Transition of Thoughts

Weaving thoughts into words

A Zesty Weekend at Goa!

WP_20140726_11_43_37_Pro
The journey is about to begin!

An event in Goa –> Reaction: Interesting

A blogging event in Goa –> Reaction: Delighted

A blogging event for test driving a car, meeting awesome bloggers along with an all expense paid trip and stay at a 5 star resort in Goa –> Reaction: Jumps with joy and waiting eagerly to go

WP_20140726_14_16_07_Pro
The fun begins!

What started as just a simple note from the BlogAdda Team on my availability for the 26th July weekend turned out to be a weekend truly well spent. From 5 star luxury to test driving a beautiful car, from meeting Narain Karthikeyan to meeting some amazing bloggers and making new friends, there was lots of fun and more.

There were about 50 bloggers and predominantly most had come from Mumbai or Delhi. By the time me and Shashank (we are the two lucky ones from Hyderabad ;)) arrived at the Dabolim Airport, almost everyone seemed to have made it to the Zuri White Sands Beach Resort & Casino at Varca, our destination. That’s what we thought, when we met Vinitha, Sharon, Arun and Siddharth as well in the bus.

Priyanka had already tweeted a pic of the lunch awaiting us. How could they start eating without all of us? But thankfully, she was just trying to entice us so that we get to it faster before they finish it all :P.

WP_20140726_22_52_48_ProThe lobby at Zuri

After a sumptuous lunch (though I wish there were non – veg options as well :P) and freshening up, we all gathered in the Unicorn Ballroom where Ankita from the BlogAdda team got the session going. She gave an overview of the various BlogAdda initiatives. When she said “We all have gathered here for love”, the entire crowd came alive ;). Maybe, we could have used the 100 character profile sent to BlogAdda as a official way of introduction for each of us during the session.

BtdQUPYCAAAL8FtDoesn’t that look enticing?

Pic courtesy – Priyanka

Nonetheless, the High – Tea time gave a good opportunity to go up and interact with the different people. From meeting the multi talented Roshan to the dynamic Kavi, from the talkative Shwetabh to the interesting Pranay and others, it was a great experience.

The highlight of Hi-Tea were the delicious cakes below.

WP_20140726_17_44_09_Pro
How many of the social networks have you tasted? 😉

Next on the agenda was what all of us were called here for. The bigwigs from Tata Motors were there to talk about the Tata Zest, the journey in designing it as well as various features and specifications. And we also had the famous Miss Malini aka Malini Agarwal to compere the event.

BtfVUbiCEAASXOW
Selfie time with Miss Malini and others!

Pic courtesy – Pranay

Btfl9GcIIAAiXVuSelf time with the God of Indian motorsport

Pic courtesy – Nivedith

The session was named the Master Class and it sure was able to depict what a Master Class the new Tata Zest is.  It was pretty successful in building our excitement towards driving the car the next day. What I loved best about the session? The appearance of Narain Karthikeyan, the motorsport icon of India to talk about the Revotron Engine. He has been involved in the various aspects of Tata Zest’s creation.

WP_20140726_19_54_01_Pro
Look whose here!

All the while, everyone was busy tweeting using the hashtag #ZestUpYourLife, Facebooking and Instagramming to glory telling the world what they were witnessing.

BtfLSVTIUAEok4r

Pic courtesy – BlogAdda

Drinks and snacks followed by a lovely dinner full of Goan specialities whether fish, chicken or sweets completed the beautiful day.

The rooms were really pristine with all the major facilities you expect out of a 5 star hotel. The surroundings with all the greenery complimented it even better.

WP_20140726_16_37_34_ProOur room!

WP_20140727_06_54_59_ProPool time

The next morning we were up pretty early and set off for the Varca beach which is located just behind the resort. Though there were some dark clouds, the Arabian sea was really peaceful.

WP_20140727_07_02_00_Pro
Tranquil!

After a delicious breakfast spread, we had to check out early. And then, we had the final briefing on the route we had to take during our drive.

WP_20140727_08_31_37_ProOur 25km route!

And so along with Roshan and the vivacious Sneha, we were off for the drive.

IMG_20140727_084856Partners in crime!

Pic courtesy – Sneha

There were 3 bloggers along with one volunteer in every car. We had a detailed route map and there were various volunteers also stationed on the various junctions along the route. There were 2 pit stops for giving of all us an equal chance to drive. But there were some groups having only 2 out of 3 who had a driving licence. We also had a QR code given to us to share the experience with the world as well as a selfie contest. We got a chance to drive both the automatic and manual versions. All in all it was a beautiful 50 kms driving experience around various parts of Goa with almost no traffic and lovely roads.

DSC_1135
The drive..

Once back, we had a session of live blogging. Now this is what we were there for. But again, the time in which we needed to write two posts was quite less especially for many of us who need time to think and articulate our thoughts well. Nonetheless, we all tried to express our thoughts as well as we could in the time. And left the rest for later.

After lunch, it was time to go!

BtiabdiCcAE1cn5Selfie as we get ready to leave!

Pic courtesy – Pranay

But the trip wasn’t still complete since the majority of us were traveling together to Mumbai and beyond. While the flight to Delhi got delayed by a couple of hours, the flight to Mumbai was delayed just by 15 minutes.

But our waiting time was enough for Mansi, Arun, Bhumika, Ila and I to discuss on our blogging experiences on how we began and what we do.

A couple of bumpy rides, scary landings and incessant delays later, I was finally back to base after a zesty weekend of networking with some amazing bloggers, driving a lovely car on Goa’s roads and making some new friends.

WP_20140727_21_39_05_Pro
No one has a clue when flights would take off..

Thanks to Harish, Ankita, Anand and everyone else at BlogAdda as well as Priyanka and others at Tata Motors for a really well organized event.

Some more pics of the beautiful landscapes of Goa –

WP_20140727_09_41_10_Pro

WP_20140727_10_04_18_Pro

WP_20140727_10_39_07_Pro

Previous

My experience of the Tata Zest

Next

Book Review – The Edge of the Machete

7 Comments

  1. Anita

    Wow……

  2. Shilpa Garg

    Oh yes, it was a fabulous weekend, no doubts about that! It was awesome connecting with fellow bloggers and meeting new friends too. And the event was a superbly organised too. An amazing experience indeed! 🙂

    • aseemrastogi2

      Yeah and even the drive along the beautiful traffic and pothole free roads of Goa was lovely. To top it all the awesome 5 star hospitality at Zuri :D.

  3. It was a great experience indeed and after a week I am enjoying reading everyone’s way of describing it..
    Great connecting with you Aseem 🙂

    • aseemrastogi2

      Yeah Manjulika it was a beautiful weekend and we returned some awesome memories. Great connecting with you as well :).

  4. I recognized Roshan from the pictures .This was definitely good old days of Blogging

    • transitionofthoughts

      Oh yes those days were fun :D. Blogging has changed in a lot of ways since then I guess.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén

%d bloggers like this: