Tata Safari Storme Meet with Anil Kapoor and Indibloggers

It was not just another sunny Weekday, it was a day when we were scheduled to meet and have lunch with non-other than the Jhakkas Anil Kapoor. Well, it all started a few days back at around 11PM when I received this mail from Indiblogger to confirm if I would like to have an Exclusive Lunch with Anil Kapoor courtesy Tata Storme and 24 – The Show. Not very much into Bollywood, I asked my friends should I go. And, it was like everybody had a single answer, of course. (check out the the blogpost which led me to this meet)

I was picked up at Vashi with another Indiblogger Deepti by Abhinav in a Bus bound to Pune from Dadar. There I met Ira and another guy (probably Varun) and also the other 3 bloggers (Megahna, Nandini and Vaisakhi). A group of tweeples was also there, who have won some twitter contest. As the journey took its course, I befriended with the Bloggers and few of the tweeples. With the day unfolding we came to know more about the event.

Inside the Tata Motors' Pune Plant

We reached Tata’s Pune factory at around 10 AM, and Ira took the bloggers with her for an exclusive tour of the plant. I must say it was a fascinating trip. Fun wasn’t just watching Anil Kapoor and his awed fanfare but also witnessing the karma-bhoomi of visionaries like of JRD and Ratan Tata. The trip did recalled me the famous story of Sudha Murthy and her postcard on gender bias at the TELCO (now Tata Motors Ltd), which made her the first female engineer in the ‘fraternity’. Touring in an open Tata Safari we saw the assembly line, press line, research centre etc along with the convoy of Anil Kapoor and Tata Motors Sr VP Ankush Arora. Hopping in and out of our vehicle, Tata executives were more than eager to share with us about the different departments of the factory. I particularly like the Torture track where some combat truck was undergoing some tests.

Torture Track

With fans (of course of Anil Kapoor) all around cheering and clicking snaps, taking videos, we seriously felt like celebrities at that time. I wonder did they try searching for our faces in the later episodes of 24! Shy!

My first shot....Anil with the plant employees

Everyone wanted to capture the moments with Anil Kapoor

Anil with the IndiBloggers and the winning Tweeples

After the plant visit, we headed towards the Lake House. En route we passed the dog training centre, where two of the trained dogs and their no-smile all stern faced trainers ‘greeted’ us. At the Lake House, Anil Kapoor was scheduled to address the audience, which was a mix of Tata senior employees, Dealers, Winning tweeples and us - the bloggers. There we were given a chance to be photographed with the Anil on stage. That was the only interaction we had with him, and after the scheduled tasks like felicitating the Dealers, photo-ops, he left the place. We had our lunch thereafter, received goodie bag and finally left for Mumbai at around 4PM.

Trained dog and his trainer in the Lake House

A beautiful lane taking us to the Lake House

Anil addressing the audience

Anil being presented with the exclusive Safari jacket
(Shy, I so much wanted that jacket :/)

Anil being presented with the limited edition 24 - Tata Storme
(I would have bargained for it against that jacket :p)

Though most of us missed the exclusive interaction with Anil, we thoroughly enjoyed the Plant visit. Those few hours spent at the Tata Motors plant were really enchanting and Abhinav and Ira didn’t left any stone unturned to make us feel like celebrities. For me, certainly visiting the plant and knowing awesome bloggers like Meghna, Vaishakhi, Nandini, Deepti and also Ekta was much more rewarding than having a pic with Anil Kapoor, honestly!

IndiBloggers - A prized picture :)

A cute gift from Indiblogger-Tata as we couldn't meet Anil 'exclusively'

Thanks to Indiblogger and Tata Motors for such an awesome visit to the plant and meetup with Anil Kapoor. I loved being there and felt proud to pay homage to the workplace of Tatas, I really mean it.

And in the end...the Muscular Tata Safari Storme...

For more pics, click here.

Banned Indian Books

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth... Few days back when I came to know about a book on an Indian Business Barron on the Banned Indian Books’ List, the first thing that came in my mind were the lines from Tagore . What an irony, we live in a country, whose forefathers have dreamt about a nation without fear, about a nation with right to speech, right to knowledge; and where the Government enjoys the “privilege” to “freely” ban the books, censor what it feels offensive! Wikipedia describes Banned books as the books whose free access is not permitted. Further it says that the practice of banning books is just another form of censorship, and often has political, religious or moral motivations. In our country, banning books have got its history since the British rule days. In fact, few of the Books

Trekking Ghansoli Gawli Dev (Parsik) Hill

It’s been there for geological ages, we have been looking at it for last about 4years and I have been planning to trek it since a long time. Finally, few weeks back, we trekked the Ghansoli Hill. Ghansoli Hill is located at the eastern boundary of Ghansoli town, behind our office complex at RCP. The hill or better hillock is a part of small range that separates Kalyan and Navi Mumbai towns. A search on Google Map returns with a name Parsik Hill for it, though there is one more rather famous Parsik Hill in Navi Mumbai. We also found a NewsArticle , that talks about NMMC plans to develop Nature Awareness Centre at this hills and calls it Gawli Dev Hill. Here, we would be calling it Ghansoli Hill . I asked my colleague about it and he readily agreed. The very next Sunday we did it with another friend. We weren't aware of the route. All we knew is that a Central Road runs along the western edge of the hill and can be reached through the Vashi-Mhape road. We later found that there’

Riders of the Nation of a Billion - Dimensions and Horizons

Incidentally I wrote a post of my tranformation from just around the corner corporate junkie into a Rider (for sure, still gradually) few days ago. Now, here are the Indibloggers with a Contest for the Bikers of the Nation with Castrol guys . Evolving Biker Code of the Nation When you look at the scenario of Biking in a general sense, you would be attracted by the road-rowdies and rookies who ride to spread nuisance and are mostly acknowledged for their deeds by the newspaper. Hooligans may be the right word. But, once you get involved with the passion, you would be able to see how the passion of Biking, or rather Riding, is evolving in the country where 2-wheelers over-power 4-wheelers by scores of galactic height, but have never earned respect on highways just coz they are the smallest-speeding machine there! I would try to let you through the Indian Riders tale, so that you be able to appreciate how the riders of the Country are working, though in a segregative way

Ashwini Vatsa17 December 2013 at 02:02
Jhakaas....!! You are too a celebrity man! TATA.
Meghana Hassan17 December 2013 at 07:58
"I wonder did they try searching for our faces in the later episodes of 24! " haha..
Same here Punit, thoroughly enjoyed the event and all of your company.,
Punit Dubey18 December 2013 at 20:41
Zarranawazi ka shukirya :)
Ek dusre ke liye to hum sabhi Celebrity hi hain :D
Punit Dubey18 December 2013 at 20:42
:)
Thanks @Meghana Hassan, I too enjoyed the company...and knowing you all was really rewarding...

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