Orkut Delhi Meet - II

How can you like talking and meeting strangers all the time?

One of my friends always put this question in front of me, whenever we talk about networking sites like Ryze and Orkut. My reply is always same; there are so many interesting people in world and this is just one of medium to know them. What’s wrong in knowing more people and really making some good friends in process. Though I agree that these sites have become more or less a friendship site where guys and gals are looking for bf and gf . But still if you want, they can let you find some really interesting people with same hobbies, passion and work area like yours. I am saying this cuz maybe I have been quite lucky and found some really great people on both the sites. With them, I can discuss a lot on photography, stocks, books, music and even the current fav. past time Sudoku.

Two weeks back, I was in Delhi after 6 months. How much I long for being there, only god knows…..anyways one of the high points of this trip was meeting some really good people in “Orkut Delhi Meet II’. Though we have been talking on orkut for a long time, this was the first time; I was meeting them in person. Already one meet has taken place, so few people knew each other. I was excited but not apprehensive about it as most of the people are. I was looking forward to it. In fact, I only initiated the second meet around one month back (Now you can see, why I was so excited about it). Though a lot of people said that they will join in, I was expecting around 10. After lot of deliberation on the meeting place, we decided for CCD (Café Coffee Day) at CP. CP being a central area was easily accessible to everyone and now with Metro reaching it, it was easy for people coming from North and North-West Delhi.

So armed with camera (Can’t go without it, everyone would have killed me) I started from home and went to South Ext first. Checked out Adidas Sale for Shoes but I didn’t liked the one I tried cuz of too much of Red in sole. That made me late for the meet at 4pm. So I had to rush to CP and finally reached CCD at 4:20 pm. Guys park your car at Palika Parking at CP, Its much more safe and organized than on road parking sites there. Being Saturday, CCD was full and with an inquisitive look I was inside the café, looking for some familiar faces (I have seen just face pics of people) For first few seconds, nothing registered me and then I identified Aseem. He was sitting on a sofa at ground floor along with two guys. At the same time, they also identified me (maybe cuz of my big camera bag :) )

So here are

Aseem: Working at a KPO in Gurgaon and staying near CP

Bhaskar: A student of Final year Engg. at NSIT and staying in Rohini.

Akshay: Chennai Dude (temporary) Studying in IIT-Madras and staying at Rohini.

So, just 4 of us and after a initial round of introduction, Aseem gave us a update on Prashant and Nisha. Nisha unfortunately wasn't able to join us cuz of some function at her home. I was looking forward to meet her, specially from whatever I have heard from ODM1 and also cuz she likes Bombay more than Delhi (you wont find many Delhites, who like Bombay, I am one of them) After 10 mins, Prashant joined us, he got late while fixing something in his Car (Radha-Red Palio Sports) at Lajpat Nagar.

We pooled in our money to avoid any confusion and as Prashant says, they made me the munshiji to handle finances for the whole day. I had taken my lunch (my fav. Gobhi Paranthas) so just had my usual Tropical Iceberg. Aseem told us about his experiences with Coffee Bars and I chipped in with my experience of doing a marketing project on Barista at the time of MBA. Soon afterwards Bharti and her friend Rahul Joined her.

So here is the rest of the group

Prashant: Working with IBM (Bharti Project) and staying in Noida

Bharti: Just passed out from SPA and planning to give GRE

Rahul: An MBA and planning to join Indian Army

It was a small group and it was perfect cuz we all could share and talk on various topics without dividing into smaller groups. I took out my digicam and that was what everyone was waiting for (Can u imagine, 7 people- 2 Digicam, 1 SLR and 1 Camera Phone) so, it was obvious that most of the conversation was about cameras and photography. For a long time, everyone was waiting to get a look at my digicam and that’s what happened. Everyone trying their hands on my Panasonic FZ20 and its amazing zoom capabilities and it resulted into more of a photography session. Few experiments and lots of Photographs later talks shifted to some other topics. We discussed on GRE, various fields in Architecture and career in it etc. After a second round of drinks, We thought of moving to a more quiet place and went to Pragati Maidan by Prashant's Radha (Palio). Bharti and Rahul had to go somewhere, so only 5 of us were left. Its been a long time, since I have been to Pragati Maidan, so that was a great idea from Prashant and after parking the car, we sat there and looked at Prashant’s latest Trekking pics. The pics were amazing, and how much I wished that I can come back to delhi and trek in Himalayas regularly. A show by “Euphoria” was going to take place at Pragati Maidan but we decided to come back to CP and have something, so went to Café 100 had some cocktails and mocktails. In between, we had a good discussion on condition of Bangalore, Chennai as IT hubs, Delhi being touted as the rape city and Salman Khan’s case. After spending a good one hour out there over drinks and snacks we decided to move back to our home.

So that was all about the meet. It was a great experience, just in one meet , you meet lots of intresting people. My take on these meetings is to just go out, meet people and enjoy. I am sure more people will join us next time at the time of Diwali.

Here are the pics of the meet

It was fun to meet to meet everyone and these are my feelings after the meet.

Bhaskar & Akshay : Interacted with them for first time here and it was pleasure knowing them. All the best for their placements and guys you both gonna treat me, when you will be placed.

Rahul: One quiet guy, maybe cuz he didn’t knew anyone well. But I really admire him for choosing Army even after doing MBA. You don’t see people joining army after completing MBA.

Aseem : One hell of intresting guy, I believe he is the most frequented guy among various comunity meetings, very jovial and has a good knack of telling stories and experiences, exactly like his pic on orkut.

Bharti: She is talented and knows her area (Architechture) very well, Always smiling and chirpy kind of gal and she is not as mature as she looks from her pic on orkut. I believe I deserve a treat now Ms. :)

Prashant: We share few of the hobbies like photography, traveling, trekking and driving. Infact we both are passionate about all these, so it was great meeting him after exchanging lots of scraps on orkut. Just waiting for the time, when we can go on some trip together. I envy u yar….for all the trip u can make out there :)

Hope to see each of them at the time of Orkut Delhi Meet 3 ..........
Cheers !!!