2022
Hello, Local Guides,
I am thrilled to present the recap of my virtual meet-up, which I hosted with my co-host, @Rohan10 , on July 7, 2024, at 5 PM IST.
29 local guides showed up at the meet-up, which surprised me a lot—I think that is a great number!
The list of attendees:
Akshay K, Amit Nerkar, Anil Singh, Anshuk Mitra, Ashmiza Shah, Bhayani Naitik Jignesh Bhai, Connecting World, Jitendra kumar Mahendra Prasad, Kashif Abdul Razzaq Misidia, Kuldip Patil, Merlin Thomas, Nand Kishore, Naresh Darji, Praniket More, Prasad VR, Raj_Tayade, Ravi Sharma, Rohan Mudshingikar, Rosy Kohli, Rupali Gupta, Rushikesh Joshi, Sagar Kanherkar, Shirish Khairnar, ShrutN M, Supriya Devkar, Tandrima Ghosh, TravellerG, Tushar Suradkar.
With TravellerG, sir, we met a few LGs from Hyderabad in their in-person meet-up. Thanks sir. 🙏
The meeting began at the scheduled time of 5 PM IST and ended an hour later, according to schedule.
After the host and co-host introduced themselves, I asked guests to list their names alphabetically.
Photo 01: A collage of the screenshots by Rohan10, @Shrut19 and @Tushar_Suradkar
Later, Rohan started the presentation, and i explained the agenda of the meet-up.
As this was a part of a series of meet-ups suggested by @KashifMisidia, we all wished the Connect Portal the very best on this, LGC's eighth birthday.
Next, we proceeded to our most interactive sessions. "Chocolate and I" and "Chocolate Trivia," respectively, to which I had previously shared a few posts.
- Preparation for the World Chocolate Day meet-up on July 7, 2024
- Fun facts about delicious chocolate | Study guide for Chocolate Trivia on Jul 7 meet-up
During the “Chocolate and I” session, I gave some advice to the group and asked them to select two out of the six points and tell about their personal exclusive memories with chocolate. Listening to stories about magical, emotional, humorous, and medical experiences was a lot of fun.
It will be tough to remember and mention the memories of everyone here, but I will just highlight a few that I remember. 🙂
Photo 02: A collage of screenshots of the meet-up host by Tushar Suradkar, an advertisement shared by @NERKARAMIT , and a couple of photos of chocolates by local guides.
Anil Singh, express your fondness for chocolate. How his parents still have a strong bond with chocolate, and how they used to reward him with orange toffies for good grades in school. He also revealed that he used to give his own students the chocolates and keep one for himself.
Supriya Devkar shared a similar experience with the parent; she used to get chocolates rather than mint candies as a reward for the homework.
Despite Naersh bhai's claims to love chocolate, he now strictly follows the doctor's advice and does not eat any because it triggers allergies.
According to Amit Narkar, his parents used to hide it from him because they thought he was so addicted to it as a child. Later, because of the toothache, he reduced the consumption of the doctor's advice. Nowadays, he loves chocolates with rum or wine. Later, he also shared some attractive advertisements for Cadbury's, which had an impact on him as a teenager.
Nand Kishore stated that it helped him get over his anxiety when the doctor suggested he have one chocolate bar a day.
Rushikesh Joshi and Kuldip Patil mentioned that after receiving chocolate and wine from a colleague who returned from Germany (he told them it’s a normal chocolate), they experienced dizziness for the entire night.
The team laughed it off when Naresh Bhai and I related our similar experiences. 🙂
Photo 03: A collage of photos shared by our local guides, especially @Annaelisa, @Anil6969, Rahul, Kerala and Rupali Gupta
Photo 04: A collage of photos shared by @TravellerG sir, @Supriyadevkar and me.
According to Kashif Bhai, the chocolate comes in handy for him because his daughter runs a cake shop. Unnoticed, he gulps down anything that remains after the production. Like Tushar Suradkar, Anshuk, and me, he is also a dark chocolate lover. He also informed me that some unique masala-flavored chocolates from Mumbai, India, are famous too. Amit agreed on that.
Merlin Thomas shared with us that her Japanese clients had given her a few unusual fish-flavoured chocolates. Despite its popularity in Japan, she claimed she did not like it. Naresh Bhai concurs, saying that he experienced something similar in Japan.
Shirish Khairnar said he is very fond of Melody chocolates and used to have a lot during study time with his friends.
Raj Tayde said he had more papermint than chocolate during his childhood. Prasad VR said he loves Slik Almond Roast from Candbury.
Sagar Kanherkar said during his childhood that chocolate was too expensive considering his pocket money. So at that time, his favorite was sugar-coated fennel seeds. Nowadays, he carries some chocolate regularly in his bag.
Rosy Mam narrated her incident during her school time and as a teacher.
Photo 05: A collage of photos shared by Naresh Darji, Rushikesh Joshi, Kuldip Patil, Ravi Sharma, and Gurupriya Madam.
Tushar also made it clear that he is absolutely addicted to chocolate and not ashamed of it. 😀 He simply loves to have at least one per day.
We had a lot of fun exchanging funny incidents and cherished memories about chocolates.
Now was the time for the quiz or trivia. We had a set of 10 questions and requested everyone to share the correct answer in the chatbox, and Rohan would monitor and announce the winner.
After a few tough rounds, we had Merlin Thomas as our winner for the day. We all congratulated her, and it was a joyous moment for her since this was her first ever meet-up.
Here is her certificate:
Photo 05: A photo of the winner's certificate for @MerlinThomas !
My sincere apologies to those whom we could not add during the meet-up.
“Missed you guys” for those who could not make it and “thanks” for those who attended, hopefully enjoying themselves.
It was a fantastic experience, and we all enjoyed it a lot.
Once again, happy birthday, our beloved Local Guides Connect portal!!
Cheers!
One of the most amazing and memorable meetups @AjitThite
It was great fun sharing memories of chocolates and the quiz was enjoyable too 🍫
Great recap and chocolatey moments 👍
