Journey For BNLF #MumbaiMemoirs

“You will come and we will have fun together, Mark my words”, I kept telling S that, but every other day she would be thinking of cancelling it. I would tell her the same regardless of the fact that even my decision was uncertain. All I knew was that as soon as this has come up, I had signed up for it. Then, I wasn’t aware that where will I be on the day of the event but I didn’t want to miss it at any cost. We were worried over staying arrangements and then Stayzilla came up. I pinged her in the dead of the night to tell her about this, to tell her that God was listening to us! What seemed to me the conspiracy of the universe to fulfill my wish to attend this event, was giving her reasons to give up the plan. Little did I know that I would be landing in the city just a week before the big event. Things magically worked out for me and I got posted here. Not even a week was left to the event and there was no news about our stay arrangements. She was now totally hopeless. But I held hope like a child holds its dearest toy! I knew we will both make it!
Then finally that Wednesday afternoon, our phones beeped calling for our attention. And then we both were grinning like happy little idiots, drawing all the attention to ourselves, in our respective offices. Our stay had been confirmed and we were each other’s Staybuddy! Finally the universe has conspired in favour of our wishes.

And we finally met, at the Lalit Hotel, Mumbai!

So many people have turned up but many couldn’t and their absence was felt. Amongst all the new bloggesr I also got to meet one more fellow blogger from our little cozy blogger’s group. Stay at hotel was another new experience for me. Earlier, I had always been with my family. This first time it was with friends. Now I knew the meaning of what they say to be a weekend getaway. We chatted late till night until eyes were heavy with lack of sleep. Such is the goodness of meeting putting faces to the names you have been talking to and whose words you are reading through.

The weekend just flew away when we were busy networking, partying, gulping coffee( yes loads of it!), chitchatting, tweeting, clicking selfies, laughing out loud, shedding inhibitions, learning so much and collecting tips for writing/blogging and much more…… The feeling that one gets there , being amongst the crowd and still not alone, isn’t one that can be described with words. Even if you don’t know anyone there, you can still feel the bond that connects everyone: that’s the power of words, the bond of words. One might be alone there but can’t be lonely, because everyone is the just like everyone else.

As the the event got over on the Sunday evening, everyone parted as if we were long lost friends. Contacts were exchanged, friend requests were sent and promises were made to stay in touch. One thing was clear, that we might not have been friends for ages but we will sure remain friends for years to come… As I walked out of the venue and opened the door of my home an hour later, it felt weird. It felt heavy to come out of the world I was in, to the world that is reality.

Place of Stay: Hotel Oriental Aster, Mumbai.

My Take : 3.75/5