NANDINI REVIEWS SNIPPETS - EDITION 3

Hola! To the 3rd Nandini Reviews Snippets edition. Lets get started straight away :-)

LONELY PLANET'S BEST IN TRAVEL 2016 BOOK LAUNCH - This event was held at Hotel Plaza, in Marine Drive, near Churchgate. A short affair it was, that comprised of mainly the Book-Launch, a small chat between the LP India director, Mr. Sesh Seshadri and Secretary Tourism GOM, Smt. Valsa Nair Singh, and a few Q&A with the media. The biggest highlight of the launch was the inclusion of Bombay in the book, as a must travel destination in the year 2016. Read my review of the book - here!

GODADDY WORLD HOSTING DAYS ( WHD.INDIA'15 ) - I reached the event venue almost during lunch time, thanks to reaching the Hyatt Regency ( near International airport ) first instead of Grand Hyatt ( near Domestic Airport ), where it was held. For more than an hour, my cab-driver took me in circles, searching the destination. Anyhow, after reaching, I got refreshed by the amount of knowledge I learnt, along with many useful tips. Its a free event and anyone can register for it. Although mostly tech, I loved the sessions I got to be part of, and it was quite worth it. However, regrettably, I couldn't stay late till the evening celebration party :-(

FBAI AWARDS 2015 - This event started almost after an hour of the scheduled time. Dressed in all their finery, all the enthusiastic food bloggers and other attendees, thronged into the houseful event that was held at the JW Marriot, Juhu. I had received an invite, and was looking forward to it; being my first of the three, they held so far. Although, I didn't quite recognize the many faces at the do, as many were totally new. I loved the funky and very quirky set up by livingfoods, with their crazy scientist corner, where I got to see nitrogen-dipped crunchy pop-corn ( yeah, you heard that right ) being prepared, that tasted icy-cold yet fun. Many notable food giants were there at the awards ceremony, handing out the awards to the recipients. They were, the one and only ~ Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Ranveer Brar, Vicky Ratnani and others.

SMWMUMBAI - Unlike last year, this time I attended only one day of this 3-4 days event. I chose the first day, and since it was held in the evening, I quite reached on time. I immensely liked the first session by the person behind the #madeforgreat campaign ( of Tata Motors ). The rest were equally interesting that comprised of twitter and instagram advices+tips by experts, about women in social media etc. The hashtag #SMWMumbai was trending throughout the day. I couldn't attend the rest as I was pressed for time.

#FAMETALENTLEAGUE LAUNCH - 25th Nov, saw the much anticipated launch of #fame i.e its #fametalentleague at St.Regis hotel, Lower Parel. Attended by the likes of Richa Chadha and Karthik Aryan ( both actors ), and representatives of HDFC Life ( Sanjay Tripathy, Product, Digital & Ecommerce ) and GroupM ( Devendra Deshpande, Principal partner Mindshare ), it was a short but informative affair. 2 million downloads worldwide and over 30k live-streams, within a span of 1 year, makes #fame No.1 video-streaming App. And now with the FTL, it is only set to rise, with upto 1 Crore worth prizes up for grabs.


~ Until next time ~

NANDINI REVIEWS SNIPPETS - EDITION 2

I'm back with a host of events, I've been to, the past couple of weeks. Sorry for not being consistent. Well actually, for some events, I had already written separate posts ( in both my blogs ). Do check out those as well. Anyways, enjoy the ones I'm covering today.

