Indiblogger : Fitbit India launch

Shot on the way

Hello

Indi , Indi …25th * click*

In 7 seconds this was the shortest coded Indiblogger meet intimation talk I had with anyone. Just an urgent call and the date and that was it. You delay anymore and risk losing the seat. Exactly how me and dipali play this game. The customary दुआ सलाम can be had later on. This meet was important for me because I had missed 2 meets in the past few months, a record broken for consecutive attendance. After I secured mine, it was time for social service. I informed atleast 5 friends about this, lest I should be subject to taunts later on for not informing. Those who missed out ( Judy, Nimi, Namrata) warned me to inform them in case of additional seats. The girls I tell you. Plan changed on the morning of 25th with Ila meeting me directly at the venue ( my collaborator) instead of meeting me at a metro station and then going together to Oberoi. They say na that don’t drive while talking on the phone, I say that don’t exit metro station while doing the same. While talking to Dipali as to where she had reached, I was putting my DL at the exit gates and waiting for the gates to open. Not once but twice I did that. Later on when I say my pic on the licence then did I realize my faux pas. Company or no company I enjoy going alone so from JLN metro station had a walk to Oberoi ( a distance of some 3+ kms in 20 mins). How`s that an inspiration for Fitbit? This was the 4th time I was doing the walk. While entering the hotel, I saw the absent minded Sheetal entering the gates, looking all the while in her phone, not bothering to look up. Like always. Later on at the reception, she looked up. When we both reached the place did we realize that it was a launch and Indi was just a participant, not an organizer. Grabbed a tea and when we talked the real lot started coming up. Saurabh, Antarik, Ila, Dipali, Khandujas, Dr Manoj Dubey ( with Dr Sahiba lost somewhere far behind). Sheetal was more worried about Vikas Khanna not coming up. With word spreading that there was a flipkart meet at CP in the evening, we got interested ( bad mistake later on). Exclusive invites became no longer exclusive with Saurabh making some calls to make sure that we too could attend it. It was a जितनी भीड़ आ जाए उतना अच्छा from flipkart.

It was time to get some pics clicked now and we got down to the business of clicking pics. 

Sheetal , me, Arsh, Saurabh, Ila and Dipali

Photo ops with Antarik now

The before and after of Fitbit...lol

When it was time to go inside, the hunt for seats began. We always look for seats in lots just like some marriage party has arrived. So you had some 8 people sitting in a lot. When Arsh and Rahul came, we made use of our old trick to make space for ourselves ( Just drop the reserved slips away from the seats when no one is looking and the seat is yours). The world was crazy about Fitbit , we were looking for Rajiv Makhni. Just before the start of the proceedings, we 3 of us ( Me, Dipali, Ila) went to him so that we can have pics clicked with him and more importantly this time around I wanted his autograph. Seeing pad in my hand , dipali asked me what it was for and when I told her she said, “ Take one for me too”. Soon I felt like the boy in class who tears papers from his notebook for others when there is a surprise test. We approached Rajiv and told him we wanted pics and autographs. Told him that we want 3 autographs separately (one for each person) and not one autograph for all 3. He gave me this autograph.

Rajiv Makhni names me "Devil"

The event started with the CRO of Fitbit Mr. Woody Scal welcoming us to the event and he explained what fitbit is all about and how is it helpful for busy people and the various models available now in India ( pretty expensive show off pieces I must say). 

The model with all the features was 20000 bucks (Surge) while the entry level was 3500/- (Zip) . For sometime it seemed to me that I was in a board meeting presentation. Huh. Just cover the distance I travelled today while coming and you`ll never need any fitbit ever in your life. Then we had Jamaal Sheikh, editor of Men`s health coming up and talking. As usual the talk never seemed interesting and engaging. The only person in full attention was Punam ji, listening attentively. He looked more like a model for Habib. He had a fancy haircut more than anything. No way he looked the mean and fit he was talking about. 

Jamaal Sheikh

Then came the person we wanted to be on stage- Rajiv Makhni. He has always kept us interested and engaged. He knows the art and that’s why he is our favourite. He told us the features he has been using and how it has affected his daily routine. Calories burnt, sleep taken, pattern of sleep, fitness target achieved etc. It seemed to me that we were slowly being drawn in the era of machines taking over everything. He also recounted us a hilarious incident where he pulled out his fitbit from a very tough place. No details shhh…he told not to mention it. 

He is a show stopper and an awesome anchor

Now it was time for some demo. A girl and a boy (Vishakha, Saahil) from fitbit were called to demonstrate the device in the various exercises with things like calories burnt, steps taken, heartbeat and various things being shown on the screen comparatively. It was all rigged I would say. How can you have same stats for 2 different people? Later on it was a question answer section where the people asked all sort of questions about fitbit. 

Most of the features were not available so what was the use of launching this device? ( Not waterproof, not certified by medical fraternity etc. ). Most of the answers to this were in the negative. After this got over, the real fun started after that. Rajiv Makhni got hounded for pics ( like he is always ). Our whole group decended onto him. 

Group pic

Ila handed me her DSR (a complete novice) and it took me a while to shoot it. Rajiv was really patient and he did say, “ I have heard about slow motion videos but for the 1st time I was part of a slow motion photo”. Met the unrecognizable Mitha, Judy, Pallavi ( gorgeous as always). As we marched towards the so called lunch area, had a handful of Punam ji`s “ thekua” which she prepared at 11 the previous night. They were awesomely tasty. Everybody loved that. Karthik was caught at the door by us while trying unsuccessfully to lie to us as to why he was not there at the event. 

We headed to the room where lunch was being served. The line looked longer than the darshan line at Vaishno Devi. It was moving a snail`s pace. After getting restless, Sheetal left. We did manage to take some line cuts to shorten our waiting time. Even the dinner lines at weddings after ढक्कन खुलने के बाद move faster than this. We broke the line a final time and headed straight to the area where the plates were kept. Enough of wait. We started stocking our plates with whatever limited variety they had. Full with non veg items , there were only 3 veg. items with all being refilled even more slowly. Cakes and tarts were the only things in abundance. I mean what kind of breakfast / lunch was this? Probably made us remember the awesome dinner menu at Indiblogger meets. God knows what was fitbit thinking?? Really yuck. Oberoi के बाद किसी ठेले वाले के पास जाना ही पड़ेगा. I made sure that I met the maximum friends there at the gathering. It had been a long long time. A few more left promising to meet in the evening @ flipart.

Karthik was left wandering with an empty plate which he later loaded with sweets to give him company. We had planned to go to CP but I didn’t knew I would have surprises up for me. Heading out towards the exit, I saw …who else? Nivedith. A sight to behold. He and Hrish thota both coming from Banglore for this event ( part of media and tech people called later in the day). It was another matter that he was damn hungry as well. It felt awesome to meet him after an year. Took me another 30 mins. before I could catch up with Hrish. Shilpi totally photobombed my 2 pics I took with him. Not one pic came out as perfect as I would have liked but it was ok. 

Photobombed pics.... Culprit- Shilpi and Dipali

Shilpi and Dipali both waited while I completed the milaap. All we got was a t shirt while we had thought that maybe some lucky persons would be getting a fitbit as well. The so called surprise that Rajiv Makhni had talked about was that Shraddha Kapoor and Tiger Shroff both had come to the launch (media part), the whole world knew about it except us.

Archana Vijay

In totality it was a time waster event with only Rajiv Makhni and the meeting with friends the only high point. The rest everything disappointed( including the 3rd grade menu). The fitbits on display were were all kept switched off. Now how do you check off devices guys??