Names and occasionally photographs of people online mean so little until you actually meet people face to face. Well, that time has come for a group of desi/Indian bloggers.

We are meeting on April 2 (notice how we conveniently skipped April Fool's Day) at The Bay Leaf, in Manhattan, at 1.30 p.m.

If you are a desi/Indian blogger, I would like to invite you to join us. It's all very casual, mind you. We'll be meeting around 1.30 for a buffet lunch. You pay as you go.

Here is a short list of other bloggers you are likely to meet: Manish Vij, Prashant Kothari, Reuben Abraham, Kaushik Banerjee, Atanu Dey, Anna, Amardeep Singh, Shashwati Talukdar, Turbanhead, Sonal Vaidya and Me.

For the sake of head-count, we need to know ahead of time if you are indeed going to join us. Please email me at [tiffinbox at pipalproductions dot com]. Email me your name and blog URL. Subject line, BAY LEAF. Cool?

Sorry this is such short notice but the Southern Short Course in Photography will be held at the Crowne Plaze Hotel [108 First Street, Macon, Georgia, tel# 478-746-1461] from March 31 through April 3.

Sam Abell, Grant Blankenship, Mark Damon, Greg Eans, Gary Fong, Denise McGill, Johnny Horne, Kenny Irby, Jock Lauterer, Melissa Lyttle, Jack Rowland, Scott Strazzante and Mike Weimar will all present their work.

Pre-registration, at $60, is open till March 23. You will pay $75 at the door. Students can register for $30. As always these events have a photo contest and portfolio reviews.

Caption: The district collectorate of Anantapur houses a distress service for farmers. Begun by the new state government, is its functioning symptomatic of what the government can, or cannot, do? © Surya Sen

Tip of the hat to Intellectual Property & Social Justice for mentioning this series on their web site.

Down To Earth: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9.

Thanks also to Surya Sen for making these images available. If you know of other such personal photographic projects that focus on social justice issues, please contact me. I can arrange to have your work seen here on this site. Best thing to do is to send me a few images [72 dpi, 500 pixels wide or high, 100k maximum]. Include your full name, country of residence, a brief synopsis of the project, an email address and a telephone number.

Just read this on Jason Kottke‘s site – Flickr, the popular online image sharing and social network company, has been acquired by Yahoo!

Caption: The Vasavi Fertiliser Depot in Warangal District of Andhra Pradesh, sells one of the most expensive investments in agriculture – seeds. © Surya Sen