Tyrst with Food - Go CFG!

** This is my first post after a 2-week break from everything. And I couldn't of think of anything better to write, as it suddenly hit me that the CFG anniversary was only a week away.**

It was the year 2004, an year of a lot of not-so-good things in the making (including the tsunami). However, two amazing things happened. And these would go on to change my life forever. And to both, I am deeply thankful to Peep (aka Pradeep Raghunathan). Peep founded Iyers and CFG on Orkut.

Those were the days when Orkut was a rage. (And I still believe Orkut connected us much better than what Facebook is trying to achieve these days - may be it was just the beginning of social networking)

I was initiated into the Orkut community called "Iyers", which would later on see many weddings happen (so much so that a leading newspaper quoted that matches were made in Orkut). We were called OI (or Orkut Iyers and yes I am proud of my heritage) and used to meet regularly online and offline. Our late night yahoo conferences were the funnest ever. (Rums, Vid, Darth, KP, Parasu, Anti, Shanky, Sri, Divi - I am sure you all remember this as much as I do - and Yes that mama in the profile pic is Peep's FIL)

Chennai Food Guide was a natural progression of this group. An extension of Iyer-ism so to speak; Only this group had more to talk & write exclusively about food, visit restaurants, learn to identify what goes in (and what should go out), and to bring out the chef in us. This was my foray into food. And to all of you who ask me how I got into food blogging and the likes, there you have it - the history of the incident and the geography of the accident ;-) It's on this group that I met lot of like minded people - Vinay, Nishanth, Doc Waz, Vasi, Bharat (dude where have you vanished?), Rajiika and so many more. Our food trails were endless.

Some of us met recently, and was good to talk to Peep after ages and that too about food. Peep, we missed you! I think you should start getting more active.

One of the highlights of the CFG on Orkut, was our meet that happened in The Farm (OMR). Dipesh Sharma (who was then part of The Farm) and Arul Futnani happened to invite the group for an on-the-house dinner to review their food. And what followed was an unprecedented turnout of over 70 people, most of whom we didn't know existed in the group! DD and Arul - I still fondly remember those moments!

As Orkut lost its charm and Facebook made way for most of these communities, CFG was resurrected by Mohamad Ali and Nishanth. There are lots more people now, many more organized events (Showcase, Diner's club, Bloggers Meet) and to top it all, we now celebrate our 8th anniversary, the 3000th day of CFG, on the 29th of this month at the Residency Towers, TNagar. (At INR 999 per head, you'll get to witness what CFG is all about). I, as part of the CFG family, welcome you to take part in our celebrations and here's wishing CFG many more years of such celebrations.