Spice Indibloggers Meet, with Rajiv Makhni, at Delhi !

My second meet in one day, Dove meet being the first. I felt a bit exhausted but decided to hang on. Good decision, I’d call it now!

The organizers had now changed to yellow Spice T-shirts from their white Dove ones ;)

A strong gathering of 300+ bloggers made it the largest ever Indibloggers meet (I think Bangalore had a similar meet earlier).

Rajiv Makhni was welcomed with a loud cheer and a high on energy ‘Hurr-Hurr Hurr-Hurr’ chant by the audience (displayed by the Indiblogger organisers). Within seconds the hall was full of vigour and verve.    

Expectations from Rajiv were sky high and I must say he surpassed it. I mean this guy is so so witty, extremely humorous and lively.

We could not have introductions for all the bloggers due to time constraints but the ones we had were so much fun. Rajiv with his wit and humour made each introduction sound hilarious. He kept the audience glued with his quirky remarks on youngsters about their phones and girlfriends.

Five lucky bloggers with good introductions were presented a Spice Flo phone by Rajiv.

This was followed by a hurried game and a mobile security debate – can mobile security be the reason for a plausible threat (virus, hacking, large scale attack) or is it only rumour mongering.

The answer was obvious (mobile security is crucial) but I expected a better debate. I think we were missing tech bloggers at this meet and it showed.

Next was a short mind trick (magic) presented by a guy named Karan. It was a good attempt and kept the audience occupied.

We had a presentation from Spice to showcase the new smart phones by Spice - Horizon (yet to be launched) and Stellar.

It was beginning to get tiring so we were given a short break. The snack break turned into early dinner.

The dinner was followed by a quiz by Rajiv where he gave away 15 phones as prizes. Few questions were restricted to twitter users with smart phones as they were to be instantly answered by tweets to Rajiv.

I did not win a phone but was happy my friend did. On the whole it was a great day and meeting Rajiv Makhni was an added bonus! He is an absolute entertainer.

Good work by Indiblogger team!

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Dove Indibloggers Meet at Delhi !

The venue was the splendid Park situated at Parliament Street, New Delhi.

It was my first blogger’s meet and I was pretty excited to meet new people.

The all womens’ meet organised by Dove and Indiblogger saw a healthy participation of women from all walks of life. We began with a good round of introductions where bloggers spoke about their blogs and inspirations. It was great to see the faces and hear the voices behind the blog sites we frequently visit.

Goodies were being distributed at the drop of a hat. Nice attempt by Indiblogger and Dove to up the level of interaction and participation during the complete event. They surely know the way to a woman’s heart!

We were asked to write down our problems (any) and stick it on a board. This implied we had temporarily gotten rid of our problems (there was no reference to this later, so guess this was just an attempt to stay in line with the theme ‘leave your problems behind’).

Next was a comic act presented by Shivani (yes, she is the same beautiful face you see in Dove’s Shampoo ad). Not thoroughly funny but was kept short and sweet so would call it a decent attempt. Shivani looked great!

Later we had a presentation by a hair expert (Doctor). She was good and had answers to most of the queries put forth. A good and exhausting round of Q&A followed.

Bloggers were then asked to write a quick post describing their ideal bloggers meet. All of them obliged happily.

This was followed by lunch – good time to catch up with fellow bloggers.

Coming up next was the Spice meet, hosted by Rajiv Makhni (the Tech-Guru guy) at the same venue.

Most women bloggers left, I waited on. Happy I did.

Lots of fun and even more energy awaited us!

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Of Children, Marriage, Aspirations...

I had a friend who was in a steady relationship for more than five years. Once over coffee, I asked her when she planned to settle down (marry) her boyfriend. She said they were in love but would never be able to get married.

Reason – parents would never approve of their match as they belonged to different castes. She explained further how they had individually tried to convince their parents but to no avail. One parent even threatened self-immolation if they got married!

I was shocked and sad.

Shocked because I could not understand why two educated people were not allowed to spend their lives together, in spite of loving and complimenting each other so well. Sad because I could see her eyes well up before me..

This made me wonder – are we as a society just progressing in terms of technology, telecommunication and infrastructure, with our belief system still a century behind?

How can we justify our love for our children, if we force them to abandon a life of their choice, thus making their lives devoid of all happiness and contentment?

I am reminded of a conversation between my aunt and mother long back. My conservative aunt, who came from an affluent business family, once asked my mother if she would ever allow her children to go for a ‘love marriage’.

My mom in her usual cool demeanour answered, ‘I want my daughter to decide which pair of jeans she likes when we go shopping, something which I know she would not wear after two years. Of course, I would want her to make her own choice when it comes to a life partner; after all she has to spend her life with him. I will never force her for anything’.

I always admired my mother, but since that day, she became an even bigger hero for me.

Both my parents grew up in the 60’s with no internet or TV for exposure (perhaps the same time when my friend’s parents grew up too). However, they understood this basic principle of life – freedom is the key ingredient of happiness.

Choice in marriage is just one of the major decisions in one’s life. As guardians, we should trust our children with other important decisions too. Choice of career is one. 

Our job as parents is to give wings to our child’s aspirations, not obstruct them. Let them fly high and free, without the heaviness of our expectations on their shoulders.

In Khalil Gibran’s words:

“Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

….

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”


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