Sunday, April 14, 2013

Fun under the Sun ...


Before writing anything about the meet, I wanna confess one thing..
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.

                                            The Main entrance of JW Marriott



                                                         Registration time

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.



                                                       The host for the meet


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)

                                           Nam Batao Volleyball le jao contest

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..:)

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Appraisal time 66 words...

I screwed my life, worked for shifts , didn't go for lunch to meet deliverable on time , at the end manager says you only meet my expectation , u get a 3/5.

I left my work to update manager's excels, laughed on his/her lifeless jokes , rebuked innocent juniors  just because my manager wanted me to do so , finally I flattered above expectations , I get a 4/5 .


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Death of Independence in 66 words


Family Pressure:
Most are engineers and doctors............ Is it actually what we aspired to be?

Traditional Customs:
Most love someone, Marry someone else....Is that the girl with whom we wanted to be?

Social Hypocrisy:
Most lead a life of an imposter.... wherein real identity remains hidden....Is that really who we are...?

Fake Democracy:
We rejoice the fact that India is independent.....But are we...?

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Trip to 2 most amazing places in Asia : Singapore & Malaysia : PART V


It was the last day of our trip and I was really sad because from the next day the same boring life was going to start..office to home and home to office..thats it..:(

But there was something to cheer about, the last attraction of our trip, Universal Studios..:)

Having heard so much about it from everyone, I was really excited to visit the place.
Though it was not included in our package and was an optional choice but I decided to visit it at any cost, I was on one feet to explore it.


We left our hotel at 9 and headed towards Universal Studios.
It is a theme park which is located in Resort World Sentosa. It consist of 7 theme based zones which surround a Lagon. Each zone is based on a blockbuster movie or a television show featuring their own unique attractions, character appearances, dinning and shopping areas.

Our guide told us to pick up a map which had the location and directions to all the attractions of the park. To add to it he also told to enjoy the main attractions first as everything in Universal Studios can't be covered in a single day time.

There was a big Globe at the entrance of the park..

As we went in there was a  big open shelf like structure  in the middle where all the maps and other pemplets related to the park were kept.

We picked one map and started with our adventure trip.
There are different fixed timings for many attractions. You can't enter it any time of the day.
So we planned our tour accordingly.

Our first theme zone was "The Lost World".
There are two themed regions here
1. Jurassic Park
2. WaterWorld

As there was time for WaterWorld to start we proceeded towards Jurassic Park..
There are all together 4 attractions here.
1. Canopy Flyer--A roller coaster ride
2. Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure---A river Rapid ride
3. Amber Rock Climb--A rock climbing attraction
4. Dino-Soarin--Fly around ride for children



As our guide told us to complete the main attractions first so we went with Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure ride which was the top most attraction of Jurassic Park.



We were made to sit in a circular raft with water all around us. As the adventure started our raft got tossed along the waterways. It was so much fun with water splashing here and there. In some time we entered a compound, something similar to what we have seen in the movie. There were sirens buzzing all around and several animatronic dinosaurs were trying to frighten us...:P
The whole setup was very well built. At the end of the compound there was a hydroelectric lifter which lifted our raft to a height of 10 feet and threw us back in the waterway..The plunge from 10 feet is the main adventure of this ride. As we plunged down, the water splashed all over us and we were completely wet. Finally we reached the end point. It was a gr88 experience overall...

Next in line was "WaterWorld", if you have watched the movie you can relate to the activities that happen in the live show..


This are stunts , blasts , pyrotechnics and lots more on a stage that is set up on a large pool of water..
The actors too did a good job..Overall it was a good experience.
                               




Now we headed toward the next theme zone adjacent to Lost World, Ancient Egypt.
Wow was my expression when we entered the zone..Huge statues of Mummies welcomed us.

                                   



The main attraction here was Revenge of the Mummy ride.
Its something I haven't seen before. A ride in the dark, with no clue of where you are heading.
Our shuttle went in all directions, right, left , even reverse that too at a fast speed and my boy!!! the turns were really sharp..A thrilling ride indeed..Enjoyed it like hell..:)

There were people dressed like those in mummy movies so we also stopped to click some pics with them.



After covering this two theme zones we were really hungry and also it was time for Lunch.
But one of the main attraction "The Batllestar Galactica : Cyclon" couldn't be tired after lunch.
Its a suspended roller coaster where you are in a hanging position. After listening to the crazy crazy screaming of people I decided to complete it first and than go for lunch.



After standing in queue for 15 mins finally I got my seat. It hardly took 5-7 mins for the ride to complete. But man..this was the first ride in the whole history of roller coasters that actually spun my head..It was damn damn thrilling and a bit dangerous too..
I could have puked if I would have tired it after lunch..

Finding veg food was never so difficult. Finally we found a restaurant serving veg but the food was not that good..
After we had lunch it was time for some soft attractions as I was done with the rides part.

Next in line was Transformer 4D ride which was in the Sci Fi city, another theme zone.
Screens sporting photo realistic 3D-HD imaginary at various points with 4D effects like water spray, wind , fog etc made this ride one of the most amazing I had any time any day in my life.
I could feel myself as a part of those cars moving , those fights between transformers ,everything that was been displayed on those screens..

After this amazing experience we stopped to click some pics with the transformer replicas which were placed at different points in the Sci Fi city..



It was now the turn to visit Far Far Away theme zone which was inspired from the Shrek movie.
It's main attractions included Shrek 4D adventure and Far Far Away Castle.
Both of them were oky types, not that good. This theme zone is suited mainly for small children.

                          

Having done with Far Far away we headed towards Madagascar.


The main attraction of this zone was the Madagascar adventure - water boat ride.
Here you are sited in a boat which goes within a hull of a displaced Cargo Ship structure.
You can find the characters of Madagascar been placed at various points of the ride.
The digital projection and surround sound makes it a complete fun filled ride. A delight for all the age groups.

Now we were left with 2 zones
Hollywood 
New York 

Hollywood only attraction is a broadway style theater which is accompanied by several restaurants and flagship shops.

                          

 Also,here we can find people dressed in different characters like actors, actresses , villains etc..


As there was nothing great here too so we moved to the last attraction of the day
Lights!Camera!action by Steven Spielberg in New York.
Here we have a sound stage fitted with special effects to mimic a major Hurricane which is going
to hit the New York city. Though the special effects were good but the show lasted only for few minutes. It would have been better if it was longer. Overall it was oky types.

                             

So we were finally done with all the major attractions of Universal Studios and it was time to head back to the exit as our guide was waiting there.


The wonderful trip was about to get over. We were out for the last dinner of our trip and I was really sad. I got to visit some of the most amazing , technically advance places of Asia, unique in everyway, but now it was end of the superb trip.Was going to miss it, specially all the luxury for sure..:P

Next day our flight to Colombo was around 12:15 p.m. We left Singapore bidding adieu to other group members who were not coming to Mumbai.

With loads of priceless memories stored safely the trip to 2 most amazing places in Asia : Singapore & Malaysia finally came to an end.

To read the  previous parts click here


This is my debut Travelogue..
Comments and Suggestions for improvement are most welcomed..:)