Indiblogger : The Delhi Berger Xpress Painting meet #BergerXP

2 years..thats how long I waited for an Indi meet and to make another appearance. It was luck that this time I was in Delhi. Berger had been roaming around various cities and they finally came to Delhi to complete the final leg of the journey. Somebody from Indi called me up to confirm my coming, she must be someone new otherwise it’s a known fact that I don’t require confirmations if I say that I”ll come. I had to request a few friends and personally emotionally blackmail one to come. Without them, there is no fun for me.

On the D day, the distance really killed. Dwarka sector 21 is no small feat to cover, even by metro. We were 3 people who took it at different times - Me, Saurabh Chawla and Dipali. When I reached the destination, Saurabh was already waiting and we covered the hardly 500 m distance walking and chatting. Vivanta seemed to be the only place in the distance. There were quite a few more meets there but luckily the Info board came in handy. The 1st to meet us was Karthik. Feels good when you see someone after long. Then came Renie. This time Indi got hitech, gone were the registration laptops and in came the barcoded passes on the mail. 

As we waited for the rest to come, we picked up our badges. As for the lunch, the less I say about it, the better. The taj guys really need to work on the F & B. The only thing worth was were the sweet dishes. The one face who seemed totally unrecognizable to me was Mr. Khanduja. He said hello to me and I kept staring at him with the expression, “He seems very familiar. I know him well. Is he… Ohho he is Mr. Khanduja”. His changed looks were the reason I failed to recognize him. Then came in the lot – Alok ji, Hemlata ji, Dipali, Manjulika, Dr. Preeti, Gaurav, Dr. Mandira. 

When me and Saurabh decided to get our pic clicked, Dipali barged in and I was afraid that we both might get knocked out of the frame..but luckily we stayed within that.

After that we headed inside and took our seats. In came someone familiar..was it Anoop? Looked like it. Yep he was. 

We started the proceddings with something which is now no longer used at Indi – introduce yourself. We now use a more advanced version of it but it was good to have something from so long ago. The intro was given by a 14 year old vblogger and then one more person.

We got into the activity mode and were given sealed envelopes. Inside them were 5 strips having general info about various people/or their blogs. We had to find that person and get it signed. The time allotted was just 5 mins. After that all hell broke loose as it always does at the activities. Everybody was frantically moving from table to table asking. The basic disadvantage of this was that there were a few strips but the person had not turned up at the meet but we could not do anything in that regard. I could get only 1 strip signed. The luckiest person was Manjulika who got all 5 up in record time. 

My jaw literally dropped in awe … but luck hadn’t ran out from my side as in this meets. Its not over, until its over. We even sang “ Happy Birthday” to two of the bloggers who were to have their birthdays in the coming days. 

Next came in Mr. Das from Berger Paints who told us all about the concept of Express painting. Something where painters are trained at the academies to paint using modern tools to save time in painting the houses at virtually at no extra cost. As part of express painting , an executive is assigned to look after the whole requirement of painting as well as give an expense estimate too so that we may know how much the whole paint job would cost. Tired of the hassle of moving furniture from one place to another in the sandpaper dust? These guys take care of that and cover the furniture with sheets, move the furniture, paint the walls and rearrange all the furniture back. They said that they have the latest equipment to tackle all the common painting issues while also devising new one. Berger said that they already have trained over 21000 painters at their academies.

While they was going on, I was already ready with my mischiefs at twitter. We were provided face masks, caps, gloves, sandpaper for the next activity and I tweeted this –

The luck came to my side and I won a voucher for the “ Best tweet”.

For the activity, teams were formed with 8 members each and we were provided a white painted board which we had to sandpaper and make it smooth against the timer. Once we got started, all it was all white dust. Racing against the timer, it was not an easy job and we had to do it another time to make it smooth again. The first movers disadvantage worked against us. With all teams done, we broke off for tea and the final break.

While at tea, Karthik came up to me and asked whether I wanted to let the world know that “ you are here” or let it remain under the radar ? With my penchant for craziness at these meets, he knew that I might say a yes and I was asked to give a soundbyte for berger. Well, nice for me to get some limelight all to myself. I spoke a bit about my blog, berger and how I was enjoying here ( which I majorarily do). All the while I was asked by Dr. Mandira to share the prize which I had won ( Really??? ). No chance I was going to do that. Once we assembled again after tea, the 2nd activity commenced.

We were given basic chemistry demo class on how to mix the various strainers, base berger paint and water to get the required colours for the painting competition which was to commence shortly.

There were boxes of 11 different strainer colours out there. We had got the theme of Go Green during the tea break and had thought to create something related to the environment. Jhilmil got down to drawing the sketch while the rest of us got down to experimenting with the rest of the colours to get the thickness consistency and the colour contrast.

At one stage we had 3 ladies colouring the drawing. We had 30 mins for the whole task and I think we got it all over with still some 4 mins. left.

