked us to sit apart from our friends and introduce ourselves to the persons seated in the table. Thus I met Mithun and Meena. This arrangement is unique and should be followed in all the meets to come because it gives you a chance to interact with co-bloggers.

Next was 30 seconds of fame and Anoop asked us to imitate our favorite personality/character and I introduced myself and said that my favorite personality is “Dr Manmohan Singh”, that was it  I did not have to speak any further and for keeping mum I got a flash drive. So silence at times pays :P.

Next was the barcode scanning from a cardboard sheet which had one third of a proverb and we had to find the remaining two.  I got nowhere in this round or possibly the two remaining portions of the sentence never got distributed. However, it was one more good opportunity to interact with co-bloggers. Everybody screaming out their part of sentence and trying to find their match, it almost resembled the stock market in the 80’s and 90’s!

Then it was the miming session, we got the theme of “Lord of the Rings”. Mithun was our director and by the time we could get into the act, somebody from audience guessed the name of the movie and that was it. Somewhere in between we had high tea and also posed for some crazy snaps. I, Aram and Praveen posed for a yawning pose. The spring rolls were awesome as were the Gulab Jamoons.

Next on agenda was a presentation from HP, sponsors of the event. It was great to know that you can order cartridge online and that it would be delivered to you in six hours flat. I also came to know the disadvantages of using a refilled cartridge. We have to learn to use originals instead of fakes. Affordability is a factor but that does not give anybody a sanction to use a fake. All said and done, the obsolescence of products has rapidly increased which at times forces us to cheaper varieties. This is so in the case of computers and mobiles. After a year or so, you find it difficult to find batteries for your existing mobile. It is such experiences make you want to  go in for a cheaper brand mobile. Thus, manufacturers have to ensure that when a customer buys a product, the spares are assured for the next 3 to 4 years. Cheap brands and fakes are a big threat to the economy and society as a whole. It is the responsibility of both consumers and manufacturers to fight it together.

Then there was a Q&A session, with the questions being given by the audience themselves, another uniqueness of Indiblogger meet. There was this question “Why this Kolaveridi?” and a certain dark middle aged guy said “ After 12 years of marriage, this is the only question I can ask my wife” and Anoop virtually ran to pick a printer for him. Well, that proves how much of a harassed lot husbands are :P.  The claps this guy got was resounding. For those of you who don’t know him, cracking jokes on marital life is the best he can do and his friends on Facebook will vouch for that.  If you can’t believe what I said just read this blog of his

http://balu036.blogspot.in/2012/10/satire-facebook-status-updates-by-me-on.html

This guy’s jokes have been responsible for many a bachelor staying unmarried.  Unmarried guys please stay away from this anti-marriage activist.

At the end of it all, we had a great photo session and it was time to say bye and we will meet again. Bye folks!