I was in Goa this Sunday ( 6th December , 2015 ). Indiblogger had sent a mail sometime which read like this –

  • Do you want to be one of 60 IndiBloggers to be flown down to Goa for an all expense paid experience you will cherish forever?
  • Do you want to be one of the first few people on the planet to experience the new, yet-to-be-revealed car from Tata Motors?
  • Do you want to take up challenges from Bloggers all over the world and emerge victorious?
  • Are you #madeofgreat?

This is tempting enough, but I could only resist for 4 days and hence on a Monday afternoon clicked the button. And almost forgot about it. Why would they select me? There are so many stalwarts, veteran bloggers around – these were some of the thoughts meandering in my mind till such time Naveen called me. Some formalities and some more wait. It took almost 72 hours after the call to know that I have been selected. Sid, a friend of Blogchatter left a message that I have been selected. Phew! Somehow I am on my way to Goa for Tata Zica launch. Zica is the latest one by Tata Motors 

Since then, till we landed in Goa on the 5th around 1.30 PM, it was mayhem. Office, toddler Tugga, responsibilities, Camera, tickets( I travelled in the name Ms Anindya Sundar Basu almost).   If this was not enough, we started tweeting since we got selected about how we were getting ready for the event. Excitement was ever high for me and it only could be calmed down by Sammy, a fellow blogger from Kolkata and a veteran too, who had already attended many events like this earlier.

60 bloggers were invited, and I barely knew about 10 of them. So the opportunity to meet other eminent bloggers from across the country was very tempting. The introduction and interaction started from Mumbai airport, where few of the other fellow bloggers joined us. All the bloggers I met were so interesting that I could come up with one blogpost for each one of them. So lets plan that for a next post but will touch upon them somewhere in this post in the best possible way.

Read Indibloggers Berger paints meet in Kolkata and how I won my first blogger meet prizes

We checked in to Alila Diwa and a quick lunch ( well we were almost last though ) and freshening up was followed by a quick trip to the Majorda beach nearby.  All, almost all got involved in the beach football and it was a hard contest for sure.

After we came back from the beach, there was a QnA session with Anoop ( from Indiblogger team) and then was the big surprise for us.  We were asked to enter a makeshift room within the hotel which looked like a locker room. It had personalised locker spaces with Tata Zica goodies and a Lionel Messi jersey. Once we entered, we could only hear a murmur for next few minutes as everyone was awestruck and before it could subside, reputed DJ Cyrus Sahukaar took the stage as the coach of the evening. Pratap Bose (you can connect with Pratap here )  Head of designing Tata Motors, Anand Kulkarni General Manager ( Vehicle Integration – Cars)  and Delna Avari (connect with Delna here)  Head of Marketing and communication services, spent some valuable input about the Tata Zica and it is #Madeofgreat

  1. Did you know Tata Zica was designed and launched in 36 months instead of normal 48 months, which is for all other cars?
  2. Did you know for the commercial of Tata Motors, Messi had given 18 retakes to say “Namaste India”?
  3. Did you know that Beige as a colour has been removed from Tata design labs and no way you can see a Tata Zica in beige colour?

Towards the end, the car was revealed with much pomp and grandeur and the shutterbugs had wonderful time noteworthy being Shayoni trying to sit inside the boot. Pic follows

The evening ended with a nice cocktail party where there was karaoke and some beautiful renditions of alltime hits. Vinita (blogwati) Maitreni and others made the evening a memorable one and Cyrus was as energetic as ever, singing and cheering for the participants. Who knew there were so many hidden talents amongst accomplished bloggers.

The real activity was next morning where we drove Zica around Goa for 4 hours almost and the review will be posted in a separate blog. Too much fun on the drive, gliding through picturesque roads of Goa, with good music and great friends challenged with innovative tasks, could only make the Sunday morning so memorable. Well yours truly danced also as a part of the task and after watching the video, I consider not to do any jig onscreen any more.

Soon the team started dispersing in a phased manner and time bid goodbye to all. Memorable 36 hours came to an end but the fun continued till Goa Airport, where almost all of us sat together for one last time.

Thanks to Vineet, Naveen and Anoop from Indiblogger and the entire team from Tata Motors including Ashish Sahni and Priyanka  for this wonderful meet and will look forward to more such meets.

Read  What do I think of the car ? Its Fantastico 

They say pictures speak hundred words so I let my pictures do the speaking

Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Alila Diwa Goa – 3

Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Alila Diwa Goa – 2

Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Alila Diwa Goa – 1

one of my fav pictures from the tour

one of my fav pictures from the game

You know who is the king of Mandwa Gaon when he is surrounded by (L to R) by Ananya , Shilpa , Anita , Pooja and Ankita

You know who is the king of Mandwa Gaon when he is surrounded by (L to R) by Ananya , Shilpa , Anita , Pooja and Ankita

Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger the group and they jumped

And then they jumped . Pic – Indiblogger

le le selfie le le re

le le selfie le le re

Selfie story 2

Selfie story 2

The best buddies - Sid and Roshan Macha

The best buddies – Sid and Roshan Macha

The Silent Assassin - Ajay Kontham

The Silent Assassin – Ajay Kontham

One for the organizers for sure

One for the organizers for sure

And Blogwati cannot remain out of action for long

And Blogwati cannot remain out of action for long

Thats a nice product promo Roshan

Thats a nice product promo Roshan

Football Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Football stories – 1

Football 2 Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Football 2

Senthil at Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

When Senthil is keeping the goal no ball can pass him

Maitreni at Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger Maitreni

Maitreni and her elegant poses

Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Anant , Sid , Roshan and Alexander from L to R pic -Sammya Brata

Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger the group

This is called social media presence on the beach. pic – Indiblogger

Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger 3 great men

The three men behind me are author, photographer, ace blogger, doctor, social media influencer – I walked away in shame pic – Indiblogger

Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

yes we had our day too

Anoop Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Anoop in the 101 session

UK at Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

When the moon eclipses the sun – UK . A cheeky shot

Anita and I Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

we were so happy in our personal locker – anita and I . Pic – Sammya Brata

Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger shayoni

Thats 240 litres of bootspace . Shayoni beauty blogger from Kolkata

Pratap Bose at Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Pratap Bose – Head of Design Tata Motors

Pratap and Cyrus at Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Pratap and Cyrus get into a friendly banter

Delna at Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Delna Averi – Head of Marketing and communication services Tata Motors

Delna and Cyrus at Tata Zica meet by Tata Motors and Indiblogger

Delna and Cyrus sharing the facts with the audience

When Zica steals the limelight from Cyrus

When Zica steals the limelight from Cyrus

At the moment of unveiling

At the moment of unveiling