Whoa…The best fan meetup so far. I’m elated. Sidhartha Mallya obliged us fans with his presence for over two hours (albeit a last minute surprise element)
Little did I know that a random tweet update by me calling all RCB fans in Mumbai for a meetup at Leopold, would get the Director of RCB to join us fans and and share the inside dope on players, venues, matches and surprisingly his school days. The Fan Meetup & awareness drive turned out to be a huge success with Mallya Junior playing a great host and fans turning up in large numbers.
Toying with a social cause since the fan Summit, the meetup was planned so as to cater to atleast a small social cause from RCB fans to the city of Mumbai. And glad we did…we held a jersey rally along Marine Drive with the help of CORNER STONE, a Mumbai based NGO. We conducted an awareness drive along the roads from Colaba to Marine Drive with social and cleanliness messages pasted on our jersey, holding placards and asking people not to litter. A brief start to what we intend to take a long way.
But the real action unfolded at Cafe Leopold, where Sid Mallya turned up (before time..mind you, as Nidhi said UK timings ) with two of his friends and had a ‘Good Time’ with all the fans. Here’s how it all began:
Tweete-e-Tweete :
My tweet update for RCB:
Calling all RCB fans in Mumbai for a meetup (4pm @Leopold, Colaba) & Jersey/T-shirt rally thereafter. So are you Mumbaikars, GAME FOR MORE?
Sidhartha Mallya replies:
@RCBTweets I will for sure come along…Leo’s is my fav place!
I hope I’m seeing as many RCB fans as possible today at 4pm at Leopolds, Colaba. Will be good to have a catch up and a few beers… 2:03 PM Aug 8th via UberTwitter
As fans dropped by donning RCB jerseys he was at a loss of words and quite humbled by the number of those who had turned up for the meet. Sharing inside goss about IPL 3 auctions, his favourite picks for RCB and player retention policies for CLT20 and IPL4, Sidhartha patiently answered all our queries. Few off the record dope and indulging in a banter with his staunch KXIP follower friend, his days at the boarding school and as a hockey captain…Mallya junior had a whale of a time with us. He also promised to give away Red & Gold RCB bagdes (he was wearing one too) for fans turning for coming meetups.
News is ‘RCB jersey for CLT20 is gonna change’ The new one will be sans a collar..it’ll be a round neck fitted Jersey..specially keeping in mind players like PK who wears a jersey 3 times his size We also came up with a suggestion to start our own ‘Cafe RCB & Force India’ on the lines of “ManUtd cafes’. Chatting for over two hours it was time to bid adieu to the ‘Prince of Good Times’
Happiness Index: The happiness quotient of the meetup fans and Mallya Junior alike was really high. Turning up for all the fans, an impromtu & warm gesture, on Sidhartha’s part was highly appreciated. Also this meetup would be featured in the Times of India. (will update that bit soon)
Party Meter: Most of them who’d turned for the meetup were teetotallers and Sid was amazed as to how RCB fans could leave the venue without having USL products. But then he played aperfect host and offered juices instead
He tweets post the meetup:
"Just met our fans at Leopolds.am completely humbled and in awe of the experience. Amazing feeling to know we have rcb fans all over india "
P.S. The ‘off the record’ player/matches info that Mallya Junior shared with us will be posted in my next blog soon.
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