ASUS DIVAS MEET - SELFIE PHONE LAUNCH - Sept 6th was a very special day for the ladies in Bombay. It was the Diva's meet, and all pretty ladies ( ahem, a few odd men too ) assembled at the ITC Grand Central. Anushka Dhandekar of MTV fame, made an appearance with her make-up secrets to look better for Selfies, and also showed us some tricks to click that perfect selfie. Here, I must say, before the 'Selfie' term was even invented or I had heard anything of it, I've been self-clicking my pictures ever since I got my first phone with a camera in it. That was ages ago. So, the tricks taught were something I had known for quite sometime, myself. I think, every gal anyways finds it out for themselves, with practice. For instance, tricks like, always click a selfie by holding the camera at a certain height from your face and never from below. Know your best angle and click the most awesome looking pictures of yours ever by exploiting that angle. Speaking of Selfies, Asus has come up with a special 'Selfie' phone itself, that makes clicking Selfies far more easier. It has an 'S' swipe on its screen and a 'click' option at the back of the phone. There are more added features in the phone, along with accessories that comes in cute colours as well. Another Asus event coming up soon, stay tuned for updates ;-)

ASUS ZENPAD LAUNCH MEET - As mentioned above, another Asus Meet took place at the venue of Four Seasons Hotel, Worli, on 9th Oct. It was for the Zen Pad launch. The product was already launched at the Zen Festival, held in Delhi prior; but, it was specially launched again in Bombay, to give proper focus to it. The product itself was quite impressive ( as thoroughly explained in the demo, by one of Asus's representatives ), and at an affordable price range too. I quite liked its unique UI features with privacy options, DTS sound quality and very clear display. Only complaint is - both Asus events left me very hungry :|

#FAMESTARSLIVE - This was a special event, organised by #Fame and I was invited by BM. The event was attended by some famous names like Gaurav Gera ( comedian ), Radhika Apte ( actress ), Ruchi Gangrade ( RJ ) and Mickey Mehta ( fitness expert ), along with about 50+ top digital infuencers of Bombay. How to brand yourself, and how these stars utilizes the social media to their fullest; a few tricks and some interesting AVI's by Jackie Bhagnani, Sunny Leone etc were the main takeaways from the event, besides of course, some awesome goodies like Selfie-Stick, Power-banks and device holder. The event was held at the Novotel hotel in Juhu, not to mention, the dinner that followed afterwards was mouthwatering. The App is free to download and use, and literally anyone can come into the limelight and get fame with it, its as easy as that.

BRUNCH WITH GOCHEESE AND CHEF RANVEER BRAR - Held at Hard Rock Cafe, Worli, this event had the Brand Ambassador of GoCheese, Chef Ranveer Brar ( *sigh*, he is married ), narrating his story and association with the brand. The marketing managers of the brand too fielded Q&A's from the media present, while we got to see some interesting recipes by the chef using gocheese screened at the event. Interactions and Selfies followed next, with some nice yummy bites. The event was all about cheese, and we were sent home with a goodie bag each, that had all kinds of cheese inside it. I had used Go Cheese earlier too, so, I must say I have no complaints with the product. Infact, it was interesting to find out that Parag Foods Limited is the face behind my favourite Gowardhan Ghee too. There are many more interesting products offered by the company, all associated with milk. The company is fairly new, but has branched out well.

THE DVAR COLLECTION - EXHIBITION - The same evening of 7th Oct, after all that cheesy affair, I made my way to a fashion exhibition next at 10th Road, Juhu. I was invited by Dvar India to celebrate their launch of different collections ( by different designers ) under one roof. Talented Daughter of Dilip & Manali Vengsarkar - Pallavi, who Launched her Accessories Line​. ZOONI - a 25 year old Label's​​ Classic, Evergreen ​Indian Couture Range of Gaara & Zardozi. Ushma Vaidya - A Protege of Manish Malhotra who impressed beautifully with her Mirror & Gold Work Laden Outfits in Pop Colors for the Festive Season Ahead! Industrialist Uday Kilachand's Wife, Sangeeta, who has dressed the Royalties of the Country & the Ambani Bahus, showcased her Vintage Line inspired by the Heritage of Gujarat​. Also, was the Legendary GOPI VAID & the New ​Bridal​ Lady in Town - Disha Patil in the event. While the creations had me awestruck, the prices made me almost faint. Phew!

