The Delhi book club meet, who would have thought its gonna come so far. The day finally was here, much awaited, the enthusiasm was flowing around. We had over 150 mails exchanged in one single day, now thats quite a number and actually many things came out of all this interaction. Some very good friends, some exceptionally good writes, some very cherished moments, even the so called sisterhood of DBC, and to take home, a story, that we were all part of.A story we all wrote, TOGETHER. Yes !! All this happened in just a span of twenty four hours. Some time ago we didnt knew each other, all were mere names, and then the transition from virtual to real happens. Imagine, a point where complete strangers from diverse domains, come together and join hands to make something like this possible. To celebrate the birthday of a book club. The Delhi Book Club !!

Even the mailbox was rolling, Almost flooded(itna ki i got request from some of em to change their addreses). And almost every enthusiast filled with energy to the optimum. I dont know where to start, how it kickstarted and if I dont do away with the details, prolly it ll become a book. So I ll spare you the time and spare me the energy to punch so many keys.

A day before the story.

Ideating how and what kicks the enthusiasm in an online forum where people feel and want to be a part of. What could be that one single idea. Wondering the nite before, suddenly, it struck like a lightening. Words are what we are good at spinning. Words keep us going, keep us engrossed all the time. Words define us LIFE. to LIVE, the most powerfull force behind, the most meaningful, the most treasured emotion of em all is LOVE. Love.. to BOND, to LIVE.. to STAY against all odds. What is it that adds value, add meaning to our being, our LIFE… its mere some words from someone.. Words could mean so much to us. Words that are DEAR to us all.. To us the book lovers, like the divine RAIN, its a BOOK, its the CLUB. Thats when it struck me lets spin the words, lets toss it and see WHO’S got WHAT. A zing which started as a thought was turning into an experiment. An experiment to study the science behind influence, the enthusiasm, the process of booting it. I thought, Let me come up with something, ppl can engage in, something that gets em going. It sounds a great idea, doesnt it. But what if people dont contribute, what if ppl dont respond, what if i was thought to be Vella. What the hell i thought, if this doesnt work. What the **** if people think its crazy, it ll anyway gimme FOOD for thoughts, FUEL my MIND, to formulate the laws to the science of influence, my new study of Human Flawsophy. Lets give it a SHOT. How and what shd it be. I tried harder to look in, the pattern that caught my attention was the four letters that was common. the four letter words. EUREKA !! let it be a game of scrabble, as a book worm all of us have a zing for words, and spinning words as writers and poets. Thats how the game comes into existence. Online Scrabble.

The game rules

The first word, what should it be? A word that should reach every mind, a word that conveys feeling of togetherness, a word of common interst. At first, I thought a good word to start with would be BOOK, tahts a common interest we share as booklovers, then it occured to me, we have thousands of ppl who read books and are very enthusiastic about it… but hell what brings us together, more than books its feeling of the CLUB. Yay !! sounds cool I thought. So I chose to start with the word CLUB. Now was the to formulate some rules to get it on ground, to make it intersting. Hmm So here are the game rules, Just incase you are interested to know.

Change one letter of the bottom word posted. You can scrabble, rearrange but you cannot change more than one alphabet. And its a four letter word. Once you are done add your name next to it. Let’s see who gets stuck and can’t continue! Or how long this can continue.

Rules: You cannot add letters. You cannot use foreign languages. You can only change one letter. If you repost a word you are at fault and will be punished

THE ZING RULE

Now there was a secret zing too, to add flavour to this.

What if two people put in two different words at the same time, what happens then; could very well happen; it has to be played online. What if there is a TIE. TIE TIE FISS !! that was the bulbing moment Well in that case both of the players are at fault and are to be punished later on. Yes that sounds a good idea. i ll keep it.

The game

The game went quite well with over hundred words from the jazzy kinds. Quiet a number I should say. The first to fall to the trap were Abhinav and Shipra; who were trapped in the secret zing rule. Abhinav was just protesting against this when he was netted in the basic rule as well; where no one can duplicate already entered words. I was just talking to him and Shipra fall victim to this. WOW !! that was intoxicating. I actually started liking it. I didnt think this could go so interesting. However, Abhinav cooled down with the protest sometime later but Shipra(girls i tell u never give up) took me to ransom. Stopped talking and did all you can expect a girl to do to make things work her way. Wow !! what a classic example this was… heheh.

