KOTAK JIFI INDIBLOGGER MEET

Giving a break to my sabbatical from the blogger meets, I decided to hop on to this one..Why? Well..no..it wasn’t the free food or drinks! The truth is, I was missing the meets- the craziness, the exploding enthusiasm, the head banging and the hudd hudd hudd… Meeting my dearest friend, Garima who blogs at Penumbra and Naina with her mesmerizing insights on life and likewise..who blogs at  WhileMyCoffeeBrews in particular and incidental meetings with blogger friends, Shwetabh, Gaurav, Ankita, Shivani, Kajal Kapur ( met her for the first time and her lovely daughter, Dhanak and cute but shy hubby who was almost speechless as we shamelessly asked him to click pictures of us together!) . 

The fun thing about such blogger-meets apart from meeting the crazy hosts Nihal, Karthik, Anoop, Vineet and Revin and the Indi team but also meeting other bloggers ranging from 12 yrs old to 65-70yrs old.

It is amazing to see everyone blend into this homogenous cluster of togetherness, yet if you have the eye, the indivual-ness of each would strike you at every nook and corner. It is probably this vacation I had from the Indimeets that when I finally went ahead and attended this one that I realized what fun I’ve had in them!

Every Indimeet has a theme and agenda to it which makes it a business friendly proposition and an excellent arena for social-marketing and customer reach programs. And what better theme than to have the #JiFi experience conducted by Kotak Mahindra Bank, who have launched their newest initiative called JiFi which pledges that BANKING IS NOWSOCIAL.

As the theme suggests, it is about taking the banking process to the most popular medium of expression- social media websites like Facebook, Twitter where there is a possibility of direct communication and ease of transaction between the bank and its customers. It is absolutely secure and is safe even for amateurs who may not know much about technologies associated to it.

Who better to explain the process than to have CHETAN BHAGAT, who is famous as one of the most popular authors of India but who was also in the banking profession before he chose pen and paper over money. What was fascinating about this meet was that there were simultaneous meets going on in Mumbai and Bangalore along with Delhi. Chetan was attending the Mumbai meet. However, through the awesome technological prowess, we saw the live event happen and we could also send in our questions to him via Twitter with the hashtag #JiFiIsHere and also join the Google Hangout with them!

The meet started off with Nihal announcing the Selfie contest! And did we go mad! Flashes went crazy and it was indeed amusing to see people scuttling from one group to another, making poses and screaming along, even for clicking pictures! Interestingly, we were clicking a selfie when the contest was announced and I managed to upload the first selfie- and guess what! I won the contest! Wuhuuu! All thanks to the cool group of people I met who were sitting in the rows in front and behind mine!

What followed in between the live event interaction and lunch was the sight of people gargling with laughter –either because of the drinks or the Nihal-jokes! He is a crazy nut and Loves head banging! But the poor fella hardly got a chance to eat with the loooong queue at the food counter during the lunch break. But then I am an expert at handling the queues and thus, was more than happy to share the pile of food I’d managed to sneak in my plate! Too bad I couldn’t click a picture of it!

There was another interesting activityà the Kotak Premier League (KPL) wherein we were to divide ourselves into groups of 6 and then the groups from the three event venues would have to tweet it out between ourselves. But we, the #KPL4 Team were creative-enthusiasts who decided to take this a step further and asked for the bar tender to make us some shots for a team pic @B-Bar! And lo behold, the guy agreed, but he had a condition. He’d make the shots  Maria, With Love (named after his girlfriend!) and we’d have to tag the name too.. How sweet! Right?

I think I had a stench of craziness when I had seen the board outside the mall named B-Bar and had led my auto there only to realize that it was the Parking! Four floors above with the help of the escalators and a lift ride thereafter (yeah, the Mall does not allow lifts for the other floors; just for the B-Bar), I knew I was headed for some craziness! And what can I say, it was 

Friends, Food and Fun= Innuendo raise to the power ‘n’!

POETRY: Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Tangerine Trees and Marmalade Skies Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

The marks we human leave

are too often scars,

like the creases on the sheets

where our skins spoke.

Making babies to memories

we never believed we could fly!

Tangerine trees and marmalade skies

whoever believed in goodbyes?

You staring at me, how can I forget the sight

the moment I thought, you'd say the words

I had longed to hear, you grunted, "I need a cigarette."

And never came back that night.

Sickly deranged, I do find that one blissful moment

when I wake up, first thing in the morning

I feel nothing, a sense of calm; it is

relieving to become a blank slate, innocent like a child-

All at once.

"I look so fat", "I am so vain"

learning lessons of self-worth by every strike.

Whoever said you only love once,

never tasted his own tears of pride.

Why can we not hold each other, without defining

who we are, how we belong; why do

us holding hands, make no sense when we say we're friends still?

It all makes me wonder if the sun is ever sad.

Are.Were.Will Be..

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I told him he wasn't a part of my life. But he was.


That he didn't matter and wasn't my problem. And yet he continued to be so.


When he had me, he used me. When he didn't, he craved for me.


I was like the most prized possession and yet a thing, but a thing?


Some say, I made him the man he is. But it has been a while I went away.


Why would he be this way, when I am only but a memory to him, or not 

even that?

He got into love of a new kind, I never let him back, even as a friend.

There was too much to not speak of, not hear, not feel in between.

I am asked, sometimes with angry eyes of friends mutual or exclusive,

Do I still miss him? Does he still cross my mind?

Of course he does, I did love him once and love never dies.

Unless it is throttled done, but which still survives.

I am listening to his voice tonight, crackling in between as he sips his scotch.

The telephone slips from my hand, the effort to hold on is too prune for our minds.

I still wait in earnest hope, to hear the voice of a gentle boy I once knew

But what I hear are the cries of a man, who built himself up and got wasted too soon.

We shall Meet Again

Another day without your smile

Nights pass, days arrive

Under the same sky..we once shared

Just for tonight, we'll be dreamed into a yesterday's affair.

Kindled heart O' mine,

Ignites the thawed dust layers, one by one

Nascent creepers run along,

Slimy passages of a dark paradise.

Hold me now, before we bid goodbye

Under the same skies, we shall meet again..

Keep this memory, as a forgotten rhetoric, Till then.

My first attempt at Acrostic form of Poetry.

I hope this encrypted message reaches to the two people I love a lot and they understand, wherever they are that they mean a lot to me..They aalways have and always will..