Met quite a few bloggers last year. Most recently, it was Lazy Lump who I had a nice chat with over coffee, when I was in Hyderabad (December, 2003). Here’s the picture I’ve been meaning to post for a while.

More pictures of my Hyderabad and Bangalore trip are also here.

On Saturday night, I met with Stephanie, a blogger from Switzerland. I’ve been in touch with her off and on. She was in Pune in 1999-2000. And came back for a visit in 2001. Besides her interest in the country, we also have something else in common - our cats! When she said she was making a trip to India, we made plans to meet.

On her way to Pune she stayed a night in Mumbai. She arrived before time and waiting patiently when I reached the airport (there was actually heavy traffic in Andheri at 11.30 pm, God save this city!).

Anyways, brought a visibly tired but really excited Steph home where she eagerly dug into her first meal here. We’re planning to do a bit of travelling together before she leaves India next month, so that should be fun.

Here she is, making friends with Kit Kit, who’s still a little wary of strangers, but made a few shy moves.

A few more pictures in my Bloggers album.

Have you ready any good tech/IT/human resources or general management books lately? Anything worth sharing with others? I need a review of about 3-4 paras. Please get in touch me with me if you’d like to share a review. It’s for a IT recruitment site that I look after right now. It will be credited to you if published. I’d like to work out some sort of payment, possibly in the future :) The book should be available in India.

Watched ‘God Only Knows!’ last week for a review. It was strictly okay. The verdict: Forget Bharat Dabholkar, I doubt even God knows why this movie was made.

The fat cat is coming to town this year. This is one movie that I am not going to miss.

And regarding this, what can I say, but ‘about time, fellas’…

Instructor: What are you playing? What are you playing?!!

Me (Getting my fingers crossed again): Uh. I think it’s A? No nooo. C? Ah. Uh…

Instructor (Most exasperated now as I don’t think he’s had such a dumb student in a while): You’re playing the wrong string, dear.

Me (Wishing there weren’t so many b***** strings): But why is it so complicated? I’m trying to play B and I keep playing E, by mistake!!

Instructor (eyes rolling heavenwards): Okay, let’s check the score on TV now.

As you can imagine, I’m still stuck at the string (also the instructor’s favourite): namely G.

Let me bring you songs from the wood:

to make you feel much better than you could know.

Well, well. they’re finally coming to our neck of the woods.

Two flautists, both with their inimitable styles - Ian Anderson and Hari Prasad Chaurasia, will be performing on 31st Jan and 1 Feb in Mumbai. I nearly jumped out of my skin in excitement when I saw the ad in Mid-Day day on Friday.

Can’t afford to miss this one. While I totally freaked out on Tull music, especially during my college days, there is another reason why I love the man!

The last time Jethro Tull toured the city, I was a student, broke and peniless. This time, I am equally broke, but the credit card saved me! I hope some of you will be going. The tickets are running out already. I’m so excited, that I might ditch my efforts to learn the guitar and take up the flute for a while. And I’ve decided to get into the mood by listening to one Tull song a day till then :)

I was chatting with my sister, thousands of miles away, when she excitedly says to me: “Let’s go somewhere!”

She’s quite a travel bug and I was pretty caught up with her enthusiasm.

“You know these guys from work are going to Spain for 160 pounds only,” she continues.

Sis has just been in the UK for about 3 months, and already she wants a holiday. Well, what can I say? I think the travel itch runs in the family!

Now, I’m already dreaming of a vacation in Spain.

“I’ll help you,” she adds slyly. Now that she earns in pounds.

Meanwhile, I read about Journeywoman’s trip to the Great Barrier Reef (no permalink available) and can almost imagine myself there! I can’t believe now that I spent three years down under and didn’t make an effort to see the Reef. (Of course, we were students and pretty broke back then). Makes me wish I could make another trip. But I can’t go to Spain and Australia in one year.

That would be just too much for someone who doesn’t have a day job.

But I can dream. Of Spain…

While a few bloggers have had troubled times lately, there are others who have had positive experiences through their blogs.

The Rediff Blog Meet got off to a rocking start with bloggers mingling at Bandra Bandstand on Jan 2, Delhi bloggers met on Jan 11 at TGIF and the Chennai bloggers will be meeting on Sunday, Jan 18. The Kolkata meet is scheduled for Feb 8. The majority of the bloggers host with Rediff Blogs, with a sprinkling of Blog City and Blogdrivers (and a few Blogspotters and independents). It’s especially nice to see the popularity of Rediff Blogs, a service that was fun being associated with. Unfortunately, the umbilical cord was cut when I left the company. But…

Make sure to read some of the posts on the meet and go through the pictures in case you missed the action in Mumbai and Delhi. And if you’re in Chennai and Cal, there’s still time. Hyderabad is strangely quiet…

It’s nice to see many friendships spring up among people of such diverse backgrounds. I guess that’s one point that really brings bloggers together. The fact that many of them connect in real life after forming their initial bonds online. And that’s only the beginning. It makes up for some of the unpleasant happenings that crop up in blogland.

Bihu is Assam’s main festival. And what I like best about it is that unlike most festivals, it is non-religious and associated with agriculture - observed to celebrate the harvesting season. We celebrate Bihu, three times during the year. In January, it is called Maagh Bihu, and usually held on the 14th and 15th of the month (1st and 2nd Maagh, the tenth month of Assamese calendar).

My best memories of celebrating Bihu are during my school days. We would come down to Guwahati in those days because it used to be school holidays (and much to cold to stay in Shillong!). The whole family (from my father’s side) would get together in my granny’s place.

It used to be a special time when all of us cousins would get together. It was a time of building mejis (conical structures built out of bamboo that are burnt early in the morning), late nights, kon aloos (small potatoes roasted in the fire, really yummy!), feasts (fish, chicken is a must during this festival) and of course, our various pithas (snacks made out of rice powder).

The real celebrations and fun would start after the adults (read, spoilsports!) slept off. We would stay up by the fire through the night and then burn the meji in the morning. This is now a symbolic tradition in towns, but in villages, the ashes of the meji scattered over the fields is supposed to increase the fertility of the soil (and therefore result in a better harvest).

It’s been ages since I celebrated Bihu. Here in Mumbai, it’s usually a call home to wish the family. Pithas… well I never actually got around to learning how to make them. Besides, I think they only taste good in Assam!

But today, I thought I’d take the chance to wish the few Asomiya bloggers that I know – Suruj, Pallavi and Gandalf - a very happy Maagh Bihu!