Later in the evening I found she(like the girls do) started conspiring with Arpita (:P) and formed the sisterhood of DBC to condemn the mod(thats me). How political can the sisterhood get, well i leave that to you to imagine. I found both the founders of mini clubbers conspiring against me .. So, I called for the group chat. Mayank joined me to support the brotherhood of DBC Imagine all this was happening, and I was busy jumping windows, multitasking serious coding tasks parrallely. I like pushing the limits. Wow !! The group chat time was great !!

The Day

All morning and afternoon I was kept busy like hell and it was time for the party. I was wrapping things up when something urgent popped up and I somehow handled it(:P escaped it smartly). I almost rushed for the meet and missed out on taking the book(those who were there, it was kiterunner guys) that was supposed to be gift wrapped and exchanged. When I reached(a bit late), i knew Arpita and Purnima were already there. I found one more pretty girl next to Purnima, a friend of hers, who was there for the meet. WOW !! that was a good surprise. This girl was Mehneer, a jazz, jive dancer. Am already impressed !! Now thats like ppl coming from diverse domains… Thanks Purnima !! U da Gurl !!

Mehneer was a lil concious, i felt, and felt as an outsider; heheh i guess she had no idea we were all strangers to each other and only few of us knew each other well.. I wish she knew. heheh.. So.. All of us standing in the Crossword, Saket among books, were just chit chatting, waiting for other members. Rashi as always, was busy on the phone call. We were talking about the book Into the Wild. Just then a guy came, stood infront of me and said. Pechaano. Now, I had no idea who this could be. I have been talking to people whom I have never met for quiet sometime now. Who can this be? that left me wondering. It was Dr. Hasnain aka HAZ aka Cooldude. I was introducing him to the girls and something caught my attention. I find two girls dressed in black n white, walking towards us. I couldnt believe my eyes. Was that Barkha? She flew all the way from Dubai for the DBC Meet. Now that was COOL. Aint it. A total surprise. And my oh my she was lying to me like hell for past two days. Thats wat we call SURPRISE Birthday party P is it… neway.. Thanks Barkha !! Only you can do this With her she accompanied, Marisha’s cousin, Chinky, the youngest participant of the day, who is in the eleventh class. Quiet, intelligent, beautiful and shy girl.

Like one of the best previous meets that we had at the same venue, we chose to sit out in the open. This is when I got a call and Arun and Abhinav joined us. That makes it a total of ten. Now that was the biggest number that turned up for the meet. I kept the seat reserved for Abhinav just next to Barkha. The two are very good friends(Abhinav, Barkha dont u think u guys shd thank me for that ). Good to see the two good ol’ friends meet each other after such a long time on the auspicious day, sitting next to each other and chit chatting. Thats my gift to the oldies Specially, when it was on the day, that was very special, and we were all there to celebrate the DBC’s birthday.

Mehneer chose to move out quick, she was getting late or atleast getting concious. Anyway, the discussion started flowing, but now how do we go from here. Sadly we couldnt get the cake. My bad. I was getting late so I asked Arpita and Purnima to survey the mall, i thought we can get it there, sadly the mall didnt have a cake parlour Anyway, we still had loads to do and talk. We did honours with the clown cap starting with Abhinav sahib(the founder member), followed by the mod(thats me) and the ritual ended with Barkha madam(the first member of DBC).

Three of us didnt get books that we were supposed to come up with, gift wrapped. We were not spared by the ones who brought their favourite books and had to do away with it. So we went to the crossword and bought em. Arun, Rashi and me. hehe .. no escape. HAIL DBC !! So, after we returned to the scene, to the other members, the chits were made. The exchange treaty was followed and pact was done. Following this a lot many things happened. A great time together. It was a celebration that included the sociologists, the doctor, the CA from Google, a dancer, s TV writer, a guy from fed ex, a 11th class student and an entreprenur. The great mix and rare one too.

All we did about books in this meet was, exchanging them but we were all here to celebrate the DBC Birthday and we did that in STYLE, with loads of ENTHUSIASM. Check out the flicks at www.flickr.com/photos/navin_dutta (Thanks to Barkha for getting the camera).

Just as the clock struck nine, the Delhi book club morphed into Desi Bewda Club Yes we had the Beer party too followed by a dinner party at JNU. Loads of things happened and I cant blog about all of em. There were many moments worth detailing but I had to skip em. Sorry. If you want to know, meet me, may be I ll tell you. For now, all I can say is that it was FUN !! in the real sense of the word. I almost have lost my voice coz I was busy talking all throughout and shouting HAIL DBC !! Cheers !!

Happy Birthday to DBC !! May we have many more such moments to cherish !! Amen !!