Tuesday, May 8, 2012

PUNE BLOGGERS MEET


PUNE BLOGGERS MEET
A Report
By
VIKRAM KARVE

Part 1

When you “retire” you have two choices.

You can hang out with your fellow retiree “oldie-goldies” and make your life miserable in the company of pessimistic, gloomy, cynical old-fogies who keep living in the past, carping and complaining about the present, and speculating and worrying about the future.

In short you can succumb to what I call the “Auld Lang Syne” complex. This is guaranteed to make you feel older than your chronological age.

The other choice is to spend your time in the company of lively enthusiastic youngsters who have a zest for life. This is what I prefer to do, for it makes me feel young and cheerful.

That’s why I decided to attend and actively participate in the Pune Bloggers Meet the moment I came to know about it on the IndiBlogger IndiVine.

Chronologically I may have been the oldest participant, but those present will agree with me, that I am quite young at heart, and in enthusiasm and passion, I am as young as, or maybe, even “younger” than many who are half my age.

Though I have been blogging for around 9 years, this was my second Bloggers Meet.

Around 5 years ago (on 16 June 2007) I attended BlogCampPune at SCIT in the InfoTech Park in Hinjewadi. It was a huge sponsored affair and the focus was more on the business opportunities from Blogging,  rather than the creative aspects.

Though they called it an “unconference”, the proceedings were quite structured and the event was dominated by the marketing guys and the IT Nerds – the Bloggers hardly had any say. However, Blogging was still in its nascent stage in India, and as a budding blogger, this BLOG CAMP was quite an informative and instructive experience and I wrote a blog post about it the next day:

Though we got plenty to eat and lots of freebies, it was like attending a trade show or a seminar. I hardly got to personally interact with fellow bloggers and though I was educated about various aspects of blogging, especially from the technical and commercial points of view, there was nothing much for a simple blogger like me who blogged to showcase my creative writing and who wasn’t much interested in the business opportunities from blogging.

In contrast, the Pune Bloggers Meet (on 05 May 2012) which was more of a social get-together of the IndiBlogger Members of Pune, where the focus was on social interaction, fellowship and kinship, and the friendly informal atmosphere facilitated the formation of creative personal relationships between fellow Bloggers from Pune’s Blogging Community.

I am sure you have heard the famous Zen Story EMPTY YOUR CUP.

A university Professor went to visit a famous Zen Master. The Professor wanted to learn about Zen.

The Zen Master served Tea.

While the Zen Master quietly served tea, the Professor talked about Zen.

The Master poured the visitor's cup full to the brim, and then kept on pouring.

The Professor watched the overflowing cup and soon he could no longer restrain himself and so the Professor blurted out to the Zen Master, “Please stop pouring the tea. The cup is overfull. No more tea will go in.”

“You are like this cup, full of your own opinions and beliefs,” the Zen Master said, “How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.”

The moral of the story is that even if you are an experienced  veteran, you must get rid the “Been There, Done That” mentality and keep your mind open to receiving new ideas. That is why I always “empty my cup” whenever I want to learn something. Though I am quite an experienced blogger I made sure that I emptied my “cup” before I went to the Bloggers Meet and this strategy paid me handsome dividends as it seamlessly enabled me to learn so many new things about blogging.

The Pune Bloggers Meet was scheduled to start at 11 AM on Saturday the 5th of May 2012 at RajLaxmi Sabhagruha, Kothrud, Pune. As per my habit, ingrained during my Navy days, I reached the venue well before time, at 10:45 AM, and was probably the first to reach, but soon Bloggers started trickling in, and in due course soon there was enough quorum start the meet.

In today’s parlance, it was an “awesome” event and the credit for this successful meet must go to the organizer Animesh Mishra and his volunteer colleagues, to IndiBlogger whose IndiBiker Vineet Rajan came all the way from Mumbai to attend, and, of course, to all the Bloggers from Pune who participated.

Well, it is past midnight, I am feeling sleepy now, so I will tell you more about what happened at the meet in Part 2 …

So, Dear Reader: Good Night, Sleep Tight, God Bless.

To be Continued in Part 2 …

VIKRAM KARVE 
Copyright © Vikram Karve 2012
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

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About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer. Educated at IIT Delhi, ITBHU Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel and a book of vignettes and short fiction. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories, creative non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories and self help in magazines and published a large number of professional research papers in journals and edited in-house journals for many years, before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for almost 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing. Vikram lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

Vikram Karve Academic and Creative Writing Journal: http://karvediat.blogspot.com
Professional Profile Vikram Karve: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
Vikram Karve Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/vikramkarve
Vikram Karve Creative Writing Blog: http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
Email: vikramkarve@sify.com

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.
  
 



9 comments:

Animesh said...

Sir, first hats off to you :) for coming out with such a beautiful post. I am eagerly waiting for the next part. This meet has been a huge success despite of low presence of bloggers and its because of some superb people who made it a point to attend it.
Every time I hear someone talking about this meet, I feel proud :)

Firoze Shakir Photographer No1 said...

You should have come for the Master Chef Indi Bloggers meet you would have company I am 59 years old blogging since 2005 and perhaps was not the oldest person at the Meet ..
I shot the Meet and met some vibrant passionate Pune bloggers like our famous Captain Awesome ..

So do cut across the fence and do make it to the next Mumbai Bloggers Meet ..

Firoze Shakir
Beggar Poet

Firoze Shakir Photographer No1 said...

Thanks for the update Vikram, I am sure with Captain Awesome you guys must have had a great time , I met him at RK Studio at the Master Chef Indi Bloggers meet I shot it too, and luckily I was not the only one who is running 60..

Indi Bloggers meet add a face to most of the guys who hide behind thumbnails ..

Do try to mae it for the next Indi Bloggers meet in Mumbai..

Take Care
Firoze Shakir

Beggar Poet

ketan said...

Thank you dear sir for the wonderful writeup....and i am for quality as opposed to quantity...the smorgasbord at the event was witness to the fact that likeminded people will come together no matter what.

Hemant said...

I second to what Animesh quoted in his comment..and somewhere I feel that less number of good people can be the reason for the success of this meet....apart from that charging some registration fee ensured that we have only people who are actually interested....
@Vikram Sir: Good post..waiting for another one..

Neeraj Kumar said...

It was quite a wonderful experience reading this post and waiting for the next part eagerly.

Diwakar Narayan said...

a beautifully written post Vikram. Please come up with the second one; I can't wait any longer for that.

Vikram Waman Karve said...

Thanks fellow Pune Bloggers. Will post part 2 soon.

Anonymous said...

Really like your post. I agree with you learning and unlearning has become a part of our lives. Was a pleasure meeting you in the Meetup. I felt Meetup was very well organised by animesh and his colleagues. Looking forward to read the second part.