fun-tastic weekend with #fantastico Tiago

Albeit I depart,
I carry it in my heart.
Memories of warm faces,
Zipping through tranquil places.
Fantastico it was
while I did not pause.

Sun burst orange Zica!

“Tell me I am selected!” That was my reply when the guy on the other end of the call told me he is Saurabh from Indiblogger.

“Oh yes you are.” He said smiling and I was already doing my happy dance. Can you Imagine being me at that moment, I have never ever attended any fun blogger’s event before and the thought of spending an entire weekend in Goa with 59 other bloggers for an exclusive pre-launch event of the all new Tata Zica  was simply amazing. It’s name is driven from Zippy Car.
“But you will have to fly to Mumbai a day earlier and will have to manage a stay in Mumbai for the night.” He informed me and I was really too happy to care about all that so I just said yes and it was a done deal.

Since I have never been to any fun blogger’s event before so I knew very few of other bloggers and out of the people those were going to Goa, only couple of them I knew. One day I got a group invite from Ankita B Dhawan over WhatsApp and then our Goa meet group was created and the fun was already on roll before that weekend even came. As for my stay in Mumbai, I was looking for options when Vinita Bahl aka BlogwatiG being too generous offered her home for bloggers who were coming a day earlier and I took the opportunity. You see, some may think that they should have provided the stay as well for a day prior to the weekend but I have known the Indiblogger team for a long time and when they said they really can’t help, I knew they can’t even if they wanted to. I am one of the highly optimistic person, put me in a dark hole and I will show you the light coming from the opening so I took this tricky situation as an opportunity to get to know one of the most beloved blogger and man am I glad! She is one of the most jovial people I have ever met and her home is really a piece of art, from her living room to even washroom, every single wall tells a new story of itself. Her daughter Tiara even painted my nails and next day Julian, BlogwatiG’s husband dropped us to airport where I met so many other bloggers whom I already knew from our WhatsApp group and I may sound unbelievable but it didn’t feel like we were meeting for the first time, I was already part of them. Our flight to Goa was comfortable and Goa was really hot, literally.

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We received an equally warm welcome at the Goa airport, the Tata Zica team and Indiblogger had a registration desk at the airport itself where Naveen and his team received us and after registration we were taken to Alila Diwa resort. On our way to the resort in a conversation with the driver we realised that all the Tata cars that were arranged for us to commute were called from Pune, now that was one fine preparation for the event and I was already impressed.

After reaching the Resort I met Vineet Rajan the royalenfielder of Indiblogger, it was actually the first time I ever spoke to him and I found him affable and warm hearted. He made sure every blogger was comfortable. Thereafter I met Ashish Sahni,Assistant General Manager- Digital Marketing TATA Motors and his team, they were equally welcoming. After we checked in it was already 2 pm and the day was already tightening that I zipped directly to have my lunch then to my room to get ready for the beach where I was surprised to see that Ankita B Dhawan was sharing a room with me.Well I am sure whoever decided that must have thought it would be fun putting Ankita square in the same room. I barely glanced at the beautiful stone sculptures all around the resort or the infinity pool. I was saving it all for later as right now it was a beach time.

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When I reached the Majorda beach in South Goa, I directly went to the Arabian Sea and soaked my feet into water. I love that tingling sensation; the shimmering sand drifting away below my feet submerging me was serene. Majorda beach is not as crowded as other beaches of Goa where you see more tanned bodies than sand and it was surprisingly clean as well, it had a character of its own. It was actually fun having more than 60 people from same group on a same beach. The Tata Zica team arranged a beach football activity and the boys of the group were generous to let girls play as well albeit I told my team not to kill me if they lose. The best memory of the beach football was falling, yes I fell three times and was saved the fourth time by a kind soul (I have no clue who he was, I was hoping for Prince charming diving to save me, but that wasn’t the case). Hey, I am not clumsy; I was being tackled and am not Messi the God of football so I fell very gracefully (or I like to believe so) and before you wonder, I did kick the ball many times. Don’t believe me? See the proof below.

