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I was quoted today in Indian daily Mail Today in a story on the increasing popularity of Twitter in India.

The story talks about how an engaged Twitter community has emerged in India since I organized India’s first tweetup two years back. A case in point in the tweetup with writer, UN diplomat, and member of parliament Shashi Tharoor organized by Twilight Fairy.

The article also chronicles the use of Twitter by Indian celebrities like Shashi Tharoor, Rahul Gandhi, Gul Panang and Mallika Sherawat.

Here’s the ful text of the story –

If you don’t tweet you haven’t arrived

By Neha Tara Mehta in New Delhi

Not only the geeks but glitterati too are hooked to the micro- blogging networking site

IT TOOK just 140 characters to change the way our celebrities talk to us. You no longer need Page 3 to know who Mallika Sherawat is flirting with, when Shashi Tharoor gets a haircut, and the kind of music that helps Rahul Gandhi unwind.

Quick Summary: LinkBunch is a nifty new service that allows you to bunch multiple long links into one tiny link.

Over the last few months, I have met many interesting people through Twitter, and the two @MumbaiTwit tweetups that I organized (1 and 2) and I’m amazed by some of the cool things these people are doing. Take Aaalap Ghag (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter), as an example. Aaalap, a developer at Web 18, is also India’s most prolific Twitter user (3400+ tweets!) and the creator of the really cool link aggregator LinkBunch.

LinkBunch is a nifty new service that allows you to bunch multiple long links into one tiny link like http://linkbun.ch/3ox (which is a bunch of all my blog, feed and social network profile links). You can then share the link over IM, Twitter, email or even a mobile phone SMS. When the recipient clicks on the LinkBunch link, it opens up into a page that contains all the links that you have put in the bunch. They can then open one link at a time or all the links, all at once.

Quick Summary: The second Mumbai Twitter Meetup at Italian restaurant White in Goregaon had a full house with as many as sixteen people turning up.

In Mumbai? On Twitter? Let’s meet up.

Here are the details of the next Mumbai Twitter Meetup —

Date: Sunday, March 2, 2008
Time: 11:30am - 3:30pm
Location: White, Off Link Road, Near VIBGYOR School, Goregaon, Mumbai, India

Aditya, who owns the Italian restaurant White, has graciously offered to give us 50% discount on food for the meetup.

So, what are you waiting for? If you aren’t already on Twitter, go sign up Twitter, then start following me @Gauravonomics, Aditya at @acmhatre and Mumbai Twitter Meet at @MumbaiTwit.

You can register for the event by registering on the Facebook Mumbai Twitter Meetup Event, sending a message to @MumbaiTwit, or leaving a comment below.

Remember: Each one, tweet one (that is, get an interesting friend to sign-up for Twitter and come to the meetup).

Also See: Details of first Mumbai Twitter Meetup.

Quick Summary: In Mumbai? On Twitter? Register for the first Mumbai Twitter Meetup. Not on Twitter? Find seven reasons why you should sign up for Twitter today.

Yesterday, when I tweeted about wanting to do a Mumbai Twitter Meetup —

Blog meets are so passe. I want to do a Mumbai Twitter meet. Anyone interested? (Twitter)

– I received half a dozen responses within seconds.

Within the hour, I had set up a @MumbaiTwit Twitter account, a dozen people had started following it, Aalaap Ghag (@aalaap) and Kapil Bhatia (@kapilb) had posted about the event and Aalaap had set up a Mumbai Twitter Meetup event on Facebook. Phew!

So, if you are in Mumbai and on Twitter, let’s meet up for the first Mumbai Twitter Meetup.

When? 5 pm, Saturday, December 29, 2007.

Where? Flat No A/65, Sea Lord, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai.

If you are planning to attend, here are a few things you should do in the run up to the event –