Before the meet started , I and probably most of the boys had thought that
"We would just sit ,see, eat and come back", but man I must say that this meet turned out to be the most awesomest of all I had ever attended..and I bet to have enjoyed more than the gals out there.
Nwys coming back to the course of how I met the sun and had so much fun.
Came from office and checked my gmail to find something interesting and it was right there at the top.
"New Indiblogger Meet" in Mumbai...wow..but than my expressions changed suddenly as I had a closer look to the word "Neutrogena".
Skin care creams , lotions , sunscreens , fashion , chicks, ladies and Ankit... definitely I was the odd one out..Also I was not much into skin care and had little knowledge about the latest sunscreens in the market and how do they work...if any did..:P. Altogether I was a confused soul waiting for other like minded souls to come online and decide upon the meet.
After so many if's and but's we finally registered our self and waited for the day to arrive.
The meet was scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m on 7th April but there was a buzz on the twitter from the midnight itself..Bloggers were asked to tweet about "Anything under the sun" . Within few mins #Neutrogena started trending as there was a new brand Nokia Lumia 620 up for grab(*Eyebrows raised, eyes wide open, followed by a grin*).
I had lot to do under the sun, swimming , kite flying, enjoying on beach, riding , fashion shows and much more but it was horse riding which took the show away.
It was daytime, the show time. I was glad to accompany fellow bloggers Sriram and Animesh in his car. The venue for the meet was one of my favorite hotel JW Marriott in Juhu. We reached the venue on time and according to the indiblogger protocol got registered.
Also everyone wrote their name on a small yellow Chinese umbrella. Next was to check out the old buddies and meet the new ones.
The ambiance was all yellowish..yellow lighting , yellow umbrellas and the attire of Neutrogena team was also bright yellow..
The Stage is set for the meet with gorgeous Prachi Desai
Our host for the day appeared on the stage and all eyes got set on her as she looked stunningly gorgeous in her beautiful yellow gown.
Everyone was enjoying the company of their buddies when an announcement was made to form groups with people you don't know. I liked the idea as it helped build new contacts and the newbies were also not alienated. After forming a group we were required to know the names of each person in it. Our group was first to do that and we won Volleyballs for that..(*Yipiee*hands in the air)
The next event for the day was where the small yellow Chinese umbrellas came in.
Yellow Umbrellas are distributed to all
Everyone was given an umbrella and the task was know about the person whose name was written on it and than introduce him/her to all.
There was chaos everywhere ,lot of screaming and shouting to find one's umbrella friend.
Anoop I have found my "Umbrella Buddy", nahin mai phele aaya tha..complete chaos
After sometime everyone got settled and random names started appearing on the screen.
Some of the intros were really hilarious but few bloggers were able to dig out a lot of info about their umbrella friend and hence won headphones for their effort.
I got myself settled hoping for no further running around but the lord of laziness was not happy with me and hence came another round of running where you have to form a group of 15-20 people depending upon the no of holes in your umbrella.
My umbrella had 5 holes and hence it was table no 5 for me.
The task was to come up with a name and anthem for your group, somewhere related to the sun as the agenda for the meet was protection from sun.
The name of our group was Sunny Side Up. We contemplated on which song to choose as anthem and unanimously agreed on Give me some Sunshine from 3 idiots.
Our group singing the song "Give me some sunshine from 3 Idiots"
Though we couldn't win it but gave a tough competition to other teams.
Suns of Sardar won the task which involved a lot of creativity and a equally appreciating team effort.
Next came the event which I personally enjoyed the most.
As we already had 6 groups , it involved a battle game between the 2.
At one end we had the attackers, the group who was going to shot yellow colored smiley balls and the other end defenders, who had yellow umbrellas with holes in it.
The task was very simple. Attackers had to get in as many balls through those umbrellas and the defenders had to block those attacks.
Ye maara Vo maara
Each group played both the roles.
The Umbrella Army
The concept of this game was to show that though ozone layer acts as our sun shield, but UV rays easily pass through the holes in it which are getting bigger and bigger each day. So we need something to save our skin from sun burns and the harmful UV rays. Here is where Neutrogena acts as our shield against the Sun.
Everyone was tired and hell lot hungry. So it was time for high tea.
Complete marks to JW Marriott for the yummy taste and variety.
There were starters, sandwiches , delicious deserts and coffee which was enough to satisfy my tummy..
We again moved to the hall and were joined by the most beautiful lady of the eve Tara Sharma.
Though she was a mom of 2 but still looked like a college chic. She was beautifully dressed in a vibrant yellow attire. She talked about her experiences as a mom , about her show "The Tara Sharma Show" which airs on Colors and Nickelodeon and how she used Neutrogena Sunscreens on regular basis.
Than came the Q&A round where bloggers asked some interesting questions to her. I honestly admit that the questions went above my head as they were mostly related to skin care..::P
Prizes were given to some of the Questioners and also to a gal named Neha who wore a vibrant yellow dress. After she won the prize that we came to know that the dress code for the eve was yellow. Well that was a news to us.
Next person to follow was a well known Dermatologist.
He demonstrated some tests on Neutrogena Sunscreens VS other sunscreens in their capacities to protect. What are the effects of UV rays on our skin. Bloggers asked him a lot of questions which involved a lot of technicalities..(*above my head*).
When I thought the meet was almost over , came the most insane and remarkable part of the meet, "The Indiblogger Harlem Shake". For the unaware lot a video demonstrating "Harlem Shake" was played. A guy named Summit started with the proceedings with a mask on his face and when Anoop told everyone to join in the atmosphere went crazy.
The craziest Harlem Shake
Finally on this nod of madness the meet came to an end.
Everyone then went on to click some snaps with the neutrogena banners and umbrellas.
It was time to say byee until the next meet and yeah collect the awesome goodies which included the sun protection kit from Neutrogena , and as always a new tee from Indiblogger.
Thanks Neutrogena and Indiblogger for such a wonderful experience.
For the first time I have decided to try a sunscreen and as it is Neutrogena, I don't have to care about the sun anymore..Will be out with results soon..:)
