Blog Camp held in house boat, Alappuzha on 16th August, 2008

BlogCampKerala held in the air conditioned first floor of the double decker house boat of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation at Punnamada Kayal, Alappuzha on 16^th August, 2008 was a memorable event. It brought back the sweet memory of such a voyage in Mandovi River, Goa more than a decade back. Mandovi River voyage was in the night and this was in broad day light. We the attendees of the camp entered the boat at 10. 30 a.m. and around 11.00 a.m. the boat started moving through the Nehru Trophy Boat Race area and moved to Nedumudi and later to Champakkulam. On enquiry it was gathered that there are at least 350 house boats at Alappuzha and 30 more are added each year. The water front was unimaginable until Nandi saw it. It is similar to a well planned 250 feet road network in a major city with crossings at important places. Nandi could read the boards displaying the distances to Kottayam, Champakkulam etc placed in the cross sections of the water path. Both sides of the canal were beautifully filled with paddy fields below the water level, coconut trees, green bushes, houses, churches and large water areas that was marvelous to look at. On the way to Champakkulam food which was prepared in the house boat itself was served and it was very tasty.

Blog Camp was attended by around 100 participants from out of 175 registered. The participants having the age of fingers of one hand multiplied by fingers of both hands (5 x 10) was less than fingers of one hand. Most of the participants belonged to the age group of 20 – 35 and majority from the IT sector. Mr. Kenney Jacob was the brain behind the BlogCamp Kerala initiative. Mr. Kenney has been instrumental in the overall organization of the unconfrence. He deserves all credit for actually making this camp a success. More details can be collected from www.blogcampkerala.com

Other than Shri Chandrasekharan Nair known as Kerala Farmer in blogworld & Shri Vellayani Vijayan whom Nandi met in the Jana Satabdhi train from Trivandrum to Alappuzha , a few more names is to be mentioned. Shri Sajjiv Balakrishnan the fat cartoonist was the most active in the group and visit him at http://keralahahaha.blogspot.com/. He made caricatures of almost all participants of the blogcamp and handed it to the persons then and there. He took just one minute to draw a caricature and was very patient to entertain all the participants who sat before him. It was really an incredible feast. Shri. Sujith, the media man covered the event by words and photos. He showed interest in the theme Nandi blogs on. The next one is none other than “Meri Awaz Suno” fame Shri Pradeep Somasundaran who demonstrated the immense possibilities of music recording, editing and giving special effects. His audio blog www.pradipsomasundaran.com/musicblog.htm is a must visit for music lovers. Film songs in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu and songs in English, Japanese sung by this famous play back singer can be heard through his blog. The BlogCamp high lights also can be seen here. Nandi was interested in the conversion of music in to figures and the play back singer told that there exists costly software that show frequencies of music while playing the song. Some day Nandi may get an opportunity to see it in action.

Back to market: Nandi’s expectation of Nifty’s move to Gandharam (4762) / Anthara Gandharam level (4961) is yet to be materialized. Nifty stayed in Rishabham band width and is expected to be there up to 28^th August, 2008.