We resumed the last leg of Indi when we had all 6 teams present their drawings and the general idea behind it. We gave it our best shot. Basically , win or no win, activities at Indi are always about having fun in the team and we enjoyed that. While the final scores were being calculated, we all were given info about the various tools employed by berger to get the express painting done quickly. 

The winning team walked away with vouchers and it all ended there.

Then it was time for the mandatory group picture and we ended it with the “ Hud Hud”.

Something we all missed in the standard way was the number game for which Indi is famous for. That’s what happens when you have Indimeets in Delhi after so long that you forget some of the basic activities out there. The only thing which I missed from the bottom of my heart – Katrina Kaif. Had she been there too I would have not wanted anything more. Would have easily gieven away my winning voucher to Dr. Sahiba….but some dreams remain unfulfilled.

All in all, this meet was something we were all looking forward to and didn’t disappoint….all the while marking another attendance in my list of Indimeets. 

To know more about Express Painting go here : Express Painting..

तुम्हारे बगैर ज़िन्दगी बयान नहीं होती...

कुछ अधूरा है तुम्हारे बगैर

एक कमी है जो बयान नहीं होती

कुछ खलता है जो पता नहीं क्या है?

शायद तुम्हारी आदत पड़ती जा रही है मुझे

उस एहसास को जब लिखना चाहता हूँ तो न जाने क्यूँ अल्फ़ाज़ दूर दूर से 

रहते हैं

तुम पास नहीं हो तो लगता है जैसे किसी ने घर से जान ही निकाल ली 

अब सुबह कोई मेरी नींद खराब नहीं करता

अब चीखता चिल्लाता अलार्म कुछ देर बाद खुद ही खामोश हो जाता है

देर से उठने पर कोई ताना नहीं देता, "तुम आज छुट्टी पे हो न? मुझे भी 

shopping बैग्स उठाने के लिए कोई चाहिए "

अब तुम्हारी खिलखिलाती वही हँसी मेरे साथ नहीं होती

अब खाने की मेज़ यूँ अपने पास नहीं बुलाती

सब कुछ बेस्वाद सा लगता है

अब कोई ज़बरदस्ती थाली में और खाना नहीं परोसता, बीमार होने पर 

बिस्तर पर अपने हाथों से कोई नहीं खिलाता

ये क्या कर गयी हो तुम कि आदत पड़ गयी है तुम्हारी ?

ऐसी आदत जो अब छूटा नहीं करती

ज़िन्दगी की तस्वीर की पहेली का वो टुकड़ा हो जो साथ रहता है तो तस्वीर

पूरा करता है, हट जाए तो पहेली पूरी नहीं होती

अब शाम की चाय में वो बात नहीं है, अब शाम शाम नहीं है

अब घर जाने की जल्दी नहीं होती, किसी की इंतज़ार करती निगाहें नहीं 

होती

तुम नहीं हो तो वक़्त का भी अब इंतज़ार नहीं

अब तो बगीचे के गुलाब भी मुरझा से गये हैं कि मेरी ज़िंदगी का गुलाब 

पास जो नहीं

नींद तो कोसो दूर है कि वो डरा देने वाले सपनों में आधी रात को हौले से 

थाम लेने वाली तुम पास नहीं

आँखें बंद करूँ तो तुम हो, आँखें खोलूं तो ओझल

बहुत कुछ रहता है कहने को, बहुत कुछ रहता है सुनने को

तुम होती सामने तो बात कुछ और होती

दिन भर रहता है तुम्हारा ख्याल, क्या तुम भी मुझे याद करती हो ?

रात के सन्नाटे में यादों से लड़ता हूँ थोड़ा बहुत

तुम मिलो तो शायद बिना कुछ कहे ही बाहों में भर लूँ तुमको 

कहा था न , एक कमी है जो बयान नहीं होती

तुम्हारे बगैर ज़िन्दगी बयान नहीं होती....

The thoughts of a husband while his wife is away from him. He misses her, her presence all the while...

WOW: My story in 10 sentences.

A journey of sorts, a journey of places.

Meeting new people, making new friends and my own share of memories

Facing hurdles, challenges and facing them while beaten , bruised and hurt I was.

Engulfed by highs and lows of life, many a times at the crossroads of life thinking if that was what I wanted from life or if I wanted anything.

Breaking the shackles of rules and opinions of society, living the way I developed of my own.

Along came an angel who made me believe that the heart melts, emotions become unexpressed and silence engulfs.

She made me realize emotions are complicated, I am strong yet shy when she makes her presence felt.

Her aura so strong that the pain of her absence is still an ally at night while I miss her in places , new or old.

Life taking such tests that I get more into my shell, venturing out wearing a mask while veils my state of mind.

The emotions being like a wild forest fire engulfing everything in its path, needing a firebreak, doused only by the flow of ink on a piece of paper.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’