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After the beach time I was exhausted, dirty and all sweaty, seriously try falling that many times in sand while running so back at resort I ran directly to my room to take a shower and get ready for the evening program which started by 6 pm. At first there was a Q&A session with Anoop (Zombie of Indiblogger) where we bloggers discussed many topics afterwards we were divided into teams of 3, my team was numbered D3 and I had super cool Doc Roshan R and the very gorgeous traveller Ragini Puri in my team and I felt like I am promised for a fun-tastic ride in Fantastico Zica the very next day. Thereafter we were carried to a startling football locker room. Well it was a make shift one but it absolutely felt real. We all had our individual locker space where an Adidas Messi #10 Jersey was waiting for us along with several Tata Zica goodies. Then when we settled on benches another big surprise entered, the man himself Cyrus Sahukar and I was a gone girl. He is an absolute delight to watch, I mean he is super witty and a charming host. He was our coach as well so we did some tiny stretches before the evening began; yes it was just the beginning. Then he introduced us to Delna Avari, Head of Marketing and Services Tata Motors, the lady herself have met the living Legend Lionel Messi! Before I proceed I want you to know that I am a huge Cristiano Ronaldo fan so you can understand that I am not usually very warm hearted towards Messi but when Delna spoke about her meet with Messi, about how down to Earth he is, he drove his own car and was so generous that he agreed to say “Namestey India” and for that he took several shots to get it Perfecto (English-perfect) and right there Delna just made a diehard Cristiano Fan respect Messi a lot.

The lady who made die dard #CR7 (me) fan respect #LionelMessi a lot @DelnaAvari kudos! #Fantastico @ZicaTataMotors pic.twitter.com/5YY1HmwI6g

— Ankita Singhal (@ankita0112) December 7, 2015

Later on Pratap Gosh, Head of design Tata Motors came to give tell us the behind the scenes of making of all amazing Tata Zica. He told us that they put all the best in Tata Motors worldwide in a team to deliver Tata Zica, now the bests weren’t competing with each other but working together to create a masterpiece. Tata motors have 3 design studios globally and they took an ambitious challenge of developing a next-generation car in exactly 36 months from paper to the final Zica. At last Anand Kulkarni General Manager (Vehicle Integration – Cars) came to give us more insights about the engines etc and before I could even process everything, the locker room door was opened into the football field where the Tata Zica in sun burst Orange stole the limelight from everyone.

Reliving the pre-launch of #Fantastico #TataZica @ZicaTataMotors @indiblogger pic.twitter.com/t6WGrp1ALT

— Ankita Singhal (@ankita0112) December 16, 2015

If I have to express my first impression on Zica, that would be its one bold, dynamic, young at heart hatchback piece of statement. It’s indeed the best Zippy car Tata Mortors have offered so far. The inside is poise with premium textured leather seats with pop of colour. Every bit of it screams uber-cool. Yeah you just want to flaunt it.

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We took several pictures with the showstopper Zica also checked out all its components in detail which were displayed all around the football field. Afterwards there was a cocktail party and dinner, me being a girl went to my room to change again and then came to the awesome karaoke dinner party. I was again mesmerized by the songs many bloggers sang. Also I was bit wooed by Cyrus’s singing skills. BlogwatiG, Pratap Gosh, Rahul Prabhakar, Vaisakhi and many others simply made the evening. After a long day we still weren’t ready for the party to end so we went for our secret Santa surprise gift activity! And afterwords  some of us went to poolside and got busy with conversations. All in all I had an absolutely enthralling day, I met so many bloggers, made so many friends, met the super cool Indiblogger Team and interacted with the amazing Tata motors team. What more can I ask from a day.

The unseen side of head of Design, Tata motors @BosePratap singing #Withorwithoutyou #U2 #Fantastico #madeofgreat pic.twitter.com/3oeMbaCtdf

— Ankita Singhal (@ankita0112) December 7, 2015

Sun bids a goodbye,
with a promise of tomorrow;
Another day to glorify.
I will just rest my wings
And repose as the pendulum swings.
~ Ankita Singhal

Night didn’t just end there, after reaching our rooms; I got ito a long conversation with my roommate Ankita, in fact during playing the football (Most probably) a small thorn found its way into my foot and Ankita got it out in a jiffy.

Next day we woke up early by 6 am and that was the time I decided to explore the resort Alila Diwa. It’s situated far from the hustle of the city, amidst tranquil fields the quietness and a serene architecture of the resort took my breath away. I was so consumed in the moment that I lost track of time and was super late for breakfast as my team D3 car was about to flag off. I ran to the breakfast buffet, grabbed some dark chocolate muffins (oh! The sin) and zipped to my team’s Zica!

We were flagged off by Delna and Pratap and the fun just began. Roshan was our awesome driver, Ragini was the shotgun girl an I picked to seat at the rear middle seat, yes I picked that myself. Don’t we all hate sitting in the rear middle seats? It’s super uncomfortable usually but with Zica it wasn’t the case. The middle seats was surprisingly very comfortable, with good cushioning that made my backbone happy and body hugging seat bolster, my 3 hours drive was comfortable. The AC was cooling the car properly and Turn-by-Turn navigation app was our help during the 3 hours drive.

