Blogadda advises to #LiveLodgycal

The monsoons had just made their appearance when I got a communication from Blogadda inviting me to be a part of 40 select bloggers from all over India to a Renault sponsored event in Goa to showcase the latest offering from Renault’s stable – Lodgy. The event was logically titled #LiveLodgycal. Now Goa in the monsoons has been a much touted affair hence I did not want to miss this one so off I flew with a few other bloggers from Mumbai to Goa where we were  

shepherded into the lovely 75 acre property of ‘The Leela’.

By the time everyone assembled the event had to be rescheduled as the rains had played mischief with the airline schedules delaying most of the flights by at least an hour.

The evening was spent in attending a crash course in ‘Renology’ – a study of Renault Lodgy by the team from Renault. Was quite an interesting affair after which the 40 bloggers who were divided into 10 teams had to introduce their teams so that everybody kind of got to know each other followed by a lavish dinner and some more tete-a-tete before retiring for the night. The presenter of the evening  

was the bubbly, witty, RJ Archana who kept the participants involved in the show every minute.

Next morning was drive time when the 10 teams would drive 10 Renault Lodgys to Lalit Hotel, around 50kms away on hilly roads which would give us a fair idea of how well or not the car handles.

A lot of activities planned by Blogadda to be indulged in during the drive kept everybody busy and it was a fun drive. The route was very well planned and though a map was given to us there were placard toting boys standing at turnings to direct us accordingly! So no way anyone could get lost. In addition there was a mapping device in the car itself!

The drive through the lush greenery in the hills and tiny villages was very refreshing. The wonderful music system in the car played some catchy tunes of our choice to make the drive peppy and fun too. We even stopped at some spots to dance to the music in the rains when we were not dancing in the car!

We arrived in time for a splendid lunch spread out just for us in Hotel Lalit. But since the rains had stopped we decided to go to the beach for some photo-ops as we were not exactly hungry after the heavy breakfast we had in ‘The Leela’. The beaches in Goa during the monsoons look lovely without all 

the shacks and other commercial activity which one would otherwise find cluttering the pristine sands. After everyone had finished with their photo-ops we all trooped back to the Hotel for lunch followed by the drive back to ‘The Leela’ for an evening full of music and masti!

‘The Forefront’ band was in attendance to liven up the show and it soon had everybody tapping their 

feet to their music. The bar was open and so was the mic! Fashionista blogger Neha Kapoor ruled the stage and brought everyone to the floor dancing to her songs. Not to be left behind were bloggers 

Om and Prateek Thakkar who too entertained us with their singing.

The evening ended with some fine dining and exchange of blog URLs and bidding goodbye to one and all as next morning everyone would be leaving at different times depending on the flight departure times for different destinations.

Overall it was an amazing weekend spent with amazing bloggers. A true bloggers meet it was at #LiveLodgycal in Goa. No one upmanship. Pure exchange of ideas. A model bloggers community. Thank you Blogadda for making it happen.
I was a part of the #LiveLodgycal Drive by BlogAdda.com in association with Renault India. 

For my opinion about Renault Lodgy please click here 

Get set and Bolt!

As part of their promotional activity, I was invited by Blogadda on behalf of TATA Motors to check out the new hatchback ‘Bolt’ on display at the Oberoi mall.

I went there last weekend and as I was entering the mall, I overheard people talking about Narain Karthikeyan. Apparently one could get a photo opportunity by just visiting the ‘Bolt’ arena in the mall! I was thrilled. Was indeed a great opportunity not only to check out the car but also get photographed with the one and only Narain Karthikeyan.

