I'm #MadeOfGreat and I know it!

Last to last weekend, when I was in Bengaluru, attending a wedding and celebrating third anniversary, I saw the link to register for the Goa #MadeOfGreat trip, and I just registered for kicks, thinking that why would I be selected in the top 60. Next I know, I get a call and soon an email that I'm selected and am off to Goa next weekend!

Official Invite from Tata Motors

It took me a while to recover from the shock, and by then my flight details came in and I knew for sure that I was going. Goa is a special place for me, I make it a point to go there at-least once a year, and this was the second trip of the year for me. Goa is special because I met the love of my life, now my husband and father of my child there. :)

Mandatory selfie at CSIA airport

Anyways, I was really excited, because I was about to meet some really cool bloggers, a few of which I had interacted with virtually before. And of-course, I was also excited to ride in the all new Zica. Here I must mention, I am a fan of hatchbacks, I never have liked sedans or SUV's. The ultimate goal is a Mini Cooper, but starting from the Tata Nano, I am now ready to take a step up in 2016.

Me and my roomie posing as girls should!

I had a fellow blogger UK from my vicinity, and we travelled to the CSIA together, where we met a bunch of other bloggers. Oh, did I mention that we all had already made a whatsapp group for the trip earlier, thanks to Admin Ankita; so we kind of got familiar to each other, which was a boon because when we met everybody, we already knew who they were (most of them); so no time was wasted in getting to know everyone, as we already were on a time crunch with only 36 hours together!

Gearing up for great!

Our flight to Goa was so quick and unceremonious, we landed before we knew. Right at the airport we had the team from Indiblogger & Tata Motors to welcome us, along with standees and promotions. It was such a proud feeling! We were transported to Alila Diva by their mini-bus, and were there by lunch time.

When in doubt, take a selfie!

We quickly registered, got our rooms (They made it a point to give us random roommates for the twin-sharing rooms and I think it's great, as we made new friends this way). I was with a Delhi based blogger Yogita aka Tanya. Alila Diva is a beautiful property by the way, calm, serene, enchanting, vintage. The rooms were beautiful too, and I was totally missing my husband and kiddo. I had sent my parents here once, and they had loved it there. I missed having some nice time at the pool because of the time crunch, but I guess there is always a next time.

The beautiful installations at Alila Diva, this was one of them.

Post lunch we headed to the beach, where we'd chill for a while, play football etc. It was a sunny day, but we were a bunch of excited water lovers. Some of the bloggers had been to Goa for the very first time and you should have seen their excitement level. There were selfies, and sand art, and football; in all enjoyment. In-fact I was just imagining how cool it would have been to ride the Zica on the coastline. Hehe..

When in doubt, take a groupfie!

We wrapped up as we had some more cool things in store ahead. We got fresh, and got ready and headed for high-tea. The 'High'light of the 'High' tea were the social media cupcakes! I was thrilled because I am a fan of both social media and cupcakes. :D We had a quick session of some interesting blogging related Q&A, and then were split into teams for the drive next day. Anindya, our driver chose me, followed by Sammya (whom I knew from before) and there, we had a team!

Team D6, before they knew they would be a team. Destiny?

We were then moved to a room, the itinerary said Locker Room session, and we had no idea what was ahead. And as soon as we entered we saw our names on lockers where there were Jerseys, sippers, USB drive keychains etc awaiting us! And that's the least of the surprise, we had VJ Cyrus Sahukar as the host for not only the night but rest of our stay. It was a fun locker room session, where we then had the Tata Zica team - Pratap Bose, Delna Avari and others who took us through the very cool and Fantastico features of the Zica, and also how they got Messi to be the brand ambassador!

Proud bloggers - me and BlogwatiG

I'm no automobile expert, but since I drive, I shall put my learnings in short (which by the way I made a point to put to test in the drive next day) -

1. New Revotorq / Revotron engines with Multidrive (City or Eco).
2. 2 front air-bags for safety purposes.
3. Better suspension and seating for supreme comfort.
4. ConnectNEXT infotaintment by Harman - with a total of 8 speakers & tweeters for surround sound and turn by turn audio navigation and bluetooth phone connection, and jukebox feature.
5. More space for keeping bottles and cups, a smart move by moving the handbrake to one side.
6. And not to forget the awesome design and attractive looks that would make anyone a proud owner of the car!

Zica is a car Made by Great, Made of Great and Made for great or in one word - Fantastico!

This one is made & clicked by me. Don't miss the starfish! #Fantastico

The car was soon in front of our eyes, such a feast. Along with the entire team, enthusiastically explaining the features to anyone who wants to hear. They had an amazing set-up with the designs, colour options, engines etc on display.

A selfie with the hillarious VJ Cyrus

We were all super hungry after all this excitement and headed for cocktails and dinner which was made into a huge success with karaoke - which was made memorable by a few bloggers who sung along on awesome tracks and with the Tata Zica team & Cyrus singing too! The night was simply perfect, the mood was simply right!

Team D6 ready to get shit done!

I soon made a smart decision to crash (but not before we exchanged our secret santa gifts as we all had decided on our whatsapp group) as we had to be up at 6am and start our drive at 8am. We got ready in the morning, had some amazing breakfast (so far the best meal at Alila for me). We were soon briefed that the ride would have challenges, and the route etc and were soon off!

The social media cupcakes! Yumm they were!

The ride started off as any other perfect long drive should.. scenic roads, great music (they populated nice playlists for us), and nice company too! And soon the challenges started pouring in..basically, people on twitter were suggesting things and we were supposed to do them. Whoever did the most number of challenges would win. So we soon got into the competitive spirit and said Challenge Accepted. We did all sort of crazy things ranging from explaining the features of Zica to a complete stranger or dancing around the Zica or even playing songs requested by people on twitter! It was fun, but soon got overwhelming and we decided to take it easy and enjoy the ride. The sound experience is really amazing, and the seats were comfortable. The cooling passed the test too, as it was a really hot sunny day in Goa and as long as we were in the car, we didn't feel it at all. We even had some bumpy roads where the suspension was tested, the car didn't jerk and our backs didn't hurt.

The amazing road at Verna Industrial Area, haven't seen this side of Goa before.

After all the adrenaline rush, lots of pictures and videos taken, we were asked to get back (we were one of the last few, what to do, we didn't feel like leaving!). They even had some energy drinks and protein bars in the car for us, a sweet gesture I must say. We headed back and had lunch, relaxed for a bit and headed back to our respective cities and back to our routine lives.

I am #MadeOfGreat, are you?

If you don't want to miss on the fun, and are looking forward to the official launch of the Zica, follow them on Twitter or Facebook! Also, a special mention to Indiblogger, without whom, I would have not experienced this!