Vodafone Indiblogger Meet With A F1 Twist

With about 4 ounces of the warmth of the Indi team, 2 tablespoons of spiciness of Lewis Hamilton, a zest of the  crunchy bloggers, we got a delicious meet yet again at the Grand Hyaatt on the 16th September, sponsored by Vodafone.
At the entrance of the banquet hall was the Maclaren Mercedes car.

 
      The meet started with the spot prizes games (which I never win ! ). They gave out Vodafone usb keychains. Surprise ,Surprise! Vodafone actually gave out free stuff for the first time. The fact that they all turned defective is altogether a different story. The asst. Brand manager of Vodafone came up to speak about how Lewis Hamilton will be coming in for a demo drive, and we bloggers have the special chance to talk to him. He also mentioned we"ll be getting VIP seats at the demo drive ( wohooooooo). He was keen on any receiving feedback about Vodafone from us. I curbed the urge to ask why do I always get lengthy bills. But anyway, there were others who expressed their feelings, mostly negative. No surprises there!

Brand manager from Vodafone (Photo courtesy: Indiblogger )

Personally, I had no clue who Lewis Hamilton was. Neither do I know the F of formula one. I fed my brains from Wikipedia about a bit of this and that about Lewis and formula one, just so I look like I know my stuff at the meet.
    The next round was the usual introductions aka '30 secs of fame'. Half way down, the Indi team heard the gianormous roars from our stomachs and hence declared lunch. The food was bad. Nothing appealing.Deserts were a tad bit okay-ish. The cheese cake was the worst. Seriously, Hyatt, you could do better next time.

Suckiest cheesecake ever

 Back to the meet, we had another round of the typical trait of Indiblogger and that is the comments board. Its basically, you around with the board on your back, and people write down their blog urls or twitter handles, just so you remember whoes who when you go back home.

Photo courtesy: Indiblogger

Photo courtesy: Indiblogger

Me. Photo courtesy: Indiblogger

Photo courtesy:ME

And then the best part of event was when Lewis Hamilton entered. Everyone went crazy with their cameras. I must say, he was more than I expected from the pictures. He looks like complete chilled out dude with hot diamond piercings. I must say he is the ONLY person who has managed to carry them well. All the bloggers asked him questions, to which he gladly replied. Someone actually asked, "if you can do the donuts, can you do jalebi ,vadapav". He was off in 15mins,  after which everyone clicked pictures with the 2nd Maclaren Mercedes.

Me with fellow blogger Karishma Rawat

We were then given the Indi tshirts and passes, after which we were driven to BKC in the bus. Must admit the walk from parking lot to the seats was painful, all thanks to the heels I wore) . We got ear plugs and cotton sobs to save us from the deafening noise of the car , and the Vodafone balloons to cheer. It took about 2 hours for the race to start. There was an enormous amount of crowd present all waiting for Lewis. We were treated with entertainers performance which was really cool.

Photo courtesy: Karishma Rawat

 Couldn't capture the pictures though. Sucks right? But you can check them out here. The chief minister of Maharastra Mr Prithvi Raj Chavan waved the checkered flag. Then hold on! what's life without some drama right?
    The rain gods couldn't stand my excitement and started pouring like crazy. So we had to run and get some shelter, so I missed the first lap. But that's okay, since he took 5 so I could catch up easily. The sound was deafening. Crowds went crazy. It was one heck of an experience.
The security was so busy watching the race and clicking photos that they forgot that there were hoards of people breaking the barricades and entering the VIP area.

The security having fun ( Photo courtesy: Mumbai Mirror)

Lewis Hamilton doing the drive.

This picture of him almost says,'Am too sexy for my car'. This lucky blogger Wafaa got to ride with him. Jealous much? Well, I was at least.
You can see him doing the famous donuts, no jalebi, vadapav okay?  In this video uploaded by Indiblogger here which is recorded by someone under the name of  'TheReportLive' on youtube.
The best part of these meets is definitely catching up with your fellow bloggers and meeting new people. I met Karishma, Neha, Magali, my 3 regular blog pals.

Photo courtesy: Magali Vaz

Karishmas Instagram

I couldn't figure which one is the best so I put both. Call it diplomacy or what.
 Well, that's that! I await my vodafone maclaren series tshirts promised by Vodafone till then.
Until next time,
- Varsha