Having reached the ‘Bolt’ arena which could be identified easily as there were a lot of people milling 

around I headed straight to one of the many guys in the bright ‘Bolt’ Tshirt and asked where I could meet the famous Narain Karthikeyan. He pointed to a tiny low platform next to the car on display and asked me to stand there while he would take my photo. Dutifully, I stood on the place indicated and got myself photographed, all the time wondering ‘Whats up?’ The mystery was soon cleared as the photographer showed me my photograph with Narayan Karthikeyan and transferred it to my phone via Bluetooth. Here it is J

Now about the car. Bolt is being projected as a premium hatchback car with all the trappings that are offered by others in the market. So what is special about this? Is it the price? The price is not 

revealed yet, they said. So what else? The reply he gave me was impressive. I shall list out the five features that would make ‘Bolt’ stand out among the hatchbacks in the market.

1)      First time ever Multi-Drive: Sport mode when you need that power, Eco mode for excellent fuel efficiency and City mode for the perfect balance of the other two.

2)      Revotron 1.2 Turbocharged MPFi Petrol Engine for that exceptionally powerful driving experience. This is what I would love to check out as and when I get to Test drive this beauty.

3)      Generation Next Safety with 9^th Generation ABS by BOSCH, Corner Stability control (I would surely love to test this out too) and dual airbags (finally someone has decided safety is more important than cutting corners to reduce price!)

4)      Segment Superior space and comfort. This has been traditionally a TATA Motors forte since their TATA Indica and am glad this is still being followed religiously!

5)      Connect Next – Not only to keep up with the times but also to be ahead in the race, the ‘Bolt’ will have ‘Touchscreen Infotainment’ by Harman which will give you an access to an array of entertainment and connectivity features like smartphone enabled navigation from MapMyIndia in addition to advanced voice command recognition.

So guys Get set Bolt!!

“This post is a part of the Get. Set. Bolt. activity at BlogAdda.”. 

Tata Zest - A review

Tata Motors have done it again! They have now come out with a petrol version and a diesel version full of zestful features!!

The Petrol version with a Revotron 1.2T engine has a Max Power of 90PS@5000RPM and a Max Torque of 140NM@1750-3500 RPM. It has a 5 speed manual transmission. What this means for a layman like me is that its torque lets me drive in the city without too many gear changes which is a great relief on traffic congested streets. And as a traveller it also gives me the ‘ECO’ mode which ensures that I have the optimum fuel efficiency when I am cruising on the highway and as and when I need brute power I just have to press the ‘SPORTS’ mode which gets the car growling and roaring up ahead leaving all competition behind. So in effect, I am the master to decide ‘Kitna deti hai’.

The Diesel version with a Quadrajet 1.3 engine has a Max Power of 90PS@4000RPM and a Max Torque of 200NM@1750-3000 RPM. It has a 5-speed manual ,F-Tronic AMT. What this means for me is that I just have to control the speed and the car takes care of the rest! In traffic or otherwise.

Now for the creature comforts. Tata Motors does not disappoint here. True to their old tagline of ‘More car to a car’ these models also ensure that all occupants whatever their heights are comfortable whether they are sitting in the driver’s seat or the passenger seat. Enough legroom and headroom for all, again leaving all competition behind!

The entertainment system is from Harmon Kardon – World leaders in the automobile entertainment systems. There are eight speakers which give you the surround sound experience and the amazing part is that the volume control is configured in such a way that the minute the road sound increases, the music volume will increase accordingly to ensure you have a seamless music listening experience!

The air-conditioning as always from Tata Motors is excellent and cools the car extremely quick and if you wish you can also activate the climate control.

The wing rear view mirrors are also wide enough and adds to the overall safety.

Ingress and Egress again is very comfortable and so is the ergonomically designed seats which lend amazing comfort  and lets you arrive comfortable at your destination. Add to this the 15” alloy wheels and you know you can be assured of a comfortable drive.

These are the aspects that I noticed as noteworthy and for the final word on pricing one has to wait for a wee bit but the reliable source says that it will be priced as all Tata Motors cars – economy of volume, hence very competitive!.

Maybe because I have been used to driving a manual transmission car for the past 4 decades, I preferred the turbo charged Petrol version to the Diesel.

For further details of any particular feature please visit the Tata Zest site.