PG Gang !

PG Meets are always a special ocassion, particularly the All India variety where you get to meet new junta everytime around. There have been three thus far and I’ve had the pleasure of being at all of ‘em. The previous edition at Mumbai was as much fun as it was an incredible learning experience. And this time was no different. Indeed, the entire trip to Mumbai over the weekend was a lot of learning in ways more than one ! While I’ve come to terms with the rapport that people seem to enjoy with purrfect strangers at such meets, indeed is a pleasure to see how communities are slowly, but definitely, transcending virtual walls, more so, in a country like India, where trust ranks high up on the list of abused words ! The internet is still an emotion-less entity, but the manner in which the people using it come to life outside the online coterie is very well a matter of surprise :)

As usual, was put up with the wonderful host that he is, Allwin. Roaming around Mumbai with him, Apurv and Rohit, and getting interesting tidbits all the while on the city, sure is a nice experience. Seriously, while enough keystrokes have been spent on Mumbai’s wonderful cosmopolitan culture, to see pieces of it in action was damn surprising. Hotels where you need to wait for an hour at 11:30PM to get a table, beaches where parking slots are full at 02:00AM !! Some city that ! 

Getting to see the insanity that prevails at PGHQ, the work being done there and the crazy ideas that keep coming out of the gang there is something that brings a smile. Some of the ideas coming out of there are, truly speaking, revolutionary, in an Indian context where the web is more an extension of the offline physical world and is not treated as a medium in itself that probably surpasses the reach and influence of the printed word ! All in all, a trip that was worth every single hectic minute of travel and next-to-nil sleep. Looking forward to many more in the future….. :)