It had hardly been a week since I had come back from my first solo trip to Goa. I was sitting at my desk scrolling through some of the photos from the trip when I got a call from Naveen asking me if I was free the coming weekend. Now I had a tentative plan to attend the Bangalore Literature Festival that was happening on the same weekend but then, I took no time to respond in affirmative. Anything being organized by team Indi is always fun so how can this be any different! By evening, the tickets were with me. Me and 59 other top bloggers from across the country had being invited by TATA motors to experience their upcoming hatchback and get a feel of it first-hand!

Fast forward to the GOA airport where after a warm welcome by team-Indi, the last batch of bloggers to arrive which we were, started for Alila Diva which was going to be our home for the weekend. And what a home it turned out to be. Truly five-star in every aspect. It is always great to meet fellow bloggers and this time too, it was a wonderful experience. Knowing and catching-up with like-minded people is great fun, always.

After a warm-welcome by the Alila staff and being captured by the photography and video crew from every direction possible, I quickly checked-in and headed to my luxurious suite for a quick shower while some others headed directly to satisfy their hunger pangs. The lunch was a lavish affair but then again, this is totally expected in events that the Indi guys take care of. They truly care for and always get the best for us, the bloggers.

Once done with the lunch, all the bloggers headed to the near-by Gonsua beach. Unlike the beaches of North-Goa which are crowded and always buzzing with activity, this beach was calm and clean with hardly any tourists. Finding a beach-football field already set-up for us, most of my fellow bloggers got into action in no time while some others were busy going shutter-crazy.

I decided to go on a walk with Ragini and Srinidhi and then finally we three joined Jasmeet in the nearby shack. I was more than content gulping down my favourite beer while having a wonderful view of the setting sun over the Arabian sea and did not bother heading back to the resort while others were making their way back.

Vineet had to literally dragged me from the shack (which I am not going to forget :p ) and we finally drove back to the resort. I was heart-broken :'( for having to leave my pint of King’s behind.

Back at the resort, Anoop curated a quick and fun-filled session for the bloggers where some funny as well as some really serious questions were raised and answered. All this while, we kept stuffing ourselves with all the food that was placed to our left, right and behind (it doesn’t have to be center always).

The wrapping-up of the blogger’s session led us to couple of pleasant surprises. All of us were invited to what the TATA team called the locker-room. Everyone’s first step inside the room left them with ooohhhs and aaaahs! The room was literally all blue with the 60 blue jerseys. Messi’s jersey number 10!

Every blogger had his own ‘shelf‘ with his name mentioned at the top and inside were his jersey and other goodies. Now this was really cool TATA & Indi!

The next surprise of the evening was our host. Everyone got pretty excited when we came to know it was the funny & witty Cyrus Sahukar of MTV fame. The ladies got way more crazy than they all already had been all this while 😉 .

What followed was a detained hour-long presentation about the features and specifications of the car. There were many aspects about the car which got me really interested. The best and most significant thing that I liked at the first-look was the fact that finally TATA has come-up with a hatch-back which did not look like the Indica! Something which TATA’s cars has been (in)famous for.

After the technical presentation we were in for another BIG surprise! With colourful lights and some brilliant music that helped bump up the excitement of everyone, the wall behind Cyrus suddenly started splitting into two sliding to their respective sides leaving in-front of our eyes, a sparkling TATA Tiago in flesh!!

After everybody was done with their photo(s) with the Zica Tiago, we again headed out under the stars and in the middle of food and drinks. We had to choose our team-members now. I chose Maitreni in my team but was missing another member. The food and cocktails continued again until 10.30 when Vineet was again after my life to sleep early so that I get-up on time for the drive next morning. But then guess what?

He can have his way once but not for the second time 😉 ! Divisha, me and Ragini were having a wonderful bakar session and were in no mood to head back to our rooms.We wanted to continue doing that so we decided to move to the pool-side now.

Bakar by the pool never happened but we had an even better bakar at Ragini & Maitreni’s room which went on till 3.30 AM in the morning (I told you he will never have his way the second time 😉 ). It was wonderful. Last I remember sitting like this was during my college days. I kind of re-lived those times all over again. All thanks to these wonderful people.

Tomorrow we get to drive the all new Zica Tiago!

Update [06-Apr-2016]: TATA Motors today announced the price its recently-launched hatchback, the Zica Tiago. The price ranges from Rs. 3.2 lakh to Rs. 5.54 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), The Tiago can be booked at a nominal booking amount of Rs. 10,000/-

Were you too there at the event? How was your experience? Did we meet?