Pantene Nature Fusion Indiblogger Meet a.k.a. Girls' Day Out

I became a part of the Indiblogger family in the summer of 2012. As I made myself familiar with the names and the works, I wondered what it would be like to meet the people behind the webpages. What if I just bumped into a blogger on the metro or in a cafe, would  I go and say 'hi' and introduce myself or would the fear of looking ridiculous keep me confined to my seat? Thankfully, all my doubts were put to rest after attending my first ever Indiblogger meet. Not only did I meet a number of interesting bloggers, I had no qualms in introducing myself and it didn't feel awkward at all!

'The Pantene Nature Fusion' Indiblogger meet was held at ITC Sheraton in Saket, Delhi on the 14th of October. When I first read the notification on the forum, I was hesistant. I had been waiting for a meet in Delhi and it was also on a Sunday but the idea of socializing with complete strangers gave me the jitters. A friend forced me into registering but I was still undecided. On the eve of the meet, I got a call from Karthik and he said something about free hair spas for all. Well, that kind of sealed the deal for me. It would've been a crime for a woman to turn down something like that, wouldn't it?

ITC Sheraton-
Simplicity and Grandeur

The next step was working out how to get there. That's where social networking came in to play. I communicated with a gang of girls and we decided to get together at different metro stations. From there, we took an auto to the hotel- which looked so weird, but, what the heck, we're jobless people. The best part about ganging up was that, with the initial awkwardness all gone, we could enter the meet as a group and enjoy without any inhibitions. We entered the ballroom to find it packed and brimming with energy. There were a dozen or so tables adorned with white roses, a hair spa unit at one end, a huge graffiti panel spread out on one wall, a stage with a picture of Shilpa Shetty donning the sensuous look and a screen to ticking with our tweets and activities. We quickly scurried to a table and started with the day's activities by posing for pictures.

Eshna Kaur, Priyaa Arora and Geetanjali - lovely friends I made :)

Vandana Mahajan  and Kiran Sawhney.
Vandana writes about being a mother while Kiran is a fashion expert.

 
The MC called for our attention soon after. He was a funny guy. Couldn't catch the name, but he did a really good job. First up, there were prizes for stuff I can never perform, like turning up on time, being the first person to tweet and the like. Fancy radio showers they got, all hail Pantene!

The organizers! MC at the extreme right

And we had a P&G person in our blogger camp all along!

The first game was called 'Last Woman Standing'. No, we were not meant to duel. We were all given balloons and toothpicks and were required to burst as many balloons as we could while keeping ours safe. I got off to a flying start as the balloon committed suicide in my hands. Thankfully though, the Inditeam were generous with their supplies and I got a replacement. Which did nothing to improve my chances. Got stabbed at my very own table. Then it was just me out hunting with my toothpick. The basketball defenses really kicked in as I cornered my prey.

Me looking as lost as ever...

The second game was undoubtedly the whackiest I've ever played. We had to mummify one of our friends on the table with, wait for it, toilet paper! Not only that, our 'mummy' had to stand for something. So, we, also had to think of slogans and one-liners to bury our 'mummy' with. We did a disastrous job and only a timely tweet saved us from elimination in the first round.

Oh you won't be so happy when we're done Atula :P

Atula Gupta, Our 'Mummy'

Next up was the part all participants hates but every host relishes- introductions! But our hosts, being blessed with extraordinary creativity, added a twist to the '30 seconds of fame' act. Every person had to recite a one-liner along with their introductions in the emotion directed on the screen. So, we had, 'main tere bachche ki maa banne waali hoon' recited by angry, sad, overjoyed, puzzled and blushing bloggers.

Following this, Miss Lais Koelle,a Brazilian  scientist from Pantene who had come all the way from Singapore to tell us about Pantene's new find- Cassia.

Ze Cassia!

Cassia, from what I could gather, is a plant with bright yellow flowers, found popularly in Kerala. Lais demonstrated with the help of a video presentation how the Cassia seed and oil have been used in Pantene's newest Nature Fusion range.

Lais educating us on Pantene's bond with Nature

She told us about her research in hair care and how bonding with nature was the best way to keep our hair beautiful. I was amazed by the clear sparkly look of the shampoo which she held up for all to observe.
Then we made an attempt at looking sensible and sane by participating in the 'Nature or Science' quiz. The MC riddled each table with questions on either Nature or Science and the fastest correct response got an LED reading lamp.
After a sumptuous and delicious meal, we were invited to another game! But this time, we had to change tables and make sure we were sitting with newer strangers. But you know what, women cheat. I realized I was among the very few people who took the rules seriously! Anyway, the next task was interesting. We had to arrange flowers in a pot making the best possible use of our unique ingredient (artificial leaves in our case) and also prepare a chant or a rhyme using the words 'santa sholay cassia green nature'.

Hard at work!

I loved the flowers- lilies, roses, orchids, hyacinths...Too bad we couldn't take them home!

Ah! If only I could take them home!

Number 6! That's us!

 

Our flower arrangement with artificial leaves. Can ya tell?

Time was running out so we couldn't finish with the introductions. I was so relieved as I had no idea what to say about this attempt of mine!Lais came up again to answer our doubts about hair care and Pantene. I think if she had come after every one was finished with their hair spas, she wouldn't have had to make so much of an effort. The spa was amazing! I'd never imagined simply washing my hair with a shampoo and conditioner could leave my hair looking so voluminous and bouncy! It's no farce, I tell you, I tried it at home too and the effect was the same. Pantene's really worked some magic this time.

Soft and Shiny Tresses! :D

Also, we had a surprise talk by Miss Yashodhara Lal, author of 'Just Married, Please Excuse'. She gave us useful tips on writing and getting published, the most important one of them being 'what are you waiting for? if you want to get published, start working, start writing'. With that, she reminded us of the opportunity Harper-Collins is providing to all Indibloggers.
With that, the Meet was declared to be at an end. We gathered up on the stage for photographs- two normal, one crazy. The MC decided to play Santa and started throwing around gifts and that's how I got a fancy bottle opener. We also took home an Indiblogger t-shirt, a very much needed gift hamper from Pantene which contained a white-lantern-thingy we couldn't make sense of, a smile, memories of a day well-spent and the satisfaction that comes from a being a part of one big happy family. 

Thank you Indiblogger, thank you Pantene and a big thank you to all the people I met and the friends I made.
.

The Crazy Picture

 Photos courtesy:
http://www.kiransawhney.com/2012/10/pantene-indiblogger-meet.html
http://allthingsdesirable.blogspot.in/2012/10/indiblogger-anf-pantenes-meet-oh-what.html
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151105805562883.439671.67564062882

The rest are self-clicks. The quality would have told you so.