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"akhir us athehasik din ke subah hue" I was excited, full of energy! i dressed up quickly and caught train to Bandra from Borivali. I was running late, we had to reach on 2:30 but i reached on 2:45. i thought "This being my first meet i'm already late and now how i'm gonna face the crowd?" but my lucky me meet wasn't started yet. i saw people waiting outside, they seemed relaxed and greeting other bloggers and hugging each other.
The Venue
Otto Infinito
G, Block, Raheja Towers
Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (East)
Mumbai 400051
India
Bandra Kurla Complex(BKC) is a posh area,where all corporate offices resides, i saw Otto Infinito Restaurant and said Wow! what a restaurant! Otto Infinito has won best food award 2013 by Times. now i was eager to check out the restaurant's beauty from inside but at the same time i was nervous too because i didn't knew anyone so i decided to make new friends. luckily i managed to make two new friends who have been attending meets regularly and this was there sixth or seventh meet. I registered myself and started to inquire about the meet, i asked "what actually happens in meet" they replied FUN FUN and much FUN. ahhh i was happy to hear that. It was 3:15 by then and meet wasn't started yet and in the mean time Vineet the meet Organizer came and apologized for the delay and assured that meet will start in five minutes.
Now Bloggers started to enter the restaurant, we grabbed the corner seat and settled down. Anoop the host and dost of the meet welcomed all. The meet started with a weird but funny task its called "hurr hurr" where you have to raise your hand and bring it down slowly
The Next Task
While entering the restaurant we were given a cardboard paper and sketch pen and initially i was thinking what we gonna do with this thing. Anoop the host and dost told about the next task where we have to meet other fellow bloggers and take their comments OR autographs on the paper and blogger with most comments wins goodies. task started and so does i, i interacted with bloggers and asked for the comments or autographs. This was really a great task i personally loved it, every blogger seemed happy meeting other bloggers and sharing their blogging experience. I'll try to recollect whom i met Manav, Parvez, Nikhil etc i somehow managed to get 45+ comments. more than 10 people got the HP Headphone's for collecting most comments and luckily i was one of them.
HP's intervene
Meanwhile HP guys came and they unveiled their new music service which comes pre-installed in HP laptops. The service allows you to download music tracks for free, yes free. the service has more than 1 million tracks and all for free. The HP marketing head told about various issues we face while downloading tracks from Internet (yes you guessed it right, its called piracy). first of all its illegal, slow bit rate makes sound quality worse and lack of songs. with this new HP music service powered by Universal and Hungama you can download unlimited songs and that too of CD Quality... now that's Awesome! the service has all the popular genre from Bollywood to Hollywood and also regional songs, marathi, kannada, bhojpuri etc. some fellow bloggers tried the service and managed to find their desired song from Iron Maiden to Kailash Kher! in the mean time starters were served thin crust pizza with drinks and it was good (burp....sorry!). here comes the next contest and this time it was big because HP Pavilion Sleek Laptop 14 inch was on stake! two laptops has to be given for two different tasks first task was to tweet about that people whom you met while signing the paper, what you liked about him/her etc second task was to tweet about the artist name of any band and if that matches with IndiBlogger's (the artist name was already selected and was enclosed in a Secret envelope which never existed LOL!) then you'll walk away with a laptop. Bloggers started tweeting their favorite band artist to win the lappy, man! who doesn't want to win!
Otto Infinito's Manager & Chef Talks
After HP it was Restaurant's manager turn to speak about the restaurant, their specialty and what they are good at! he even announced a contest to tweet the meaning of "Otto Infinito" and 10 winners will get free Sunday lunch passes. The chef talked about various Mediterranean dishes and what Otto Infinito is famous for! we were then asked to enjoy the food.
The food
This was my first time, i was having Mediterranean Cuisine. There were option for veggies and non-veggies. i tried both and quite liked the food.
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The Last Task
Anoop announced the BIG Contest winners, one laptop went to a guy who tweeted about a blogger whom he met during introduction part and second one went to a girl who tweeted the artist name "Queen". most of us where disappointed for not winning the laptop but never mind next time!
Anoop introduced us with five different( read weird ) group names they were basically different song genre. you can join any one group you like. The five names of the groups were :
1. Dom Chik Dom Chik
2. 133 (read Tera....Tera.....Tera)
3. Smack that booty
4. Indie Classic (sorry forgot the actual name)
5. Rock (sorry forgot the actual name)
This task was with a twist! every group need to sing a song including the tune, drums voice etc. I was in 133 group and we were first to perform, actually our group was huge, very huge. the restaurant filled with noise when we sang some Bollywood item numbers. all five groups performed really well and it was now time to decide the winner and winners will get the HP Headphones. Runners up were Dom Chik Dom Chik group and winner was 133. we were then asked to collect the Headphones and T-Shirts, since i already won one headphone i grabbed the T-shirt. T-shirt was cool black in color with the famous IndiBlogger slogan on the back "Indian by Birth, Blogger by Choice". It was fun watching Anoop the host doing the Ramp Walk!
The Ending (new beginning)
It was time for a group photo! we all gathered for a group photo. I'm the one who is holding the IndiBlogger board at extreme left. after saying goodbye to fellow bloggers we then dispersed with a promise to stay connected!
What i liked?
1. Otto Infinito Restaurant, Hospitality at its best!
2. The fun and friendly atmosphere
3. The food
4. IndiBlogger's team greeting us at Registration and making us feel special
5. Interacting with other Bloggers
6. The free goodies
This was my first meet but definitely not last! from now on wards i'll attend every IndiBlogger meet in Mumbai so catch ya there!
