April 28, 2008

The Mega Online Baby Shower - the Biggest and the Best!

Whats the point of this blog being called "Indian Mommies" if I don't mention the recent mega event hosted by most of the Indian Mommies who are in the side bar of this web site?

About a month ago,
Tharini of Winkies Ways sends a mail to a dozen bloggers asking if they are game to throw an online baby shower to the Preggies, at least 6 of them when they started the planning. How the preggies list became 10, the hosts became 70 spanning across several countries and time zones, an online treasure hunt involving 49 blogs, secret login and password to be found, Riddles appearing out of nowhere at the same time in all those 49 blogs, how we preggies plunged into the ride and started solving the puzzle even before the hosts let us know what was happening, how at the end of the hunt we were were presented with an absolutely astounding private blog is anyones guess! The blog is loaded with information and good wishes from each and every one of the contributor. The design is divine, the information oh-so-useful and the wishes - just tear jerking! They rightly named themselves - The Doula Gang.

There have been at least 3000 mails gone to and fro across the globe() for this to happen. How they pulled this off is just beyond me! And to think they have a house to run, a job to go to, kids to look after,... and then do this for a bunch of people whom they have never even MET! That's just terrific! (I do wonder if your husbands still love you! ;) And here I was, could nt even put together a birthday party for my kid yesterday with 15 people. Discovered the salad in the fridge after they left! Well, at least I'm eating something healthy for lunch today! ;)

To know the entire story, you can start in this order.

Boo, that's me,
writes a clueless post after seeing the riddles in some of the blogs.

The hosts are taken by surprise by the sudden attack and are playing mind games in the comment box to discourage us Preggies from solving the puzzle too soon!

Lavs, Desi Girl, Kodis Mom, Poppins Mom, Maggie aka Moppets Mom and Boo go with a vengeance and after a sleepless night, figure out the riddles. Hopping 49 blogs, putting together 41 letters and 8 blanks, they arrive on the right phrase!


Boo brags about it in a new post - So this is what is happening! At the end of the post are the links of all the 49 blogs with the riddles.

Then the thanks just poured in from us Mother To Bes. And the Oscar speech can be found below...

Desi Girl
Poppins Moms
Moppets Mom
Kodis Mom

B o o
Lavs
Random Vignettes
Something to Say

Want to hear from the hosts?

The Mad Momma beautifully summarizes the event here - What I was upto...

Kirans short and sweet summary - So we had a party.

Here's Suki, who is 19 I should add, with her post linking to all the said posts.


If you want mind blowing event organizers, these are the people you should contact:

How to pull off an Online Treasure Hunt, write Riddles for 49 bloggers and take care of all the nitty-gritties -



Sue and


You know what I liked the best about the riddles. None of the 49 bloggers knew who they were writing about or who is going to write about them. They had to solve the riddle to find out themselves! Ever worked for the CIA, folks? ;)

And the website design was taken care of by MayG. Shes does nt call herself a graphic designer for nothing! :)

As if all this was nt enough, DDMom comes up with a book idea and a short summary of the Web site complied by Utbt, the list of names of the Doula Gang and all the contributors are mentioned in the book and we all got copies of it! If this is nt a perfect party, I don't know what is!

Sujatha of Blogpourri has written a fantastic poem on the website summarizing the event. I ll leave you with just four lines which is so apt-

If all of this sends you into a tizzy
And you are left not a little dizzy
Rest assured you are not alone
The intricacies of the "Plan" even to me are unknown.


Update:
Hear it from the Horses mouth:
&