Indibloggers Meet Mumbai - A refreshing experience!

I finally attended the Indibloggers Meet Mumbai 2010. Attending the meet was an exciting experience for me for various reasons:

1. THE JOURNEY - I reached Juhu all the way from Koparkhairane on a day of harbour line mega block (click on the link to know what a mega block is... alright, I meant 'to help me increase traffic to the Mumbai local blog'). The best part was that my train from Vashi directly reached Dadar and I ended up boarding just two trains instead of three!
2. NAYI-PURAANI YADEEIN - I met many interesting people. Most importantly, I met my cool ex-colleagues Vijeeth (vijeethshetty on twitter) and Netra after more than a year. And I met Neha Silam in person (I hop on to her blog whenever I donno what to write about).
3. SENIOR CITIZEN? - I sat on the side of people aged 27+ during the debate moderated by Gul Panag. I felt proud to be on that side and weird when someone referred to us as "senior citizens". Now I demand cheaper airfares, lesser tax, better interest rates at banks...
4. THE GUL PANAG AURA - Vijeeth suddenly told me to turn behind as he noticed Gul Panag. And then during the "write on my back" session, it was fun to see guys dying to get a pic clicked with the lovely lady. During the debate, you could see guys constantly clicking her pic (instead of those who were participating)! 
   The best part was this - I was seated next to this sweet girl from Vietnam (pls tell me her name, the one who has already travelled 11 countries). She asked me who the moderator is and she obviously found Gul Panag extremely beautiful. I felt so proud to tell her all I knew about Gul Panag. She wanted to know her age. When I googled it and told her, she was amazed to know that Gul looks so young (I was amazed to know I look younger than Gul)!
5. FREEBIES - So what I did not utter a single word at the debate / gave a cool introduction to end up winning a prize! And for the little quiz, I am always clueless when such questions are asked. But then, like everyone, I got a cool t-shirt (small size still bigger for me, damn my hubby gets this one), a post-it pen I don't know how to use and a free .in domain that I will definitely use! 
6. TRAIN PAL - I saw this gal when she introduced herself, then in the washroom, then at Santacruz station and then we eventually spoke. She gave me company until Vashi and we chatted nineteen to the dozen and how! Meet Rati, a talkative-like-me fashion communication student who told me that I don't look my age!

All in all, it was worth travelling all the way (oops, all the alls seem to be in this sentence). It was nice to meet new faces and faces that were just an online profile picture until yesterday. It was great to know that a few people did recognize me. It was nice to realize that I fall in the elder category now and that the youngsters are so cool and enterprising. It was amazing to see a mother-daughter blogger duo and so many bloggers much senior to me!

The only thing I disliked about the Indibloggers meet was the too much doodh-waali tea served. But then, almost all hotels serve that kinda tea!

Looking forward to the next Indibloggers Meet! And to bring about some change with my blog!