Mumbai BlogCamp 3.0

Attending the Mumbai BlogCamp didn’t, frankly speaking, rate too high on my priority list. I guess the previous experience of the Pune BlogCamp had much to do with that (terrible weather, excessive product pitching, severely damaged online connectivity, lack of well-known faces: the list goes on and on). Add to that the absence of my partner in ‘blogging-related crimes’, our very own desi version of Paris Hilton, maidum Melody.

Then again a good surprise is always a nice thing – and the Mumbai BlogCamp much against my expectations turned out to be quite an organized event.

For starters,

1. The BlogCamp was kept separate from the BarCamp that was being held simultaneously. So no product pitching crap. Only Blog Talks by (get this) Bloggers.

2. The air conditioner was working and that too in full swing. Not acting pricey but it’s seriously difficult to concentrate when your nose is getting tickled with someone else’s body odour. And not to forget, your own tickling someone else’s nose.

3. Don’t know much about the Wi-Fi because I wasn’t carrying my Laptop this time but then I didn’t hear anyone complain about it. So I am guessing all was good on this front.

The most interesting tidbits of blogger-speak included such pearls as:

1. "Mumbai bloggers are slightly selfish" – Rashmi Bansal, on her opinion of bloggers in Chennai and Mumbai, while on the topic of ‘Why to Blog’. Needless to say this did irk yours truly (and I did voice my annoyance) but then again everyone is entitled to their opinion. On the topic itself, nothing new was said – Blogging should be about enjoyment, shouldn’t be taken seriously, about making friends….yada yada yada.

2. "One Tsunami is better than thousand waves" - Ankesh Kothari, who should undoubtedly receive the ‘Dhasu Dialogue Of The Day’ award. He spoke on the topic of ‘Full time income from Blogging’ and how to go about it. The poor soul was heckled countless times by the very same overly smart folk. He dodged them well enough but the whole tempo of the talk got lost midway.

… and rather informative stuff like:

3. Rohit Shrivastav on Blogging and Legal issues + Spamming + tonnes of other technical jargon which mostly went bouncer. But I have to say this was the best session of the few that I sat through. It’s all about confidence and Rohit was full of it. Throwing back replies in the same rigorous fashion to those overly smart folk. Some people I tell you.

4. ‘Podcasting and How’ was discussed by my good friend and super stud of the desi-blogosphere Mr. Aditya Mahtre. The ease at which he went about his discussion was simply brilliant. And the best bit was, this time round, the overly smart folk just kept their overly smart trap shut. Also the whole concept of Dial a Podcast is quite interesting, you can know more about it on the Indicast site.

And the highlights of the final session (for me only, because I had to rush back to work…yup, even on a Saturday) were:

1. The Lunch - Even though I am a hard-core masahari, the veggie thali served was just delicious, especially the paneer dish and the gulab jamun.

2. Spotting a seriously cute-looking guy. (Only to find out that he was there with his girl friend. Ah! Such is life.)

3. Being recognized – Okay blowing my own trumpet here, but it kind of gives you a high when absolute strangers walk up to saying "I read your blog" or "Hey Sakshi, your blog theme is simply jhatak" or "Sakshi, why don’t you give a talk on Rakhi Sawant". Simple joys of blogging, I tell ya.

4. Learning about Burrp TV Online – The only BarCamp session I attended and I am glad that I did so. The Burrp guys basically gave a live demo of their upcoming online TV guide which would not only give you programme schedule of number channels upto 14 days in advance, but also provide SMS facility wherein you can set yourself reminders of your favourite shows and movies. Pretty darn cool, I think.

Overall Tarun and the gang made a decent effort, which was an improvement over their previous stint. One hopes they’ll only get better with time.

Check out accounts of other super-blog buddies - IdeaSmithy (made a splash in DNA as well), Meetu, Deep and Aseem.

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