The Groupon Experience

What is life if not lived. And what do we do to live life like there's no tomorrow? We party!

Now that was a slightly overt interjection. 'cos I am not exactly a party animal of sorts. But I do go event hopping quite often, and most of the times I am not able to write about all the places I've visited and the dos I've attended. But some events, no matter how long it has been since they passed, deserve more than just a mention. I was invited to one such fun event at The Oberoi, New Delhi last month (on the 22nd of November to be precise) by the GROUPON team.

Now what the heck is Groupon?

I heard you wonder that out aloud. Well, for starters, it's a company that has recently made its mark on the Indian online shopping and deals scene.

What do they do?
They provide crazy deals and heavy discounts on products and services, including shopping, travel, medical and beauty services among many others.

So what is all this hullabaloo all about?
Oh you don't know? Tch tch. Groupon was named the 'fastest growing company ever' in 2010 by Forbes magazine, and was put on the same pedestal as Zuckerberg's Facebook. Now that's something big! (I'm sure I have your full attention now.)

But that was then. Now they're bigger, even better and in INDIA!

About the event I was talking of - the GROUPON Carnival - was a promotional event with a twist. There was this big hall with canopied stalls lining all its walls. And the stalls were printed and decked up on the front to reflect exactly how a particular deal would appear on the website, what with those sidebars and the same green theme and a clock ticking (see below). Sweet!

And that wasn't even the beginning of fun part. I was then handed a tiny booklet of 100 rupee coupons, adding upto 2500 rupees in all. And what was I expected to do for the next 3 hours? Use that fake money to avail of all the deals spread around the room till either I dropped, or the money ended, which would never have happened as I was told I would be given more to spend if I exhausted my pot of money. I was literally dazed for a good five minutes, figuring it all out and hardly believing my fortune.

The stalls had the choicest of deals one could ever find under one roof. Let's see - a corner shop selling indoor golf sets, a nail art kiosk, a sushi kitchen, a tarot card reader's stall, a stall offering wine tasting and appreciation sessions, another one holding cocktail/mocktail mixing lessons, a zen foot massage parlor, a fish spa stall and another couple of them offering crazy photo sessions using crazier props and wacky head dresses. It was a hell of a time I had through the course of the evening. Look on!

My nails have been the topic of discussion everywhere ever since then. Sigh.

A cocktail mixing session on in full swing. How I wish I'd had time to go for this!

Mad photo sessions, much?

The chef prepared vegetarian Sushi in front of these very eyes. Having had it for the first time, I found it...ummm...weird. But I did learn how to handle chopsticks!

Funny, all the men headed towards this particular stall while women stayed away.

And THAT was the most enjoyable part of it all - WINE TASTING. Learnt a lot about white and red wine, how to consume and appreciate them and even tasted a few!

I bought an indoor mini golf set for my father (with his birthday fortunately just round the corner), got my nails painted beautifully and went for some of the other fun stuff on offer too. The event had a very tiny invitee list (that included me!) with most of the food and drinks being hogged away by the Groupon personnel themselves :P But their team was a true bundle of energy and humor, helping people around, chatting away and making it a fun evening. I missed out on a scrumptious dinner, having had to leave early, but did manage to stay on till the end of a sizable but interesting presentation given by the lively young CEO of Groupon India, Ankur Warikoo.

I checked out the website (after the event, I must admit) and the deals are really something worth availing of. And it's mighty different from the rest of the coupon/deal websites such as Khojguru. Which other site offers you a helicopter ride or a hot air balloon safari above the city? Do check out Groupon.