A quick #review of #TataZica Rear seats from the #Goa drive @ZicaTataMotors @indiblogger #Fantastico #madeofgreat pic.twitter.com/Qrn8bmFkQZ

— Ankita Singhal (@ankita0112) December 13, 2015

We didn’t just drove but did many crazy challenges that were thrown to us by other blogger buddies via twitter. I have had several fun-tastic moments with the fatastico Zica but here are few.

@minty_tweets @ZicaTataMotors #fantastic #madeofgreat @ankita0112 @Solitaryreapers pic.twitter.com/CIqb2tqv7A

— Roshan R (@pythoroshan) December 6, 2015

Why I picked the song ‘prem ratan dhan payo’? Well why not! Zica is one gem of a hatchback car! And that song fits the Zica personality perfectly, when we reached the wide long road of Verna Industrial Area of Goa, with wild winds I couldn’t help but express my happiness and I dance whenever I am happy. Yes, I am that crazy. We goofed around too throughout our ride also sang many songs with the juke car app! Check them out.

we enjoying the Juke care app of Tata #Zica during drive @ZicaTataMotors #Fantastico @Solitaryreapers @pythoroshan pic.twitter.com/uIx0KD9idi

— Ankita Singhal (@ankita0112) December 6, 2015

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Now let’s talk about some special things about the Zippy Zica!

Why is it made of great?

Well some very great people all across the globe came together in a great process of creating a great design of this great car. Plus Lionel Messi is its global face! What more can you ask for.

 DesignNext!

• They have relocated the roof lamp from the front to the middle and have used LED lamps in white to keep the interior brighter and in harmony of the colors.
• The headlines are knitted for the premium feel.
• The exterior ‘T’ logo is placed in a semi vertical angle to give a 3-D effect that reflects light beautifully.
• The Exterior comprises of 3 Exs: Expressive, Extraordinary and Exciting.
• Interior comprises of 3 Ins: Inviting, Intouch and Innovative.
• It has 22 smart places so go on carry your world with you.
• It has 2 smart engines RevotorQ and Revetorn.

For Advance comfort:

• The AC airflow is superior with driver and passenger centric Ac vents.
• Rear parking sensors with display on infotainment screen.
• Adjustable driver seat height for all size of drivers
• Scooped front seat backs for more leg room in the rear seats

Let’s talk about Entertainment, entertainment and entertainment:

It has a ConnectNext infotainment system which is developed by Herman exclusively for Zica. It has a surround sound effect by amazing 8 speakers so that each beat is clear. We are in an era where smartphone’s interaction with your car is a must so it does have Bluetooth connectivity. And the much essential Turn-by-Turn navigation app, now you can totally roam around the streets of Delhi when you hail from Chennai.

While my ride in the car, I enjoyed the Juke Car app the most. This app utilizes the mobile hotspot to create a virtual network with the car and enables multiple users to play their playlist at the same time which means no fighting in the car over music. Isn’t that super awesome! I think I am all sorted with this app while going on long drives.

Did I tell you about the boot space? Well, see for yourself how big it is.

Team D3! At Verna Industrial Area, Goa! Picture courtesy : Naveen

After that fantastic drive we went in the resort where my team was interviewed by the man himself, Cyrus Sahukar (no I didn’t faint, was saved somehow) and he is so charming, you just have to be there to know that. When we told him about our teams singing marathon with the juke app, he advised us to open our own band and I promised we would win the worst band ever award for sure.

Interview with the man himself : Cyrus Sahukar

After lunch my amazing bloggers all gathered for a round of Antakshri and after that I was dropped off to the airport. Yes that’s my fun-tastic weekend memories with the Fantastico event at Goa! I miss it, it’s been a week, past few days I have been unwell and all the lovely bloggers I have met there sent their love so that I get well soon. That’s when I realized I didn’t just took away beautiful memories for a lifetime but also an extended family of so many different kinds of people connected with their passion of blogging. We now know each other a lot more than our blogs so I want to take this opportunity to thank Indiblogger and Tata Motors team for giving me so much.
Take care readers.

Special Thanks to all the wonderful blogger Family I made : Uttpal K, Sid Balachandran, Ankita Bhatia Dhawan, Roshan Radhakrishnan, Zainab Attari, Vinita Bahl Crasto, Vaisakhi Mishra, Anindya S Basu,