Berger Express Painting: Sir looks like green is your favourite

Mr. Das at the indiblogger meet

Well, who would have thought that for months after first meeting the persons I would be actually implementing what they said. The story goes back to February this year when I had a chance to go to a blogger meet in Delhi, sponsored by Berger. Apart from the usual fun I had I actually got to meet the Company officials and most importantly, I had a personal interaction with Mr Vinod Das. That five minute talk was actually a boon for me then, because I literally bombarded him with issues when it comes to painting and that too in a city like Lucknow. I remember telling him that whatever services about the painting provided by the company you have just told, these are only good for metro cities and not for the other Cities. It was his confidence which said that, “Lucknow is an important city for us. We provide the same services. That is the same in the rest of the country.” He even gave me his twitter handle just in case I need any help to contact him. The painting of my room was long overdue and it was just a matter of time when I would get it started.

I have no qualms in saying that Berger was not my first choice but it was a series of circumstances which actually led me to it. When I wanted to get my room painted, I looked up Asian paints for designs and settled on the radium painting done in the kids room. I had settled on the design but was having issues with the contractor`s dates. One contracter screwed up when he didn’t turn up . I cancelled the contract for wasting my time. I contacted Mr Das and asked if his company did radium painting. He was so quick to respond that a company executive was sent to my home in just four hours without me having to go through the normal visit request route. They both enquired and came up with the answer that the company has discontinued this product long back and they both were hopeful that I would give them a chance in the future with normal painting job. Chance came really soon when I fired the normal painters at my house for substandard quality painting. Now I knew whom to call up. I called up that executive again and gave him the task to get my room, texture painted. The ammunition in my hand was the design booklets we had been given at the Delhi meet. I sat down with him one day and picked out the texture design I had shortlisted. The other executive that came with him looking after my shades and designs said, “Sir, looks like green is your favourite”. I just nodded because all the designs that I shortlisted were green. I finally settled on “Rush” which gives the impression of raindrops on the window of a fast moving car.

Before he left, just to make sure that I don’t face painter hassles. I told him that Mr Das was indirectly involved in this project and what ever you do would be made known to him and to the company directly, so be careful. He assured me. It has taken my room five days to complete, but never in those five days was there any inconvenience. Although the work was being done by a contractor there was no inconvenience to me. There was no rush to finish the work quickly. It was all about quality as there was another room to be done in the house but that would be given unless and until I was more than satisfied with the work they were doing in my room.

Although it’s a bit expensive when you compare it to the painting done by individual painters in the cost incurred in it but after having experienced normal painters and their leaving midway after doing substandard work, not coming, delaying the whole painting, etc. I would say that it was worth every penny to have Berger take this job and complete it. It totally took off my mind of various purchases of paint, brush, rollers, painting accessories and what not. All I have to do is to make the payment. This would have been not possible without the help of Mr Vinod Das from the very first instance when he got into the thick of things with my radium painting request months back. He wouldn’t have been there in Delhi, I wouldn’t have had a chance to talk to him and get an idea that maybe I can try this painting service to save myself the discomfort and inconvenience of getting the painting .

This is how my room looks like –

WIP

The story is not over yet. After having successfully done my room. It’s time for part 2 to get my parents room done. Thanks to Mr Das, Berger and every executive involved in my lead from start to finish. If you’re short on time and want to save yourself the supervision work of having to look after the painting done, I suggest you contact Berger for the same and Mr Das for added measure, although he holds a very high post in the company but the level with which he is involved with your request is phenomenal.

What my friends taught me from their lives about facebook

Facebook… Something which everybody uses all over uses according to his or her choice. Today I would share my experiences as to what my friends taught me about Facebook over the years, they are either drawn from my own experiences, their experiences or by mere observation as to what I would try not to repeat or do in my life when it comes to facebook. Here we go:

Courtship / marriage/ PDA: You must be really pissed off when you see the people posting about their courtship period or day to day or day marriage events with full PDA. They come on, it’s okay to say I love you to your beloved but what does it have to do with us seeing it on our timelines when you are openly declaring to the world that you love him/her. What do we have to do with it?? The same goes for married couples who wish each other on Facebook as if they are not on talking terms with each other or their waiting for divorce period to settle in. It’s okay to share your marriage event with pictures. If you want to, for the others to see. But apart from this… It’s well beyond my understanding.

Family mela: This probably stems from the fact that majority of Facebook users are novices and they actually add up is in everybody within their family here. Right from mom and dad to distinct relatives everybody’s part of the group. The issue starts the content sharing and even friendship bond with the others to some extent. You can’t post something on the friend`s wall because their mausi might see it and report to the family and a full CID investigation would start as to what? When? How? Why. Its an easy option for us because the people have such wide restrictions when it comes to communication that you utterly become confused and resort to one place Facebook where they can see it and give feedback. You can’t share some content you wrote because the recipients`s in-laws are they are on Facebook and what will they think of their damad if he comments? Now I am very clear about whom to accept at fb... relatives and family members are a no go, their requests are instantly blocked.. Search me if you can.

