Believe me when I tell you that I stared at the cursor for 23 minutes and 05 seconds to be precise before I typed this line out. Please be kind enough to also believe me when I say that the past 10 days have been the best 10 days of my life, and I have had a pretty amazing life!

By now , if your confusion or your lack of belief in my statements hasn’t led you to close this blog story, then grab a snack and lay back because you are about to relive each second of the past 10 days of my life, and you are going to love it.For those of  you who have been in this journey with me all along ( through your constant support and love) and for those who are reading my blog for the first time , in order to understand the dearth of words in my mind or the life enriching journey that I am talking about, let me take you from the top: how it all started, where it took us and where we are now!

How it happened

It all started when Myntra and Puma organised a contest where in two lucky winners were to get a golden chance to fly to New York to meet Rihanna! Little did I know when I uploaded my entry, that this picture was going to change my life, if not in every then in a lot of ways!

A few days later with my best friend ,  I remember clearly, how I was complaining about life  when just like the perfect guy , it decided to make it up to me * I love you too life! But I think I love Rihanna more!*

My phone buzzed, and truecaller flashed ‘Prateek Kotha’.

“Hello , am I speaking to Niki?”, he said.

“Yes! This is she”. I replied back casually not knowing the importance of this call.

“I am from Team Myntra and I am so  happy to tell you that you have won the  #rihannaxpumamyntra contest and you will be flying to new york to meet Rihanna in person!”

In that second, I could only gather enough courage to say “Really!? Thankyou!” But my horrifying scream after the call ended and the numbing of my bff’s ear drums is a proof of my excitement!

New york city was calling and it was time to meet the kick ass woman who has been my idol even before listening to top US billboards became cool in India.Yes, RIHANNA.

The best part was that the Myntra and Puma team were equally excited for us and you would have believed me had you seen our whatsapp group flooding with positive super excited messages at the time! * yes, we coordinated everything on a whatsapp group 😀 now you know why you should buy  puma clothes from myntra while reading nikimehra.com  :-p  *

Our excitement levels were matched by an equal amount of stress because of the shortage of days in hand to plan the trip and get a US visa! In less than 10 days, the teams helped us get a visa, gave us 25k worth of vouchers to shop yummy puma clothes from , booked the hotels , tickets etc and made sure we were all set to live our dream!

The Dream trip to New York had begun..

Day 1 started super early for me with a midnight flight to London and then NYC. On landing, I headed straight to our beautiful hotel , Holiday Inn where I met the other winner of the contest, Varna * My snapchat fam has seen her on my snaps and she will also be saying hi to you guys a lot of times in my vlog* .

Since it was labour day and we were tired because of travelling , we decided to explore the area near our hotel which was in Downtown and ended the night with  delicious dinner at a beer bar nearby.

My mom was shocked when I told her day 2 started at 6 am for me given my eyes don’t open before 10 back here in Delhi but I was not to blame! IT WAS OUR BIG DAY!

The day of the meet and greet! Varna and I decided to go to the Brooklyn Bridge for a walk to enjoy the fresh NYC air * TBH, the main purpose was to get some nice photos for you guys* when we connected with Simran, from  the Puma team over whatsapp who informed us of the two Puma events we were to attend : the first one was to happen at 2 in  the afternoon and it was a VIP , invite based event only. The second event was to happen at 6 in the evening which was open to the general public. Rihanna was set to launch her fenty collection at both the events. She also connected us to Matias, our puma point of contact in the US.

My chicken sandwich was heartbroken when I ditched it to rush into a cab to the hotel after hearing this news!

I decided to wear a black puma cape , matched it with my black and gold puma bag and added an Indian touch to my outfit by wearing a maang tikka. * I was thrilled when a New york fashion photographer acknowledged my outfit and captured the same for his collection*

With so much happening around, the kind gentleman that Matias is came to our rescue. He led us to the inside of the Bergdorf Goodman building where the event was happening and we witnessed the exquisite Fenty collection!

While I was busy capturing some amazing shots of the same for my snapchat , suddenly the security asked everyone to take two steps back, the light music in the background stopped and after a 5 second pause and a lot of hooting, the lyrics ‘This is what you came for!’ signaled that it was time! Rihanna had entered the building! Dressed in Puma head to toe, she looked every bit stunning!

As we arrived for the evening event, we found ourselves amidst thousands of Rihanna fans waiting in a day long queue to get a single glimpse of the world sensation. Our  astonishment was then interrupted by Matias * thankfully* who then lead us, crossing these thousand people, straight into the area where Riri was giving her press interviews. More anxious than we were before our board results, while waiting to fulfill our dream which was a few seconds away, we found ourselves sharing  the private puma lounge with a very stylish gentleman and lady. They looked very warm and congratulated us on being the global winners.

I hadn’t even finished saying “Thankyou!” when someone from inside pointed at us and Matias whispered “It’s your turn!”.

Varna and I stood there , our hearts beating faster than that of Airtel’s when Reliance launched jio, staring at how drop dead gorgeous she was! She approached us , may be realizing that we had frozen , hugged and said “Oh gosh, you girls are so pretty! Where are you from?”

“I..India !”

“That’s SO COOL! you came all the way for me?!” 

“Yes!! It was an 18 hour long flight, we just landed !!”

“That’s so amazinggg!”, she said while constantly caressing my back 

Come on girls take pictures! , said the photographer. 🙂

As if this wasn’t enough already, as soon as we exited the arena, someone told us that the kind gentleman and lady who we were casually sharing the couch with , were none other than the creators themselves- yes, the CEO of puma! *faints for the 10th time, thinking about that time*

Feeling on cloud nine and in high spirits , we decided to make this already memorable trip even better by exploring new York on the remaining days.Day 3 began with capturing beautiful New York sky scrapers and a ferry ride to see the iconic statue of liberty. We celebrated our achievement by ending the night at a beautiful rooftop called Le Bain.

Day 4 began early again, with Varna and I fully dressed up for our helicopter ride! Flying over the huge Hudson river and seeing the whole of New York made us, in that moment, realize how blessed we truly were!

So call it fate, but that night we were so tired that we decided to head out to dinner and catch up with a few friends later than usual, and as we were slowly strolling the streets of times square in our high heels, we bumped (literally) into chirpy Parineeti Chopra!

We can’t come to New York and not hit the central park right! Trying to be a typical New Yorker and religiously following the numerous blogs on ‘what to do when in NYC’, we spent an entire day at the central park! It was so huge and never had I expected a park to have so many beautiful things! We were transported to Venice when we took a boat ride to witness some oh- so European bridges and fountains!

It was time to say goodbye to my travel partner, Varna as she headed home and I headed to New Jersey.

The rest of my time there was spent living the sub urban life: going to the beach, going for morning walks and drives, and just taking in every last second of this trip, one that I knew will forever remain with me!

Personal Note of Thanks: With all my heart, I would like to thank Prateek kotha , Abhishek Mundra , Jahanvi & Team myntra and  Simran , Matias & Team puma, for being the best and the kindest teams I have ever worked with and for pulling this off so smoothly!

Thanks popxo.com for giving me this opportunity. My blogging career started with you and we have achieved yet another milestone together!

But most of all, Thank YOU. I always say this and I am sure as hell never going to get tired of it, but THANKYOU for your endless support and love when you guys voted for me, hundreds of snap messages , insta DMs wishing me the best of journey! WE DID IT TeamNM. And we did it together! I am so proud that you guys feel proud! Love always 

xx

Niki