The Preamble: I came into blogging because I wanted (needed?) an anonymous existence for at least some part of my daily rigour. This was where I could let myself loose on people who had never known me in real life and be whatever I wanted to be. While the reason still stands, over time, one has developed this virtual chemistry with some people…I met one such person last weekend!

The Home Work: I was to be in Kolkata for a few hours and I just casually mentioned this to a fellow blogger who lives there. She and I have had a few non-blog-related exchanges in the past (mainly relating to the Quiz at IITIIM) and I have found her to be interesting, intelligent and very in-your-face. She immediately responded to my suggestion of a rendezvous and we talked over phone the same day. And the date was set!!

The Day: I almost didn’t make it to the City of Joy (Lapierre’s, not mine) and even after I did, I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to meet her. If ever I have got butterflies in my stomach, that was the day. Yet I re-confirmed out meeting and she suggested we meet up in front of a music shop and informed me that she’d be wearing a sleeveless white top (!)and gave me details about her appearance. So there I was before the appointed hour, waiting for my unseen unheard unknown friend to drop in!

The First Encounter: I was looking around for an intellectual-looking (you’d know what I mean if you have been to Kolkata!), serious kind of a 27-year old in a sleeveless white top but there was none. Then my heart skipped a beat. I saw a beautiful girl who was also scanning the mass of humanity on the busy Park Street. And, indeed, she was wearing a sleeveless white top!! So I walk across and tap her on her bare shoulder! This was the point where our blog identities dissolved and a real identity emerged.

The Lunch: She took me to one of her favourite joints, one she has written about before and I was impressed with the reception she got…bowing doorman, gushing hostess and very attentive steward who did not give us the alcohol menu because he assumed the lady does not approve of anything but chaste water! Imagine she had been visiting this place for over 3 years and she didn’t even know they served booze…thanks to my inquisitive self, now she does!!!!!

We had no first-time blushes or pregnant pauses…it seemed as if I had known her for years. We found out about people, places and situations we both knew. We discussed the merits and nuances of blogging (I always knew she was an intellectual!!) and talked about the various categories of bloggers (the Great, the Barely Tolerable, the Outright Trash). We even decided to do a joint Quiz for IITIIM.

Then we proceeded to have a superb meal of prawns and rice (she, the gastronome will have more to write on that!). All this while I could not take my eyes off her animated face (and she noticed…she said there were some people who’d look at your face and then immediately at your boobs (sic!)…hope she did not mean me!!!).

It struck me how our writing need not automatically reflect our public persona. There she is, a tigress on her blog, calling a spade a spade, and if you meet her in a public setting, she is modest, soft-spoken and, in some ways, even docile! The people we have come to know through our blogs and theirs are all unique and they let out aspects of their personalities which they want to and can hide whatever they do not want others to know of. This is our own private canvas where we can paint our own masterpieces without fearing a Michelangelo-like backlash.

Melodrama, meeting you was a pleasure!