~ Until next time ~

NANDINI REVIEWS SNIPPETS - EDITION 1

Heya all! I'm starting a new series titled 'Nandini Reviews Snippets'. This edition will mainly consist of the Snippets & Pictures of events I've attended over the week-gone-by and the latest happenings/brand launches etc; obviously with all the behind-the-scene juices ( I so love gossiping after all ). So, enjoy along with me as I share the fun I've had over the week. Some events as usual will be covered in details in a dedicated separate solo post. Do look out for them :-)

Sharing ( also ) in this post some past events that I attended but didn't get time to write about.

DUTCH FOOD FESTIVAL IN BOMBAY|MUMBAI - Some time ago we attended the festival and the Dutch did keep up to their infamous reputation of being extremely 'stingy' via their PR's lol. The PR, when sending invite had initially promised hampers for all bloggers, but once there, they were like "oh we are sorry, we can't give". In short, promises were not kept. And being a food festival, and invited during lunch-time too, there was no sign of food anywhere, except for some tiny samplings to showcase the dutch food. So, everyone came back hungry and very angry! I personally feel, if promises are made they should be honoured - else, their own reputation & trust-level gets tarnished. I can't say much about the food cos' hey, did we get anything to eat at all, eh? Anyway, above are few of the sample's pictures. I was invited for another of their Thai Food Festival event by the same PR later on; you can guess what my reaction was :-)

HP LAUNCHES ITS OMEN SERIES, SPECTRE X360 AND THE NEW HP PAVILLION - In a very informal gathering, at a pub @Kamala Mills Compound, specially targeting the youth, HP India launched its 3 new notebooks. 'Omen' being for the serious gamer, the versatile and flexible 'SpectreX360' that becomes a tab too when one wants ( great for travelling ), and of course the updated version of the HP Pavilion with full HD mainstream. The launch also had some foot-tapping music by Medieval Pundits. All the notebooks additionally have sound system that has been enhanced via HP's partnership with Bang & Olufsen who are a globally old ( 90 yrs of existence ), while young in India brand. Unlike the nasty Dutch experience above, this event had cocktails, yummy bites and lots of social interactions.

VELVETECASE.COM - This event ( that started with a minute's silence as a mark of respect at the Former President APJ Abdul Kalam's recent demise ) was held at Trident @BKC and the very pretty Kriti Sanon ( of Heropanti fame ) launched it, by ordering some jewelry 'live' and they arrived too on-the-spot ( fastest delivery, eh ;-). The website has been around for 2 years now, hence, this was more of a celebration & honouring of their old and new jewelry designers/sellers. Their APP was also launched by the Pro Kabaddi team, who seemed not to have lost any match after wearing some of the stuff bought from VelveteCase.com! Well, that's their claim, rest is up to you to believe. The event ended with lunch and lots of conversations.

JANE THE VIRGIN @ROMEDYNOW SELECT SCREENING - At Adfactor's media room, we were treated to the delightful tele-novella #JaneOnRomedy premiere that started its telecast on RomedyNow channel since Aug 1st week. This 22 episode serial is full of fun, love and laugh - which the channel itself is, and many twists & turns that'll keep the audience hooked. I loved the first episode immensely as it does have some elements of what we see in our Indian society as well. Its an award winning show and globally acclaimed, so I guess it made its entry into India at the right time. The event signed off with lunch and media bytes.

KALA SACH....THE BLACK TRUTH MEDIA PREMIERE @GEM CINEMA - I was treated to this hard-hitting movie that had me on the edges of my seat throughout. I must say all the actors have done a really good job. Based on a true story, on witch-hunting practices, this story left me thinking. Though, the movie is based on rural India, I feel that kind of mentality exists in the main cities too. I was reminded of situations, of any girl, who faces harassment and taunts if they want to live life on their own terms and it happens a lot. In the movie too, the fermale protagonist ( though married ) faced all she did, just because she encouraged education for children and was progressive in her thoughts, as compared to rest of the villagers. A must watch, to see the ugly reality that's still out there. I'm so impressed by it and want everyone to watch it and spread awareness on this grave social-issue! Will write a proper review in next post.

~ Until next time ~