Monday, July 31, 2006
Meeting bloggers in real life is always a little weird...
You never quite know what to expect... you think you'll recognise them... you think you know them so well coz you read their blog everyday... but the fact is.... you dont really know them at all.. do you?
So when you see them... you sometimes stare them in the face.. and dont recognise them..
you run into them in malls... or catch a glimpse of them driving by in some grey maruti.... and some part of your mind tells you that you know them... but you can't make the connection in time.... even if you did.. what are you supposed to say? "i know you from your blog. nice to meet you."
come on... I know a lot of ppl who have said they don't like it when random unattractive strangers come up and say that. So forget it.
Anyway... met a number of bloggers this time. Mostly by design. A couple by accident... erythrocyte and Bini (met as in... saw from distance)... and srin claims I failed to recognise her.
met Trina, Black Cat and Ponchie in one fell swoop...
then met arunava, scorpionragz and aquilus altius in another....
ofcourse met shion and aveek... but I have met them before... so no biggie.. shion's changed.... he has grown hair... and some weird bionic protrusion out of one ear....
Arunava I realised I already knew.... jacobean.... made the mistake of saying "ah... you were that nerdy kid in school".... probably took it to heart.... ragini somehow looked different than I had expected... thinnner I guess...
Ponchie looked shorter than I had always imagined her to be... trina... she's the same.... black cat is a tiny waif of a thing... with these amazingly well crafted traditional features... once again... different from what I had imagined...not sure how....
and ofcourse... there was diviani... whose pics I have not really seen... she never really puts them up anywhere... which lead me to believe she was some plain little girl with tons of personality and talent... as that is often the case with ppl who dont put up pictures... but quite the contrary... apart from a charming personality and talent... she is strikingly beautiful... so much for assumptions...
And there is always bodhi
couple of people I DID want meet... but somehow didn't happen... "sen"sational, musicalmosquito and gairik....
ah well...
maybe next time... in a year.. or two
a blurred blogger> 11 comments
7:37 AM
Thursday, July 27, 2006
so... the trip
Trips back to calcutta are always weird. It's like passing from one life into another in a way. Because Perth is my home. It's my life. But in a way calcutta is my life too. And it's most definitely my home. It's a weird feeling. Not the way most expatriate students feel I reckon. Because when you are just a student in a different place that other place is not REALLY your home. Calcutta is still your home. But for me it's different.
I can't quite explain it. I guess it's the time also. But it just feels bizarre. The first night, the next morning. I just walk around my house touching things, opening drawers to see if things are still there. I walk into a room and somehow still instinctively flick the correct switches, still straight away find a book I have been looking for.
It's like batman entering the bat cave.
The acclimatisation is also funny. As soon as I land the sweat hits me. The sticky, itchy humidity. My travelling shirt (a disgusting brown thing with pockets in the front for secure storage of passport and full sleeves for protection from unpredicatable air conditioning) sticks to my skin, drenched instantly. The throat dries up... I cough up tar. I realise I am using more english words than bengali. That too with a slightly funny accent.
But all that changes. Pretty soon it doesn't feel so hot. Auto rides seem natural. I start using bengali words again.
I am home.
In many ways this was a spectacular trip. Met with tons of people. Quite a few people I had never met before. Bloggers and such. Living away from the family circus for a change was spectacular. I need to do this more often.
Crap... I am going to miss calcutta
> 3 comments
8:52 PM
