A tale of a rose, a blackout and lots of tring trings (and a sms)...

I was looking forward to the trip of India for more than one reasons and one of that was to meet some bloggers. Blogging for me started as a way to share my reviews on books and led me to some wonderful friendships. Best thing about these friendships were that these were very different from my "real-life" friendships. I had made quite special friendships all over India during my growing years. My Dad's regular postings made sure that we moved every 2-3 years and I would have to start making those friendships all over again. Most of those friendships would start by scanning the new classroom and looking for kids who had a certain look, whether because they looked studious or helpful or sons/daughters of Army officers. As it turned out, blogging was different. I started visiting blogs based on thoughts/writings of people rather than a "certain" look. And, so I had made friends from all over the world, from every imaginable religious/social/economic/regional background. I made friends with people (mostly gals...ok I confess) that I wouldn't had made even if we were studying in the same school/classroom. This fact made my trip all the more exciting.

I started getting calls on my parents cellphone even before I landed in India (you know who you are...lol). I got calls from almost all my friends during the trip and even if some of them missed to call me, I knew that they only had good wishes for me. I also received few very surprising and wonderful smses from across the border. All these gestures made bloggers all the more real to me. It also made my trip back home very welcoming.

I had made lots of plans before leaving for India and this trip taught me that not all plans come to fruition. My trip to Bangalore/Hyderabad was canceled after my Didi decided to come to Delhi instead and my parents didn't wanted me to go away as it was already a very short trip. I know some of the bloggers from those cities had made some plans and am really sorry for not making that happen. There is always next time but the next time there won't be any premature planning. And then there were some local plans in Delhi that led me to believe that there is always time and place for everything. Myself and one of my first blogger friend, Payal, made atleast 2-3 plans to meet after landing in Delhi but something or the other came up and so it was not meant to be on this trip. It would have been a pleasure to meet her and will be a pleasure when we meet someday later.

Now this trip was not only about disappointments. There were more than a couple of bloggers that I was able to meet during the trip. Surprisingly, I met some bloggers that I had never planned to meet or for that matter knew them through blogs. As I said before, there is a time and place for everything.

My first meet was with a smart, sexy and intelligent girl from North East part of our country, Marlee. I met Marlee through Mehak's blog and somehow found a certain innocence in her posts and comments. There was something refreshing about those everyday posts and we became friends pretty soon. It wasn't long before we started chatting and at one time were sending smses from our breaks at work almost everyday. Even though we have such different personalities, we actually had few little things in common, whether it was some yaadein about Shillong or our sense of humor (although mine is way better than hers).

Marlee had once told me about her favourite bookshop and so we decided to meet there itself as we both love reading. As we were deciding where to meet and all, I joked with her that you can recognize me because mere haath main ek laal gulab hoga. For some reason she found it hilarious and warned me not to meet her if that will be the case. Anyways, the place was decided and I was there few minutes early (its a better way to say that she was late by few minutes). So, I thought to go around CP and actually look for that one rose but to my disappointment there were no flower shops near that bookshop. I was able to find a really cheesy plastic rose from a street vendor but the guy selling won't sell me one piece but wanted me to take the whole damn guldasta. I knew that one rose will give me a kick in the rear but the whole guldasta will make Marlee one of the Charlie's Angel's and myself the innocent villian. So, I didn't buy it but this whole process had made me late by few minutes and had to rush to the bookshop. Now like an idiot I was waiting for her outside the shop while she was sitting inside, in the comfort of the place. It took us 2 cell calls to figure out where we were. And so I went inside the bookshop in anticipation of meeting my first blogger friend.

(to be contd.)