Observation: Over the years of fb usage I have learned to observe things in real life more closely. This comes from the far that quite of few of my friends are very good in observations, and that’s where I has picked up or tried to pick up my observation skills.

Humour: Now this is tricky if you are also on Twitter. The very basic rule is that to understand the fact that there would be very few people on fb who would actually understand the humour of Twitter here. During the good old days of Twitter and few existing accounts too, the humour and pun in those 140 characters is something which not everyone is capable to comprehend. A tweet which might get you Rt there would most probably lead to fights on fb.

Area 51: Thats coded because it denotes an area about which USA leaks very little information. It controls what it wants the people to know. Same is the case with people who keep the content on fb just about right. They don’t say too much information about themselves, don’t post unnecessary mandatory good morning, good evenings on the walls everyday and stuff like that. It’s content control and quite of them are really happy because it does not lead to any embarrassments or what ifs later on.

Fight but with facts: Something which my friends have taught me is that in case you need to fight it out in an argument online you`ve got to have the facts on your side and then totally decimated the opposition. They are one set of people who generally don’t have any deeper know how about the topic and they would gracefully accept this fact and promise to be well read and the rest are just… Arrogant. Be it on any topics they would be what we call as blind supporters or half bakers. On the basis of facts and actual research which I did for my blog posts I actually took on two posts at the pages of Mahindra and Bajaj. They both concerned with the Armed Forces of India and although I would say that I am on a learning curve everyday regarding this, but whatever information gathered over the years is in a to destroy any half-hearted opposition I may encounter. They questioned me, I screwed them with real facts and my own research and after that they did not have the voice to even utter a single alphabet. So pick your fights with care and fax because in this world of online garbage content you don’t know the art whichever of your favourite topic is being served to people just like that, and you would step in to save the honour of that subject someday.

Keep learning: I have learnt about poetry, photography, humour etc. from my friends with ages not withstanding. My technology updates come from a friend (trak.in), the quest to learn more about powerful poetry in the simplest of emotions from a girl who is the bubbliest, cutest kiddo I have ever known in my life till now. I urge her to write more poetry as she is busy with her reporting job as Page 3.  Each and every day I try to learn something from these people because majority of them are masters and passionate about what they do.

Back off: Arguments/fights are common in various topics and it can stretch to unimaginable proportions. You explain to people your point of view, but if even after that they continue to fight with you or other people I just let them fight and switch to some of the work. Its not about hanging around to see who wins because somebody or the other is into when and you can’t be pacifying the other person.

That’s what I have learned from people about fb..

WOW: I am Happy when....

There are a lot of things which make people happy. What makes me happy, really happy are those the small trivial things. What you are about to read here would look more of a Zomato list and review rather than being part of some candid, light-hearted post. So here I go-

Let’s get chompy first with cucumbers.. Cucumbers, cut into four slices with black salt and a generous amount of lemon drenched all over it. This is my staple go to food. People run after Maggi if they can’t find anything to eat of their liking, I gorge on cucumbers by the dozen. The sight of it can make me really happy. Bugs Bunny is into carrots and in the same way I am into these green delicacies.

Those branded ice creams are common find across the country but another thing which can cheer me up is the sight of opening the freezer and finding the ice cream made out of mango shake settling in. As spoilt as a north Indian can be in terms of choice of mangoes, this ice cream is only prefered by me if its made entirely of Dushheri mango shake and I can have it 24x7x365 if it would have been possible in terms of availability.

Cucumbers done, mango done….. Now what is left?? Ah.. Custard. Bowls of it can disappear much faster even before you blink an eye. Thus, sweetness speaks for itself and I don’t think that I need to elaborate much on this.

Food over and now let’s try something else. How can I forget nature?? Here there are two things – greenery. So let me take each one of them differently and then merge both of them together for that perfect picture. Greenery for me in the very perfect sense would be tall trees, like say forest of sorts where its phenomenal and that place remains untouched by humans, it’s still there in its native form. Next on any given day, give me rain clouds, really, really, really dark ones which make the day turn into the night in a second. I love those dark clouds. The ones which I may not be able to put exactly in words. Now the only places where I had the chance to actually witness both of these things together was in Andaman and Nicobar when I had gone to see the tribal people of that place. At the checkpoint that day when all the vehicles were waiting for the convoy to start, then I noticed both of these things together. To my left and right was forest area and up above were the really dark rain clouds. Now this thing makes me super excited at any day of the year.

I don’t know whether this next one counts is what I witnessed firsthand and the excitement so that’s why its there. In just one line I would say me watching a live hockey match in the stadium and an Indian victory gets me excited. I scream my lungs out for the whole duration of the match, for every second the ball is in Indian possession and screaming towards the opponent`s goal. I along with every spectator out there go bonkers. At the telecast of the tournaments too , my excitement keeps shouting in my room…. But one thing beats even this one…

Get Force India onto the podium in any given race and you would have decibel levels you have never ever heard in your life. At whatever places over the years the team has scored podium finishes I have cheered, shouted, celebrated like there is no tomorrow…. and this thing continues for the future too.

Such trivial things might not be something really great to rejoice for the others, but for me they are the epitome for being super happy and super excited.

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